Controlling Prompts

When a choice runs, every placeholder that needs input becomes a prompt: {{VALUE:title}} in a file name, {{VDATE:due,YYYY-MM-DD}} in a template, the target file of a Capture, and so on. This page covers everything you control about those prompts - which ones appear, the order they come in, how each one looks, how to make one skippable, the keys that submit or cancel, and the one-page form that asks everything at once.

For the full syntax of each placeholder and flag, see Format Syntax. For the one-page form in depth, see One-page Inputs.

What QuickAdd asks you

QuickAdd prompts whenever it meets a placeholder it cannot fill on its own:

• {{VALUE}} / {{VALUE:name}} ask for text, or show a pick list when you give them options.
• {{VDATE:name,format}} asks for a date, and understands natural language like tomorrow.
• {{FIELD:name}} suggests values a property already has in your vault.
• {{FILE:folder}} asks you to pick a note from a folder.
• Template choices may also ask for a file name or folder; Capture choices may ask which file to capture to.

You are asked once per variable, per run. If {{VALUE:title}} appears in both the file name and the template body, you answer once and QuickAdd reuses it. A variable that already has a value never prompts: prefilled variables from a macro step, the API, or the CLI skip their prompts, and even an empty string counts as an answer.

The order prompts appear in

Prompts follow the structure of the choice, not where the placeholders sit in your text. Take this template:

Attendees: {{VALUE:attendees}}
Due: {{VDATE:due,YYYY-MM-DD}}

The due prompt appears first, even though attendees comes first in the text. That is because dates are asked before named values within one piece of text. The full order:

1. Template choices resolve the template path first, then the folder, then the file name, and finally the template’s content. A placeholder in the file name always prompts before anything in the template body.
2. Capture choices resolve the capture target first, then the capture format.
3. Within one piece of text (a file name, a template, a capture format), prompts are grouped by kind, and only inside a kind do they follow the order they appear. The kinds run in this order: plain {{VALUE}}/{{NAME}} first, then dates ({{VDATE}}), then named values ({{VALUE:name}}), then fields ({{FIELD}}) and file pickers ({{FILE}}), with the math prompt ({{MVALUE}}) last.

No flag reorders individual prompts. If the sequence bothers you, switch on the one-page input form: it lists every input in one form (still in resolution order), and you fill them in whatever order you like.

Note

A pick list defined with |name: and its reuses can appear in any order within one piece of text. When a reuse comes before the definition, QuickAdd resolves the definition early so you are still asked only once.

Change how a prompt looks

Each control is a flag you add to the placeholder. The most common ones:

You want	Flag	Example
Helper text on the prompt	|label:	{{VALUE:attendees|label:Comma-separated names}}
A pre-filled default	|default:	{{VALUE:status|default:open}}
A large, multi-line text box	|type:multiline	{{VALUE:notes|type:multiline}}
A number, slider, or checkbox	|type:number and friends	{{VALUE:rating|type:slider|min:0|max:10}}
A pick list	comma-separated options	{{VALUE:low,medium,high}}
A pick list that also accepts custom text	|custom	{{VALUE:home,work|custom}}
Several selections at once	|multi	{{VALUE:a,b,c|multi}}

The full reference for every flag lives in Format Syntax.

Good to know:

• |label: works on {{VALUE}} placeholders and {{FILE:...}} pickers, not on {{VDATE}} or {{FIELD}}. On a plain text prompt the label shows as helper text below the title; on a pick list it becomes the placeholder.
• |type:multiline upgrades a single placeholder to the large text box and overrides the global Use Multi-line Input Prompt setting. There is no reverse flag: with the global setting on, every plain text prompt is already multi-line.
• |type: flags only work on single-value placeholders. A pick list ignores them.

Make a prompt skippable

Add |optional to let a prompt be left blank, in which case it resolves to nothing:

- [ ] {{VALUE:task}} {{VDATE:due,[📅 ]YYYY-MM-DD|optional}}

An optional prompt gains a Skip button and treats an empty submission as the answer, so you are not asked again later in the run. |optional works on {{VALUE}} placeholders, option lists, {{VDATE}}, and {{FILE}}.

Skipping is an answer; pressing Esc still cancels the whole choice. If the same variable appears in several places, put |optional on every occurrence - that is the one spelling that behaves the same in both the sequential prompts and the one-page form.

Keys that submit, skip, and cancel

Prompt	Submit	Also useful
Single-line input (also number, slider, and date prompts)	Enter
Multi-line input	Ctrl/Cmd+Enter (Enter inserts a newline)	Tab indents; Shift+Tab moves focus out
Pick list / suggester	Enter picks the highlighted option
Math prompt ({{MVALUE}})	Ctrl/Cmd+Enter	Tab jumps to the cursor marker
One-page input form	Ctrl/Cmd+Enter	Tab moves between fields
Any optional prompt		Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Enter skips

Esc cancels the prompt and with it the whole run - nothing is created or captured by the cancelled choice. (In a macro, steps that already ran are not undone.) To get a notice when that happens, enable Show Input Cancellation Notifications in settings.

Autocomplete while you type

Inside a prompt, # searches your vault’s tags and [[ searches your files (headings, blocks, and relative paths work too). See Suggester System for all triggers and keys.

These triggers work in the single-line and multi-line prompts. The one-page form’s plain text fields do not offer them, though its field and pick-list inputs have their own inline suggestions.

One form instead of many prompts

Rather than answering prompts one at a time, QuickAdd can collect everything in a single form before the choice runs. Every unanswered variable appears as the right widget - text, textarea, date with a calendar, dropdown, slider - with optional fields badged, and Template choices with a file name format get a live file name preview.

• Turn it on for everything with One-page input for choices under Settings → Input.
• Template and Capture choices each have a One-page input override dropdown in their builder (Follow global setting, Always, Never), so you can flip the form on or off for one choice.
• A few inputs still run as follow-up steps after the form, such as {{FIELD:...|multi}} pickers and Capture’s insert-after heading picker.
• Cancelling the form cancels the whole run, exactly like cancelling a sequential prompt.

The full behavior - what is collected, date parsing, defaults, and script-declared inputs - is documented in One-page Inputs.

For script authors

User scripts can declare their inputs so they appear in the one-page form (quickadd.inputs), and can open a one-page form of their own at runtime with quickAddApi.requestInputs. Both are covered in One-page Inputs.