Zettelkasten

A Zettelkasten (German for slip-box) is a method for building knowledge through small, atomic notes linked by shared ideas. This template brings that method to Krillnotes: each Zettel note auto-titles itself with today’s date and the first few words of its content. Add native tags and the Zettel view shows you which other notes share those tags.

Downloads

• zettelkasten.rhai — import into Script Manager
• zettelkasten.krillnotes — sample workspace

How to use

1. Import zettelkasten.rhai in Settings → Scripts → Import Script
2. Create a new note and choose Kasten as the type — this is your slip-box
3. Add children and choose Zettel as the type for each
4. Write your idea in the body field and save — the title is set automatically
5. Add native tags to each Zettel (tag cloud panel or the InfoPanel)
6. Click any Zettel to see its body and a Related Notes table of notes sharing its tags
7. Right-click the Kasten to sort all notes by date

How it works

Zettel schema — on_save hook

When you save a Zettel, the on_save hook builds the title automatically using the built-in today() function and the first six words of the body:

on_save: |note| {
    let words = note.fields["body"].split(" ").filter(|w| w != "");
    let snippet = /* first 6 words, truncated with … if longer */;
    note.title = today() + " — " + snippet;
    note
}

The YYYY-MM-DD date prefix means titles sort chronologically as plain strings — the tree sort actions need no special date parsing.

Zettel schema — on_view hook

When you click a Zettel note, the on_view hook:

1. Renders the body text
2. Reads note.tags (the native tags assigned via the tag panel)
3. Calls get_notes_for_tag(note.tags) to find all notes with any matching tag
4. Filters out the current note itself
5. Displays a Related Notes table with title and tags columns

If the note has no tags, or no other notes share its tags, the related section is omitted.

Kasten schema — on_view hook

The Kasten overview shows a stats line (N Zettel · K unique tags) and a table of the 10 most recent notes. “Most recent” is determined by sorting titles descending — the YYYY-MM-DD prefix makes this correct without any date parsing.

Sort tree actions

Two add_tree_action entries on Kasten let you reorder the tree by date from the right-click menu: Newest First (descending title sort) and Oldest First (ascending title sort).