Templates

Templates

Draft Bench applies a template when you create a new scene or chapter. V1 ships with a single built-in template per type, plus a multi-template system: writers can author additional named templates and pick from them at creation time.

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V1 built-in templates

Both the scene template and the chapter template ship with the same body shape — planning sections above a draft area:

## Source passages

## Beat outline

## Open questions

## Draft

The idea is to give writers space for the thinking that happens before prose. Writers who don't plan before drafting can remove these headings; nothing enforces their presence.

For chapters specifically, the ## Draft section is chapter-introductory prose only — it emits before the chapter's scenes in compile output, not interleaved between them. Most chapters leave it empty.

Template application

The built-in scene template is applied automatically when you run New scene in project. The built-in chapter template is applied automatically when you run New chapter in project. No action required for the defaults.

Customizing the templates (V1)

The first time you create a scene or chapter, the plugin seeds the built-in body to:

• Draft Bench/Templates/scene-template.md
• Draft Bench/Templates/chapter-template.md

Edit either file to customize subsequent creations. The folder path and per-file override paths are configurable in Settings and Configuration.

Plugin tokens

Templates support {{token}} placeholders that get substituted at creation time:

Scene template tokens:

• {{project}} — wikilink to the project, e.g. [[My Novel]].
• {{project_title}} — plain text title.
• {{scene_title}} — the new scene's title.
• {{scene_order}} — the scene's dbench-order value.
• {{previous_scene_title}} — basename of the scene one position earlier in the project (or empty if first).
• {{date}} — ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) of creation.

Chapter template tokens:

• {{project}}, {{project_title}}, {{date}} — same as above.
• {{chapter_title}} — the new chapter's title.
• {{chapter_order}} — the chapter's dbench-order value.
• {{previous_chapter_title}} — basename of the chapter one position earlier (or empty if first).

Unknown tokens pass through unchanged so other tools (like Templater, below) can handle them.

Named templates (custom)

Beyond the built-in defaults, you can author any number of additional templates and pick from them at scene or chapter creation.

Authoring a named template

Create a markdown file in the templates folder (default: Draft Bench/Templates/) with frontmatter that declares its type:

---
dbench-template-type: scene
dbench-template-name: POV — Anna
dbench-template-description: Single-POV scene with cue lines
---

## Source passages

## Beat outline

## POV cues

## Draft

Required frontmatter:

• dbench-template-type — scene or chapter. Determines which creation modal lists this template.

Optional frontmatter:

• dbench-template-name — display name shown in the picker. Falls back to the file basename when absent.
• dbench-template-description — short hint shown alongside the name in the picker.

Plugin tokens (above) work in named templates the same way they work in the defaults.

Picking a template at creation

When at least one custom template is discovered, the New scene in project and New chapter in project modals show a Template dropdown above the title field. The default seed (scene-template.md / chapter-template.md) sorts first as the labeled "(default)" option; custom templates follow in alphabetical order by display name.

Vaults with only the default templates don't show the picker — there's no choice to make.

Where to put template files

The templates folder is configured in Settings → Community plugins → Draft Bench → Templates folder (default: Draft Bench/Templates/). All .md files in this folder are scanned for templates. Files without dbench-template-type frontmatter are skipped — keeping Templater plugin templates and unrelated markdown out of the picker.

Templater integration

If the Templater plugin is installed and enabled, Draft Bench's scene and chapter templates can use Templater syntax (<% ... %>) for dynamic content (dates, prompts, cursor placement). The plugin detects Templater's presence and runs templates through it before applying plugin-token substitution. The two syntaxes don't conflict: a Templater function can even emit a {{plugin_token}} that the plugin then substitutes.

If Templater isn't installed, templates use plugin-token substitution only.

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Template file paths and authoring instructions coming once V1 ships.