Journal Configuration

Many parameters of the journal can be configured through the internal settings of Visual Studio Code. See this page for a general introduction.

The only mandatory setting is the base path. See the bottom of this page for a screen capture showing how to change it.

Before you change a setting, think about whether you want to store it in your user settings or workspace settings.

If your current workspace is synced across different devices and you want the setting to be used on different machines (e.g. syntax highlighting and templates), put the options into your workspace settings.
If the settings are specific to your environment (e.g. directories), put them into your user settings (which are stored in your local user profile).

Workspace and virtual workspace support

vscode-journal writes files to the directory configured in journal.base. In an untrusted workspace journal.base workspace-level overrides are ignored — the user-level value is used instead, so workspace settings cannot redirect your journal to an untrusted path.

In a virtual workspace (e.g. GitHub Codespaces or Remote SSH with a virtual FS provider), write operations to local paths are unavailable. Read-only browsing of existing entries may still work, but creating new entries or notes requires a local workspace.

Template variables

Some settings support the following variables:

${homeDir} — the current user's home directory via Node's os.homedir(). Resolves to $HOME on Linux / Mac and %USERPROFILE% on Windows.
${input} — a string entered by the user in the smart input dialog.
${year} — current year as a four-digit number.
${month} — current month as a two-digit number.
${day} — current day as a two-digit number.
${week} — current ISO week number (1–53).
${weekday} — name of the current day of the week.
${localDate} — locale-formatted date (e.g. September 4, 1986).
${localTime} — locale-formatted time (e.g. 8:30 PM).
${d:...} — custom date format using Moment.js display format, for example ${d:dddd, MMMM Do YYYY}.

Directories

Base directory

Key: journal.base
Default: directory Journal in the current user's home directory (${homeDir}/Journal).
Supported variables: ${homeDir}

${homeDir} resolves to $HOME on Linux and Mac and to %USERPROFILE% on Windows. Example:

"journal.base": "${homeDir}/Documents/Journal"

Note: in an untrusted workspace, any workspace-level override of journal.base is ignored; the user-level value is always used (see "Workspace and virtual workspace support" above).

Path Patterns for notes and journal entries

Key: journal.patterns
Supported variables: ${base}, ${year}, ${month}, ${day}, ${week}, ${input}, ${ext}

The location of all files created within the base directory are configured using individual patterns:

"journal.patterns": {
    "notes": {
        "path": "${base}/${year}/${month}/${day}",
        "file": "${input}.${ext}"
    },
    "entries": {
        "path": "${base}/${year}/${month}",
        "file": "${day}.${ext}"
    },
    "weeks": {
        "path": "${base}/${year}",
        "file": "week_${week}.${ext}"
    },
    "weeklyNotes": {
        "path": "${base}/${year}/w${week}",
        "file": "${input}.${ext}"
    }
}

Pattern key	Used when
`notes`	Creating a note with `journal.note` (daily granularity)
`entries`	Creating or opening a daily journal entry
`weeks`	Creating or opening a weekly journal entry
`weeklyNotes`	Creating a note with `journal.note` when `journal.entryGranularity = "weekly"`

This configuration is only valid for the default scope. Scoped notes use scope-specific patterns if configured (see Scopes).

Templates

Templates configure how text within generated files is formatted.

Key: journal.templates

The default is:

"journal.templates": [
    {
        "name": "memo",
        "template": "- MEMO ${localTime}: ${input}"
    },
    {
        "name": "task",
        "template": "- [] ${d:LL} - Task: ${input}",
        "after": "## Tasks"
    },
    {
        "name": "entry",
        "template": "# ${d:dddd, MMMM DD YYYY}\n\n## Tasks\n\n## Notes\n\n"
    },
    {
        "name": "time",
        "template": "${localTime}"
    },
    {
        "name": "note",
        "template": "# ${input}\n\n${tags}\n"
    },
    {
        "name": "files",
        "template": "- NOTE: [${title}](${link})",
        "after": "## Notes"
    },
    {
        "name": "weekly",
        "template": "# Week ${week}\n\n## Tasks\n\n## Notes\n\n## Daily Entries\n\n"
    },
    {
        "name": "dailyLink",
        "template": "- [${weekday}, ${d:MMMM DD}](${link})",
        "after": "## Daily Entries"
    }
]

Each entry has:

name — identifier used internally and in journal.tpl-* legacy keys.
template — the string to insert. Supports all template variables listed above.
after (optional) — heading string after which new content is inserted. Must match the heading exactly as it appears in the file.

