Imprint

A deliberately simple Obsidian plugin that inserts templates with {{Key}} placeholder substitution drawn from the active note's YAML frontmatter.

Imprint is intentionally minimal. It replaces the built-in Templates plugin, which only offers a minimal set of substitutions (namely {{date}}, {{time}}, and {{title}}).

Installation

Manual installation

1. If you have just installed on your machine, just run just install. Otherwise copy main.js and manifest.json into your vault at .obsidian/plugins/imprint/.
2. In Obsidian go to Settings → Community plugins, reload the list, and enable Imprint.
3. Optionally assign hotkeys under Settings → Hotkeys by searching for "Imprint".

Quick example

Given a note with this frontmatter:

---
Title: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Authors:
  - Gabriel García Márquez
Release: 1967-05-30
CoverURL: "[[Books/Covers/garcia_marquez_one_hundred_years.jpg]]"
---

And a template file Templates/book-note.md:

![[{{CoverURL}}]]

# {{Title}}
**Author:** {{Authors}}
**Year:** {{Release}}
**Added:** {{date}}

{{cursor}}

Running Open template picker and selecting book-note inserts:

![[Books/Covers/garcia_marquez_one_hundred_years.jpg]]

# One Hundred Years of Solitude
**Author:** Gabriel García Márquez
**Year:** 1967-05-30
**Added:** 2026-03-23

…with the cursor placed where {{cursor}} was.

Template syntax

Placeholder	Behaviour
{{Key}}	Replaced with the matching frontmatter value. Arrays are formatted according to the List format setting. Unknown keys are left as-is.
{{Key:default}}	Same, but substitutes default if the key is absent from the frontmatter.
{{title}}	The active note's filename (without .md). Overridden by a title: frontmatter field.
{{date}}	Today's date. Format configurable in settings (default YYYY-MM-DD). Overridden by a date: frontmatter field.
{{time}}	Current time. Format configurable in settings (default HH:mm). Overridden by a time: frontmatter field.
{{cursor}}	Removed from the output; the cursor is placed here after insertion.
[[{{Key}}]]	If the frontmatter value is itself a wikilink (e.g. "[[path/to/file.jpg]]"), the inner brackets are stripped so the result stays valid Obsidian wikilink syntax.

Date format tokens

YYYY MM DD HH (24h) hh (12h) mm ss A (AM/PM)

Example: DD/MM/YYYY → 23/03/2026

Commands

Open template picker

Opens a fuzzy-search modal listing all templates in your configured folder. Selecting one inserts it at the cursor, with {{Key}} placeholders substituted from the active note's frontmatter.

Recently used templates appear at the top of the list.

Create note from template

Same picker, but first asks for a new note name. Creates the note in the same folder as the currently active note, opens it, and applies the template. The {{title}} placeholder resolves to the name you entered.

Fill template fields

No template picker involved. Scans the current note's body for any remaining {{Key}} placeholders and fills in the ones that now have a matching frontmatter value. Useful when you insert a template with incomplete frontmatter and fill in the values later.

Assign a hotkey to this under Settings → Hotkeys → Imprint: Fill template fields.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Templates folder	Templates	Path relative to vault root where template files live.
Date format	YYYY-MM-DD	Format string for {{date}}.
Time format	HH:mm	Format string for {{time}}.
List format	Comma separated	How frontmatter arrays are inserted: value1, value2 or - value1\n- value2.