Apply a Default Template in Obsidian Using a Shell Script

Note: This method requires you to switch to the terminal to create notes. I don't find it to be that big a deal, especially because I have a shortcut set up with Quicksilver, but if that sounds like a pain in the ass, this method probably won't work for you.

As far as I know, there's no way to apply a default template to new notes in Obsidian. I had Claude write a shell script that does the same thing.

The script creates a new markdown file, inserts YAML frontmatter, and opens the file automatically in Obsidian.

If you don’t know how to create a shell script, see How to Run a Zsh Script.

Usage

Create a private note:

new-note "Journal Entry"

Create a public note:

new-note -p "Project Ideas"

Script

In this example, your Obsidian vault is called my-vault, your notes folder is called notes, and your private notes folder is called private-notes.

The script does the following:

• Converts your title to a filename (spaces become hyphens, words become lowercase)
• Creates a markdown file with YAML frontmatter
• Places notes in private-notes/ by default, and public notes in notes/
• Automatically opens the new note in Obsidian

The folder defaults to the private folder because I figured it was better to accidentally make a public note private than the other way around.

#!/bin/zsh

# Check if the public flag is set
# Set to private by default
public=false
if [ "$1" = "-p" ]; then
	public=true
	shift # Remove -p from arguments
fi

# Check if note title was provided
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
	echo "Usage: new-note [-p] 'Note Title'"
	exit 1
fi

# Get the note title and create filename
note_name="$1"
file_name="${1// /-}" # Replace spaces with hyphens
file_name=$(echo "$file_name" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]') # Convert to lowercase

# Set folder and vault path based on public flag
if [ "$public" = true ]; then
	folder="$HOME/my-vault/notes/"
	vault_path="notes/$file_name.md"
else
	folder="$HOME/my-vault/private-notes/"
	vault_path="private-notes/$file_name.md"
fi

# Check if file already exists
if [ -f "$folder/$file_name.md" ]; then
   # Print the error message in red
	echo "\033[1;31mError: A note with that title already exists\033[0m" 
	exit 1
fi

# Get current date
date=$(date +%F)

# Create the markdown file with YAML frontmatter
cat <<EOF > "$folder/$file_name.md"
---
title: $note_name
tags:
created: $date
updated: $date
---
EOF

# Open the new note in Obsidian
open "obsidian://open?vault=my-vault&file=$vault_path"