Template Entries

Key: journal.templates["entry"].template
Supported variables: ${year}, ${month}, ${day}, ${ext}, ${weekday}, ${localDate}, ${localTime}, ${d:} (custom)

The default entry template generates:

# Tuesday, September 25, 2018

## Tasks

## Notes

To add a new ## Memos section, override both memo and entry:

"journal.templates": [
    {
        "name": "memo",
        "template": "- Memo: ${input} (created: ${localTime})",
        "after": "## Memos"
    },
    {
        "name": "entry",
        "template": "# ${d:dddd, MMMM DD YYYY}\n\n## Tasks\n\n## Memos\n\n## Notes\n\n"
    }
]

Make sure the value in after matches the generated heading in the entry template exactly.

Notes

Key: journal.templates["note"].template
Supported variables: ${input}, ${year}, ${month}, ${day}, ${weekday}, ${localDate}, ${localTime}, ${d:} (custom)

Memos

Key: journal.templates["memo"].template
Supported variables: ${input}, ${year}, ${month}, ${day}, ${weekday}, ${localDate}, ${localTime}, ${d:} (custom)

Key: journal.templates["memo"].after
Default: none (inserts at the top of the entry)

The after flag tells the extension where to place the new line in an existing entry. It searches for the configured string and inserts the new content directly after it.

Tasks

Key: journal.templates["task"].template
Supported variables: ${input}, ${year}, ${month}, ${day}, ${weekday}, ${localDate}, ${localTime}, ${d:} (custom)

Key: journal.templates["task"].after
Default: ## Tasks

File Links

Key: journal.templates["files"].template
Default: - NOTE: [${title}](${link})
Supported variables:
- ${title} — title of the linked file (extracted from the file name)
- ${link} — relative path to the file

Key: journal.templates["files"].after
Default: ## Notes

Weekly entries

Key: journal.templates["weekly"].template

The default weekly template includes a ## Daily Entries heading, which is used by the weekly sync feature to maintain an automatic list of links to daily entries. See Weekly Entries for the full workflow.

Daily links (weekly sync)

Key: journal.templates["dailyLink"].template
Default: - [${weekday}, ${d:MMMM DD}](${link})
after: ## Daily Entries

Used by the weekly sync to render each daily-entry link inside the ## Daily Entries block.

Legacy template keys

The following individual keys predate the unified journal.templates array. Both mechanisms are supported, but journal.templates is preferred for new or updated configuration.

Key	Purpose
`journal.tpl-entry`	Template string for daily journal entries
`journal.tpl-time`	Template string for inserting the current time
`journal.tpl-note`	Template string for notes
`journal.tpl-memo`	Template string for new memos
`journal.tpl-memo-after`	Heading after which memos are inserted
`journal.tpl-task`	Template string for new tasks
`journal.tpl-task-after`	Heading after which tasks are inserted
`journal.tpl-todo`	Template string for new todos
`journal.tpl-todo-after`	Heading after which todos are inserted
`journal.tpl-files`	Template for file links injected into entries
`journal.tpl-files-after`	Heading after which file links are inserted

Migration: Move the value from journal.tpl-memo into the template field of the "memo" entry in journal.templates, and do the same for other keys. Example:

// Before (legacy)
"journal.tpl-memo": "- MEMO: ${input}",
"journal.tpl-memo-after": "## Memos"

// After (preferred)
"journal.templates": [
    { "name": "memo", "template": "- MEMO: ${input}", "after": "## Memos" }
]

Both can coexist; journal.templates takes precedence for any name that appears in both.

Syntax highlighting

Key: journal.syntax-highlighting
Default: false

When enabled, the extension registers extension-specific syntax highlighting rules for journal markdown files. On the first activation, color token customizations are written into your user settings automatically. The settings are only written if they are not already present — existing customizations are never overwritten.

If you switch between light and dark themes, delete the journal color customizations from your user settings. They will be re-inserted with the appropriate colors on the next VS Code start.

Scopes

Key: journal.scopes
Default: none
Supported variables: see individual keys

Scopes allow adapting nearly all configuration patterns for configured tags. By entering a scoped tag in the smart input (for entries as well as for notes), the extension uses the scope-specific configuration instead of the default settings.

