Project Templates
File > New Project shows a template picker before the usual folder picker (and name prompt, for a non-empty folder) — pick a starting scaffold, then locate the new project as before. Five templates ship built-in:
| Template | What it scaffolds |
|---|---|
| Blank (default*) | Nothing — an empty project, exactly like File > New Project behaved before templates existed |
| Novel | A Manuscript folder with two starter chapters, a Characters folder with a Protagonist document (Desire/Misbelief/Arc headings), plus Research and Trash folders (roles already assigned) |
| Nonfiction | A Manuscript folder with an Introduction and a “Part One” subfolder containing a first chapter, plus Research and Trash |
| Screenplay | A Screenplay folder with Act One/Two/Three starter documents, plus Research and Trash. Smaragd’s editor is plain Markdown, not Fountain — this reproduces a screenplay draft’s look with headings, not a real screenplay-format pipeline |
| World-Building | A Manuscript folder with a starter chapter, Research, a World folder (Characters with Main/Supporting subfolders, Locations, Items), and a Templates folder with Character/Location stationery documents (${{name}} placeholder, “New From Template” — see Template Variables), plus Trash — all roles already assigned |
* The very first time you’ve ever opened a project in smaragd, the picker instead starts on World-Building — see Projects.
File > Save Project as Template… turns your current project’s own folder/document structure into a reusable custom template, prompting for a name. It excludes:
- Whatever’s currently inside the project’s Trash folder (if one’s configured)
- Narrative state that belongs to one specific project, not a reusable shape: story cards, the protagonist Desire/Misbelief pair, and book/export/git metadata
Custom templates are stored in smaragd/project_templates/ in the platform config directory (the same base path as custom themes/styles/plugins — see Plugins):
- Linux:
~/.config/smaragd/project_templates - macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/smaragd/project_templates - Windows:
%APPDATA%\smaragd\config\project_templates
Each is a subfolder containing a template.toml (label, description) and a content/ folder mirroring the structure to stamp out. Unlike custom themes/styles, there’s no “Reload Custom Templates” button — a hand-dropped or hand-edited template only shows up in the picker after restarting the app (saving one via Save Project as Template… refreshes the list immediately, since the app already knows it just wrote it).