Daily and Weekly Notes
Daily and Weekly Notes give dated work a natural home. Operon calls them periodic notes as a group: a Daily Note represents one date, while a Weekly Note represents one week. You can use either as the default inline destination, create missing notes from templates, and optionally make each note an Operon File Task that parents the inline tasks inside it.
When to use each
Use Daily Notes for today's actions, meeting follow-ups, and work that belongs to one calendar date. Use Weekly Notes for reviews, plans, and work that should stay visible across a week.
Task Router decides whether new inline tasks go to Daily or Weekly Notes. The settings on this page decide how those notes are named, found, and created. See Task Router.
Where to configure them
| Purpose | Settings location |
|---|---|
| Choose the default inline destination | Settings → Operon → Tasks → Task Router → Inline Task Default Save Location |
| Manage Daily/Weekly formats, templates, and folders | Settings → Operon → Tasks → Task Router → Daily and Weekly Notes |
| Make newly created notes into File Tasks | Settings → Operon → Tasks → File Tasks → Daily and Weekly Notes as File Tasks |
The Daily and Weekly Notes section is always available, even when the inline destination is Active File, Specific File, or Ask Every Time. Enabling either management toggle shows that kind of note's format, template, and folder fields. Daily and Weekly preferences remain independent; changing the inline destination does not enable management or clear saved preferences.
Daily Notes management
Turn on Manage Daily Notes with Operon to use Operon's Daily format, template, and folder. When it is off, Operon continues to use the Core Daily Notes plugin's configuration when that plugin is available.
The default Operon Daily format is YYYY-MM-DD. The format controls the note path only; task date fields are still stored as ISO dates such as 2026-08-21.
Daily Notes therefore have two supported configuration sources:
- Operon-managed: Operon's format, template, and folder.
- Core fallback: Obsidian Daily Notes configuration when Operon management is off.
Weekly Notes management
Turn on Manage Weekly Notes with Operon to make Weekly Notes available as a routed destination. Weekly Notes use their own format, template, and folder and do not depend on Core Daily Notes.
The weekly path and optional container identity are anchored to the week's ISO Monday. The actual routed date is still kept for placement inside the note, so a task for Thursday goes under Thursday's linked-date heading rather than Monday's.
Create a periodic note from the command palette
Use Create daily note to open today's Daily Note or Create weekly note to open the current Weekly Note. If the note is missing, the command creates it through the same format, folder, template, and Create as Operon Task rules described below; if it already exists, Operon opens it. The command creates or opens the note directly and does not require or add an inline task.
Each command deliberately requires its matching Operon management setting. Create daily note requires Manage daily notes with Operon, even when Core Daily Notes is available, and Create weekly note requires Manage weekly notes with Operon. When the relevant setting is off, no note is created and a notice reports that management is disabled. Enable the matching toggle under Task Router → Daily and Weekly Notes.
Formats, folders, and templates
Daily and Weekly settings are independent. Each has:
- a Moment-style filename format;
- an optional Markdown template;
- a vault-relative destination folder;
- a separate Create as Operon Task toggle under File Tasks → Daily and Weekly Notes as File Tasks.
For example, a Daily format of YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD creates a dated folder path, while a Weekly format such as GGGG-[W]WW produces an ISO week name such as 2026-W34. The preview beneath each format setting shows the path that the current pattern produces. An invalid or unsafe path is rejected.
When a missing note is created, Operon uses the configured template; leave the template empty for a blank note. Template references may include or omit .md. The file picker records the resolved Markdown file path. A missing, unreadable, or unsafe template prevents new-note creation instead of silently substituting a blank note.
Existing notes are never rerendered from the template. Their reuse does not depend on the configured template still being available: template validation is needed when creating a missing note. Periodic templates are separate from the File Task template picker described in Task templates.
Existing and missing notes
For Task Creator capture, the result depends on what already exists and whether Create as Operon Task is enabled:
| Target state | Create as Operon Task | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Existing valid periodic container | On | Append the inline task and link it to that verified parent. |
| Existing valid periodic container | Off | Append without automatic periodic-parent assignment; the existing note remains a File Task. |
| Existing plain Markdown note | Either | Append the inline task without adopting the note and without a periodic parent. |
| Missing note | On | Create the note from the template as a minimal Operon File Task, register its exact identity, append the child, and set its parent. |
| Missing note | Off | Create a normal Markdown note from the template and append a parentless inline task. |
When an inline task is routed to a missing Daily or Weekly Note from Task Creator, Operon first creates the destination note and then inserts the task into its Markdown body. This also works on the first capture, before any note for that date or week exists. The command-palette route uses the same note-creation settings but does not add an inline task.