See more details here.

Other options

File extension

Key: journal.ext
Default: md (Markdown)
Supported variables: none

Locale

Deprecated — the extension falls back to the display locale configured in your editor.

Key: journal.locale
Default: en-US
Supported variables: none

Development mode

Key: journal.dev
Default: false
Supported variables: none

Enables verbose logging in the Output channel. Useful for diagnosing unexpected behavior. In some versions it may also activate experimental features.

Split Pane Mode

Key: journal.openInNewEditorGroup
Default: false
Supported variables: none

Controls whether new files open in full mode or in a new editor group (split pane).

Navigation Mode

Key: journal.navigation.mode
Default: existing
Allowed values: existing, calendar

Controls how the Open Previous Journal Entry (Ctrl+J ,) and Open Next Journal Entry (Ctrl+J .) commands step through entries.

Value	Behavior
`existing` (default)	Find the previous / next entry that already exists on disk. Skips gaps (weekends, vacations). At the start or end of history an info toast is shown and the editor does not change.
`calendar`	Step exactly one calendar day back or forward from the anchor file. Creates the target entry if missing (same as `Open Yesterday` / `Open Tomorrow`).

The anchor is the currently open journal entry. When no journal file is open, the anchor falls back to today. Navigation honors the active scope — derived from the anchor file's path or the default scope when no anchor file is open.

Entry Granularity

Key: journal.entryGranularity
Default: daily
Allowed values: daily, weekly

Controls where quick memos, tasks, and new notes go when you have not typed an explicit date target into the smart input.

Value	Behavior
`daily` (default)	Memos / tasks inject into today's daily entry; new notes land under `journal.patterns.notes`.
`weekly`	Memos / tasks inject into the current ISO week's weekly entry; new notes land under `journal.patterns.weeklyNotes`.

Explicit date input always overrides this setting. +0 task ... still goes to today, 2026-05-13 memo: ... still goes to that date, w20 task ... still goes to week 20.

When you switch to weekly, make sure the journal.templates entry named weekly includes the ## Tasks and ## Notes section headings — the default template already does this.

Known limitations:

Granularity is a global setting in this release. Per-scope override is not yet supported.
Switching granularity does not move files already on disk; both layouts can coexist.

Weekly Sync

Key: journal.weeklySync
Default: { "enabled": true, "anchor": "## Daily Entries", "template": "- [${weekday}, ${d:MMMM DD}](${link})", "sortOrder": "ascending" }

When a weekly entry is the active editor, the extension automatically maintains a list of links to every daily entry that exists within the same ISO week, keeping the block up to date as daily files are created or deleted.

Field	Default	Description
`enabled`	`true`	Set to `false` to disable the feature entirely — no edits, no watcher.
`anchor`	`## Daily Entries`	The exact heading line the sync searches for. Add this heading to your weekly template if you customized it. Files without the anchor are left untouched.
`template`	`- [${weekday}, ${d:MMMM DD}](${link})`	Template for each link line. Supports `${weekday}`, `${d:...}`, `${link}`, `${title}`.
`sortOrder`	`ascending`	`ascending` = Monday → Sunday. `descending` = Sunday → Monday.

The default weekly template ships with the ## Daily Entries heading. If you have customized your weekly template and want to opt in, add ## Daily Entries as a separate section heading. Weekly files without the anchor are silently skipped.

→ See Weekly Entries for the full weekly workflow.

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Journal Configuration

Workspace and virtual workspace support

Template variables

Directories

Base directory

Path Patterns for notes and journal entries

Templates

Template Entries

Notes

Memos

Tasks

File Links

Weekly entries

Daily links (weekly sync)

Legacy template keys

Syntax highlighting

Scopes

Other options

File extension

Locale

Development mode

Split Pane Mode

Navigation Mode

Entry Granularity

Weekly Sync

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settings.md

Latest commit

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settings.md

File metadata and controls

Journal Configuration

Workspace and virtual workspace support

Template variables

Directories

Base directory

Path Patterns for notes and journal entries

Templates

Template Entries

Notes

Memos

Tasks

File Links

Weekly entries

Daily links (weekly sync)

Legacy template keys

Syntax highlighting

Scopes

Other options

File extension

Locale

Development mode

Split Pane Mode

Navigation Mode

Entry Granularity

Weekly Sync