Placeholders

Placeholders work inside any THEN action value — Property actions, First level title actions, and Note file actions. They’re expanded at the moment the rule runs, against the file being processed, using Obsidian’s own `` Templates syntax.

Reference

Placeholder	Result
/	Today’s date (both names mean the same thing). Default format is YYYY-MM-DD, unless your vault has a custom Date format under Files & Links — then that format is used instead.
``	Current time. Default format is HH:mm, unless your vault has a custom Time format — then that format is used instead.
``	The note’s filename, without .md. Example: meeting-notes.
``	The file’s creation date.
``	The file’s last-modified date.
| The note's filename, without `.md` (same value as).
``	The live value of that frontmatter property on the current note.
/ / | Beta — reuses whatever an IF regex condition matched. See [ in THEN](/actions/note-file-actions#match-in-then-beta).

In Note file actions (Rename file / Add name prefix / Add name suffix / Move file to), a bare date placeholder is always forced to YYYY-MM-DD regardless of the vault’s date format — see Dates are always date-only in Note file actions below.

Custom formats

Append :FORMAT for a custom moment.js date/time format:

    → 23-08-2026
            → 08
      → 20:14:07
  → 2025

Property placeholders

Any token that isn’t one of the reserved names above, and whose first character isn’t : or whitespace, is treated as a frontmatter property lookup: ,, `` all work.

Copy a value from one property to another:

IF    Property: g_excerpt → exists
THEN  Property: excerpt → Add value → ""

Behavior:

• Missing property → empty string. No errors, no literal `` left behind in your YAML.
• Arrays are joined with , . A source like tags: [a, b, c] becomes a, b, c in the expanded string.
• Earlier actions in the same rule are visible to later ones. If action #1 sets excerpt, action #2 can reference ``.
• Reserved names win. date, created_date, updated_date, today, time, title, filename, and match are all resolved as reserved placeholders first; a property with one of those names won’t shadow them. If you have a property literally named match, `` always resolves via the regex-capture logic — never that property’s value.

Dates are always date-only in Note file actions

Inside Rename / Add name prefix / Add name suffix / Move file to, a bare date placeholder (no explicit :FORMAT) always resolves to YYYY-MM-DD, never a time component — file and folder names can’t safely carry a : on every platform. An explicit format is always honored exactly as you typed it, including one with : in it.

Combinations

Placeholders mix freely in the same value:

• ` - ` → 2026-08-23 - meeting-notes
• Meeting - → Meeting meeting-notes - 23/08/26
• / as a Move file to destination → 2026-08-23/meeting-notes (folder auto-created)
• ` () → My Post (2026)`