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Daily Notes NG Daily Notes NG Daily Notes NG

Journals

Daily Notes NG uses named journals — each journal is a destination for periodic notes with its own folder, template, date format, and ownership scope. This replaces the traditional “one folder per periodicity” model.

What is a journal?

A journal definition includes:

FieldDescriptionExample
NameHuman-readable label”Personal”, “Work standup”
PeriodicityHow often: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearlydaily
FolderWhere notes are createdJournal/Alice/Daily
FormatMoment.js date format for filenamesYYYY-MM-DD
TemplatePath to template fileTemplates/Standup.md
ScopeWho can use it: global, person, or groupperson
OwnerPerson or group note path (for non-global scopes)People/Alice.md

Scopes

Global journals

Available to everyone in the vault. No identity system needed.

{ name: "HQ bulletin", scope: "global", folder: "HQ/Bulletin" }

Person journals

Only visible to the person whose device is registered to the owner note. Requires the identity system to be enabled.

{ name: "Personal", scope: "person", ownerPath: "People/Alice.md", folder: "Journal/Alice/Daily" }

Group journals

Visible to all members of a group note. The plugin resolves group membership recursively (nested groups supported).

{ name: "Team retro", scope: "group", ownerPath: "People/Dev Team.md", folder: "Teams/Dev/Retro" }

Example setup

A user named Alice might have:

Journals:
├── Personal journal    daily   → Journal/Alice/Daily       (person)
├── Work standup        daily   ��� Teams/Dev/Standup         (group)
├── Research log        weekly  → Research/Weekly           (person)
├── HQ bulletin         daily   → HQ/Bulletin              (global)
└── Monthly review      monthly → Reviews/Monthly          (global)

When Alice triggers “open today’s daily note”:

  • If she has one enabled daily journal → opens it directly
  • If she has multiple daily journals (Personal, Work standup, HQ bulletin) → a journal picker appears

Journal picker

When multiple journals share the same periodicity, the command palette triggers a fuzzy picker:

Pick a journal...
├── Personal
├── Work standup (group)
└── HQ bulletin

Select one to create or open the note in that journal’s folder.

Creating a journal

Go to Settings > Journals > Add journal, then configure:

  1. Name — descriptive label
  2. Periodicity — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly
  3. Folder — where notes go (supports folder autocomplete and {{person}} interpolation)
  4. Date format — Moment.js format for filenames
  5. Template — path to template file (with file autocomplete)
  6. Scope — global (everyone), person (one user), or group (team members)
  7. Owner — select a person or group note (for non-global scopes, with autocomplete)

Default journals

A fresh install creates 5 global journals matching the traditional periodic notes structure:

NamePeriodicityFolderEnabled
DailydailyJournal/DailyYes
WeeklyweeklyJournal/WeeklyNo
MonthlymonthlyJournal/MonthlyNo
QuarterlyquarterlyJournal/QuarterlyNo
YearlyyearlyJournal/YearlyNo

Edit, disable, remove, or add new journals for any workflow.

Migration from old settings

Upgrading from an earlier version? The old per-periodicity config is automatically converted to journal definitions on first load. Your folders, formats, and templates are preserved — no action needed.

Folder-note mode

Enable folder-note mode to store each periodic note as a folder. Attachments nest under the note:

Off: Journal/Daily/2026-03-24.md
On:  Journal/Daily/2026-03-24/2026-03-24.md

Works with all journals. A .base MOC dashboard is auto-generated in each journal folder.

CommandBehavior
Open today’s daily noteOpens the note (or shows picker if multiple daily journals)
Open previous/nextNavigates within the current journal based on the active file

When viewing a note that belongs to a journal, prev/next stays within that journal. See commands reference.