An existing plain note is deliberately not converted into a File Task. Ambiguous, duplicate, unhealthy, stale, occupied, or otherwise unsafe targets fail closed instead of being adopted or overwritten.
Where the inline task is placed
Daily Notes use the configured inline heading keyword. Operon inserts beneath the first Markdown heading in the note body whose text contains that phrase (case-insensitively) and creates a level-two heading when none exists and it is safe to append one.
Weekly Notes use a linked daily-date heading for the actual routed date, for example ## [[2026-08-20]]. ISO Monday determines the Weekly Note path and container identity only; it does not replace the task's real date or force every task under Monday.
Heading matching skips YAML frontmatter and fenced code blocks, including heading examples inside templates. Unclosed frontmatter prevents insertion. If no matching heading exists and the note ends inside an unclosed code block, Operon refuses to append the new heading and task there. Repair that structure before retrying; the task is not inserted into the protected text.
Parent and container behavior
With Create as Operon Task enabled, a newly created periodic note receives the minimal File Task fields and becomes the parent of the inline task created inside it. Operon tracks that exact container identity in Plugin-owned state so a later update never guesses from a filename alone.
With the toggle off, a newly created periodic note is ordinary Markdown. Task Creator does not automatically assign a periodic parent, even when routing to an existing File Task container. Turning the toggle off does not convert that existing note back to plain Markdown or remove existing task relationships. A separately chosen parent follows the normal Task Router rules.
Changing the scheduled date
Changing dateScheduled may update a verified periodic parent, but it never moves the task's Markdown:
- Same day or week anchor: keep the periodic parent.
- Different day or week anchor: bind to the exact valid destination container.
- Clear the scheduled date: detach a verified periodic parent and leave the task where it is.
- Manual parent: keep it; Operon never silently replaces a manual relationship.
The task's path, inline representation, source line, and physical locator stay unchanged. Parent realignment is a relationship update, not a copy or relocation.
Runtime and CLI routing
For typed Runtime/CLI creation, an existing registered container with the correct kind and date anchor can still become the parent when Create as Operon Task is off. The toggle controls creation of a missing container on this route; it does not invalidate an already verified one. This differs from Task Creator's automatic-parent rule above.
The Runtime and CLI expose this as one typed Daily-or-Weekly intent. The CLI sends the requested task data; the Plugin remains responsible for settings, templates, placement, Markdown writes, container identity, registry state, receipts, and recovery.
Compact creation uses:
operon task create "Daily review" --periodic-note daily dateScheduled::"2026-08-21"
operon task create "Weekly review" --periodic-note weekly datetimeStart::"2026-08-21T09:00:00"
There is no --route-date command-line flag. Creation routes by explicit typed routeDate when a typed Runtime intent supplies one, otherwise by dateScheduled, the local date of datetimeStart, and finally the local day captured during preview. Periodic update routing is triggered only by an explicit dateScheduled set or clear.
The CLI and live Runtime must advertise the matching periodic capability. An older or incompatible side fails closed before any note, task, setting, or registry write. See CLI contract and discovery reference, Compact task syntax, and Everyday task commands.
Runtime preview must be deterministic and write-free. A configured periodic template containing Templater <% ... %> expressions is therefore refused during Runtime preview rather than executed or written raw. Use deterministic Markdown and supported Operon/Core-style template tokens for this route.
FAQ
Do I need the Core Daily Notes plugin? Not when Manage Daily Notes with Operon is enabled. When it is disabled, the Core plugin supplies the fallback Daily configuration.
Do Weekly Notes use the Daily Notes plugin? No. Operon manages Weekly formats, folders, and templates directly.
Will Operon adopt an existing plain Daily or Weekly Note? No. It appends without converting the note or assigning it as a periodic parent.
Does rescheduling move the task to another note? No. Only a verified periodic parent may detach or realign; the task remains at its exact source.
Can the CLI write these notes itself? No. It sends typed intent to the Plugin, which owns every physical and persistent write.
Can I create the note without creating a task first? Yes. Run Create daily note or Create weekly note while the corresponding Operon management setting is enabled.
Settings
Use Settings → Operon → Tasks → Task Router → Daily and Weekly Notes for management, formats, templates, and folders. Select the normal inline destination in the section immediately above it. The Create daily notes as an Operon task and Create weekly notes as an Operon task toggles remain under Settings → Operon → Tasks → File Tasks → Daily and Weekly Notes as File Tasks. Daily-note field defaults remain under Tasks → Inline Tasks → Daily Note Defaults.
Settings Search accepts daily, daily note, daily notes, weekly, weekly note, and weekly notes; you do not need to search for “periodic”.