Feature Proposal: Trip Templates & Recurring Events (Extending Packing Templates)

[matt-ek]

Context

TREK already supports packing templates, which is a great step towards reusability.

However, the rest of a trip (itinerary, tasks, structure) still needs to be recreated manually each time.

Problem

Recurring events (e.g. annual trips, camps, community events) require:

• Rebuilding the same structure repeatedly
• Copy-paste or manual recreation
• High risk of inconsistencies

Proposal

Extend the concept of templates from packing lists to full trip templates.

Trip Templates

A template could include:

• Itinerary (days & activities)
• Packing lists (reuse existing feature)
• Tasks
• Default locations
• Budget structure

Recurring Events

• Create trips from a template
• Optional recurrence:
  • yearly
  • monthly
  • custom

Example Workflow

1. Create "Youth Camp Template"
2. Reuse every year
3. Adjust only details (dates, participants)

Why this is not a duplicate

• Packing templates already exist → this extends them to full trip scope
• No current feature supports reusable trip structures
• No recurrence logic exists today

Benefits

• Saves significant setup time
• Standardizes event organization
• Reduces errors
• Improves onboarding for organizers

Alternatives Considered

• Manual duplication → inefficient
• Export/import → too technical

Additional Context

This builds directly on an existing TREK concept (templates), but expands it to the core of trip creation.

[mauriceboe]

This goes in the same direction as a full “event management layer”, which is not where TREK is heading.

TREK already supports packing templates, which cover the main reusable component that actually benefits from standardization. For the rest, there’s no need to introduce a separate template system.

More importantly: a duplication feature for trips is already in progress.
That directly addresses the core problem you’re describing — reusing existing structures — without introducing additional complexity like:

Maintaining a separate “template vs. trip” data model
Handling partial updates between template and instances
Dealing with versioning of templates over time
Adding recurrence logic on top of that

A simple duplication flow solves the practical use case:

Take an existing trip
Duplicate it
Adjust dates, participants, and details

This keeps the system predictable and avoids overengineering.

Adding full trip templates + recurrence would significantly increase scope and maintenance cost, while overlapping with functionality that duplication already covers in a more straightforward way.

So in short:
Reusable packing templates already exist, and trip duplication will cover the rest. A separate full template + recurrence system is not planned.