Journal
Open or create today's daily note instantly
Journal mode gives you a frictionless daily note. Press t in normal mode to jump straight into today's entry — ekphos opens it if it already exists, or creates it from a small dated template if it doesn't.
Usage
Press t from anywhere in normal mode (the sidebar, content, or outline panel):
- If today's journal already exists, ekphos opens it.
- If it doesn't exist yet, ekphos creates it and opens it.
Either way you land in the note with the content panel focused, and a status message confirms what happened (Created journal.2026-05-29.md or Opened journal.2026-05-29.md).
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
t | Open today's journal |
Journal mode is disabled in zen mode (Ctrl+z), matching note creation with
n.
File Location and Naming
Journal entries are plain markdown files created in your notes directory (~/Documents/ekphos by default), named after the current date:
journal.YYYY-MM-DD.mdFor example, on May 29 2026 the file is journal.2026-05-29.md. Because each day gets its own file, pressing t tomorrow starts a fresh entry while leaving today's untouched — and pressing t again later the same day simply reopens it.
The date is your local date, so the entry rolls over at local midnight — not UTC.
Entry Template
A fresh journal entry starts with YAML frontmatter and a dated heading:
---
title: Journal — 2026-05-29
tags: [journal]
date: 2026-05-29
---
# 2026-05-29 · FridayThe journal tag groups every entry together when you browse or search by tag, and the date field is picked up by the frontmatter badges. From there, press e to start writing.
Existing entries are never overwritten. Pressing t only writes the template
when today's file doesn't exist yet.
Next Steps
- See the full keybindings reference
- Learn how frontmatter tags and dates are rendered
- Find past entries fast with search