Predefined Phrases

You can define common log entries once in your configuration file and refer to them with a short name via the -p/--phrase flag, instead of retyping the full text every time.

Basic phrases

phrases:
  meeting: "Team meeting with stakeholders"
  gym: "Workout at the gym"
  lunch: "Lunch break"
  doctor: "Doctor appointment"

obsidian-logging -p meeting
obsidian-logging -p gym -c health

Phrases with argument expansion

A phrase can include placeholders that are filled in from any extra words you pass after -p <name>:

phrases:
  meeting_with: "Team meeting with {*}"     # all arguments
  call_with: "Phone call with {0}"          # first argument only
  project: "Working on {0}"                 # first argument only
  exercise: "Exercise: {*}"                 # all arguments
  travel: "Travel to {0}"                   # first argument only
  food: "Ate {*}"                           # all arguments

  # Using {#} for a natural-language list
  meeting_with_list: "Team meeting with {#}"
  call_with_list: "Phone call with {#}"

obsidian-logging -p meeting_with John Smith
# -> "Team meeting with John Smith"

obsidian-logging -p call_with Alice
# -> "Phone call with Alice"

obsidian-logging -p project "Project Alpha"
# -> "Working on Project Alpha"

obsidian-logging -p meeting_with_list John Jane
# -> "Team meeting with John and Jane"

obsidian-logging -p call_with_list Alice Bob Charlie
# -> "Phone call with Alice, Bob and Charlie"

The conjunction used by {#} (and, og, und, …) is chosen based on the locale setting.

Phrases can be combined with -t/--time and -c/--category:

obsidian-logging -p meeting_with John -t 14:30
obsidian-logging -p doctor_with "Dr. Smith" -c health

If a phrase name passed to -p doesn’t exist in the config, obsidian-logging prints an error and exits with a non-zero status instead of logging anything.

A larger example

See obsidian-logging.example.yaml in the repository for a complete set of example phrases covering work, personal, and health categories.