Capture: Add entries to your daily note

This cookbook gives you one QuickAdd choice that adds text to today’s daily note - even when the note or the target heading doesn’t exist yet.

Every recipe starts from the same base Capture choice; you only change the Capture format and the target heading.

Base setup

Imported the package above? Follow After importing in the card, then skip the base setup below. Recipes explains what each imported capture does and how to add more.

1. In Settings → QuickAdd, click New choice → Capture. The Capture builder opens; click its name at the top to rename it (for example, Daily entry).
2. Disable Capture to active file.
3. Click Daily note next to Capture to (QuickAdd 2.30.0 or later). It fills in {{DAILY}}, which uses the folder, date format, and template from Obsidian’s Daily notes settings, or from Periodic Notes when it manages your daily notes. On earlier versions, type your daily-note path and date pattern instead, for example Daily/{{DATE:YYYY-MM-DD}}.md.
4. Make sure Create file if it doesn’t exist is on. The Daily note button turns it on; on earlier versions, turn it on yourself.
5. Set Write position to After line….
6. In the Insert after field, enter the heading you want entries placed under, for example ## Journal.
7. Make sure Insert at end of section is on, so each capture appends at the bottom of the section.
8. Make sure Create line if not found is on with placement Top, so the heading is inserted when a fresh note does not have it yet. A new Capture starts with both on in QuickAdd 2.30.0 or later; on earlier versions, turn them on.
9. Leave Link to captured file disabled.
10. Fill in Capture format with one of the recipes below.

Recipes

Each recipe shows what to change from the base setup. Before QuickAdd 2.30.0, turn on the Capture format toggle to type a recipe.

Timestamped journal line

Keep Insert after set to ## Journal.

Capture format:

- {{DATE:HH:mm}} {{VALUE}}

Produces:

## Journal
- 18:54 first journal entry
- 18:55 second journal entry

Before QuickAdd 2.30.0, end each recipe’s format with \n (for example - {{DATE:HH:mm}} {{VALUE}}\n). Without it, a capture at the end of a section removes the blank line before the next heading.

Task line

Change Insert after to ## Tasks.

Task: on (in the Content section).

Capture format:

{{VALUE}}

Task wraps the value in - [ ] ... automatically. Do not add - [ ] to the format manually.

Task with a date prompt

Task: on.

Capture format:

{{VALUE}} due {{VDATE:due,YYYY-MM-DD}}

QuickAdd prompts for the task text and then for due. You can enter an exact date or a natural-language date such as tomorrow. Result: - [ ] pay rent due 2026-07-07.

Callout line

Change Insert after to the callout opener, for example:

> [!info]- Captured today

Capture format:

> {{VALUE}}

On first use, Create line if not found inserts the callout opener at the position you chose. Each subsequent capture appends before the next blank line or heading, so keep the callout as one contiguous quoted block. The > prefix is required to keep the entry inside the callout block.

Quote

Change Insert after to ## Quotes.

Capture format:

> {{VALUE}}

Same format as the callout recipe but targeting a regular heading. Produces a blockquote line under the section.

Table row

Use this when the daily note already has a table under a heading and the table is the last block in that section. Keep Write position as After line…, set Insert after to the heading above the table, and keep Insert at end of section enabled. If more content follows the table in the same section, target the table separator row instead.

Capture format:

| {{DATE:HH:mm}} | {{VALUE}} |

This keeps the row attached to the table:

## Log
| When | What |
| --- | --- |
| 09:00 | existing |
| 18:55 | section row |

Tomorrow’s daily note

With Capture to set to {{DAILY}}, set Which day to Custom…, one day forward. {{DAILY}} follows Which day, so the capture targets tomorrow’s note and creates it from your daily notes template.

With a typed path, change Capture to to:

Daily/{{DATE:YYYY-MM-DD+1}}.md

The +1 shifts the target date one day forward. Combine with any of the formats above.

Troubleshooting

Pasted multiple lines became one task. The Task setting wraps the whole capture once. Turn on One entry per line (QuickAdd 2.30.0 or later) to make each line its own task.

The heading is not found and capture fails. Turn on Create line if not found with placement Top (or Bottom). QuickAdd inserts the heading on first use and places new content after it.

You need to insert above a placeholder. Use Before line… instead of After line… and target the placeholder, such as <!-- quickadd:notes -->. See Insert before for the full setting.

Capture writes to the wrong file. Use {{DAILY}} in Capture to, which reads the path from your Daily notes settings. With a typed path, the date pattern must match your vault’s daily-note naming exactly. If your notes are named 2025.01.15.md inside Journal/, use Journal/{{DATE:YYYY.MM.DD}}.md.