Actions for Obsidian › Actions › Create Note

Creates a note.

The note can be created empty, or you can pass a note body. It's also possible to apply a template (either using the community plugin Templater or the core plugin Templates). Passing a note body and applying a template are mutually exclusive. Passing a note body or applying a specific template will cause Obsidian to ignore any existing "Folder Templates" rules in Templater that may have been set for that folder.

The default behavior in case there's already a note with the same name / at the requested file path, the base file name will be suffixed with a number. You can also choose to overwrite the note or skip the creation of a new, suffixed note (i.e., leaving it as it is).

Parameters

Vault

The vault to work in.

Type: Vault reference

Note Lookup

Specify which note should be created by the action:

• "note at file path": The full path of the note, should be used if you already know the full file path (including folder and file extension).
• the current Periodic Note (daily, weekly, etc.)

Info

To work with Daily Notes, either the core Daily Notes plugin needs to be active, or the community plugin, Periodic Notes, must have its Daily Note feature enabled. Working with Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly Notes requires the community plugin Periodic Notes.

Options:

• note at file path
• Daily Note
• Weekly Note
• Monthly Note
• Quarterly Note
• Yearly Note

File Path

The path of the note, relative to the vault root. It may contain folders; these folders will be created if necessary. For instance, my/new/notes/Hello will create the note Hello.md in my/new/notes/. If the folder structure my/new/notes/ didn't exist, it will exist when the action is finished.

The action will append .md to the note filename if necessary, as mentioned in the example above.

Only available when Note Lookup is set to "note at file path".

Type: Text

Note Body

The text body of your new note.

Passing a note body will cause Obsidian to ignore any template you may have set for its Daily Note core plugin or Periodic Notes community plugin, so if you want to see your usual template applied, leave this parameter empty.

Only available when After creating the note … is set to "insert note body".

Type: Text

Template Path

The full path of a Templates or Templater template, relative from the vault root.

Applying a specific template will cause Obsidian to ignore any template you may have set for its Daily Note core plugin or Periodic Notes community plugin, so if you want to see your usual template applied, leave this parameter empty.

Only available when After creating the note … is set to "apply Templates (core plugin)" or "apply Templater".

Type: Text

After creating the note …

What should be done after the file has been created?

Only available when Note Lookup is set to "note at file path".

Options:

• insert note body
• apply Templates (core plugin)
• apply Templater

If note already exists

In case there's already a note with the same name / at the requested file path, the default behavior is to suffix the base file name with a number. You can also choose to overwrite the note or skip the creation of a new, suffixed note (i.e., leaving it as it is).

Options:

• Create note with suffix
• Overwrite
• Leave note as-is

If periodic note already exists

In case there's already a current periodic note of the type, the default behavior of the action is to skip the attempt to create the note, and leave it as it is. You can also choose to overwrite the note (i.e., trash it and create a new one from scratch) or to have the action return an error.

Options:

• Show error
• Overwrite
• Leave note as-is

Open or focus note

If enabled, after a successful operation, the note will be brought to the front in Obsidian.

Type: Boolean (YES/NO)

Return Value

Note reference

Related Links

• Search the Actions for Obsidian community forum for "Create Note"