For some reason it’s unreasonably hard to find out how to set a default template for a note in the note taking app Obsidian so I’m documenting here what worked for me on February-25-2025. Here’s my setup:

  1. Create a template folder and in that folder create a file called template.md inside your vault.

  2. Add some default text or markdown content you want to use as the default template for new notes.

  3. In Obsidian, go to the settings and navigate to “Community plugins”.

  4. Find and enable the plugin “Templater” by SilentVoid, it’s important to not that this is not the core “Template” plugin.

  5. Once installed go to the settings and click on “Templater” under the Community plugins heading.

  6. This will show the settings for the “Templater” plugin find the option “Trigger Templater on new file creation” and enable it.

  7. Then look for the option called “Enable folder templates” and enable it.

  8. This should show two text boxes side by side the first one will have the ghost text “folder” the second will have the ghost text “Template”.

  9. Put a single slash in the first box this specifies the root of your Obsidian vault.

  10. Put the location of your template file in the second box.

This combination of options will automatically use this template when you open a new note anywhere in the root directory.