Vault evolution and changes

Like everything else, a vault should also evolve. As we change, so do the questions we ask and the way we want to structure the information inside our vault.

This evolution can happen gradually or through radical, all-or-nothing changes. Personally, I prefer soft, incremental changes, and that’s what I’ll illustrate here with a practical example.

My Vault

My vault is mostly organized in folders. For this example, the relevant folder is:

Management/Stakeholders

Every note created there automatically applies the template:

Templates/Template - stakeholder

Possible Scenarios

When I decided to differentiate between people and organizations, I analyzed my automation setup and identified three possible paths:

Remove automation and apply templates manually.
Create separate folders for people and organizations, each with its own template automation.
Evolve the existing template so that it prompts me to choose which template to apply when creating a new note.

I chose option 3.

New Templates

Instead of building a single template with conditionals, I created two separate templates. This approach makes them easier to maintain while keeping them modular.

Depending on the situation, I can still apply the old template or one of the new ones. Since I had already tested the new templates, and because I keep backups and Git version history, I simply replaced the original template with the new code.

The Code

The updated code presents a selection with two options, associates them with numbers, and then includes the corresponding template file.

These new templates can also include other templates (for example, to standardize date properties) and rules.

<%*
let template_stakeholder = await tp.system.suggester(
["Pessoa", "Organização"],
[1, 2]);
if (template_stakeholder == 1) { -%>
<% tp.file.include("Template - Pessoa") %>
<%* } else { -%>
<% tp.file.include("Template - Organizacao") %>
<%* } %>

Migrating Existing Notes

I don’t migrate all notes at once. Instead, I update them as I revisit them. This creates a natural prioritization: notes I use more often get updated first, while unused notes remain untouched until needed.

This incremental approach reduces friction and avoids unnecessary work.

Conclusion

As we evolve, our vaults should evolve with us, adapting to new questions, new structures, and better ways of representing information.

The key is to have a clear vision of what you want from your notes, and to make changes safely. Always keep backups and version history, so that if something goes wrong, you can easily return to a working state.

A vault is not static: it’s a living system that grows alongside you.