Template merge overwrites existing properties

Help
1

My understanding is that templates are supposed to be composable. When inserting a template, it does merge tags correctly. But it overwrites other existing properties. To be composable, it should add missing properties but leaving existing properties unchanged.

Steps to reproduce

Create a template with this content:

---
date: {{date}}
tags:
  - journal
---

And a note with this content:

---
date: 2020-12-12
tags:
  - foo
  - bar
---

With that note active, insert the template.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? Y

Expected result

---
date: 2020-12-12
tags:
  - foo
  - bar
  - journal
---

Actual result

A note with the date overwritten by the current date:

---
date: 2025-09-15
tags:
  - foo
  - bar
  - journal
---

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.9.12
Installer version: v1.8.7
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 24.6.0: Mon Jul 14 11:28:17 PDT 2025; root:xnu-11417.140.69~1/RELEASE_X86_64 24.6.0
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: off
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

Additional information

2

Huh, the documentation doesn’t really specify what’s meant to happen in that case.

When you insert a template into the active note, all the properties from the template will be added to the note. Obsidian will also merge any properties that exist in your note with properties in the template. (https://help.obsidian.md/plugins/templates#Template+properties)

To me, “merge” implies that properties and list property values will be added, but it’s not clear what should happen when the template contains a new value for a property that only accepts 1 value and already has one. I suppose it takes the template value because it is newer.

If you applied a template that contained a static value like media-type: DVD, and Templates didn’t apply that value because the property already had one, then I think that could be seen as surprising too.

3

Seems to me a template should have lower priority than a note when merging. A use case I want is updating a template to contain new properties and re-applying it to an old note. That’s disastrous with the current implementation.

4

Yeah, with the behavior you describe you’d have to make a separate “patch” template that omits the things you don’t want overwritten.

5

yes, this is not a bug, nor it seems unequivocally preferable to do what you are asking.

Please, open a Feature Request for this. Thanks.

6

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