A Shorter Way to the Template

In August we introduced template edit mode and “Apply to template”: see which parts of a task came from the template and which you wrote this time, and send the fixes you choose back to the template.

But you had to make that trip yourself. The suggestion to save a template only appeared the third time you made a similar task, and applying changes meant finding the button in the ⋯ menu or the editor toolbar. Over the past two weeks we shortened that trip in four places: when a template is made, while you edit, when you finish, and after you share.

1. The second time — fecit asks to save

The second time you make a similar task, fecit asks:

You’ve made a similar task before Save it as a template and start from there next time

It used to ask on the third time. If you wait for a third time, tasks you only do once in a while almost never get the suggestion.

When you save, the template is made not from the task you just created but from the most recently completed similar task. The task you just created is then filled with that template’s content, so this run starts from what you wrote last time. The same applies when you accept a suggestion to turn a repeated task into a routine.

2. While you edit — applied where you fixed it

Fields you fix with “View & edit template part” turned on in the editor are applied to your template as soon as you finish editing. You don’t need to press the apply button; “Also applied to the template” appears. Turning on edit mode and fixing something already means “this belongs to the template.”

• Only for your own templates. For someone else’s template, you still send a suggestion to the owner.
• Edits reverted with Esc are not applied, and edits made outside edit mode don’t flow into the template.
• Applies to a task’s title, tactics, current, hope, obstacle, stakes, result, and retrospect, and to a memo’s title and content.

3. When you finish — straight from the result card

When you complete a task made from a template, a result card appears. Now, only when something differs from the template, the card gets one more section:

Changes this time: N · [Pick & apply] [Auto improve]

• Pick & apply opens a screen where you go through each changed field and keep only what you want. For someone else’s template, Pick & suggest sends it to the owner.
• Auto improve lets AI do the picking: from what you wrote this run, it applies only what will be useful next time. It’s available on your own templates and costs 1 lumen, refunded if nothing is applied or it fails.
• If the parts that came from the template are unchanged but other text differs from the template, you’ll see “Differs from the template” with only Auto improve.

When you complete a task, a retrospect prompt and the result card already appear. So instead of opening yet another window, we added one section to the card that was already there.

4. Steps from templates, too

When you type a step’s title, fecit suggests templates just as it does when you create a task. Pick one and a single step is created from that template’s content. Steps attached to that template are not brought along — steps are a single layer.

A step inside a task keeps its lineage to the original template, so what you fix in that step can also be sent back with “Apply to template.”

5. After you share — the author’s improvements arrive

A template published to the Library or Market is a copy taken at the moment of publishing. So when the author later improved the template, the copies people took stayed the same.

• The author uses Update shared copy in the template’s ⋯ menu to pick the fields that differ and push them to the published overview or product.
• People who took the template see “The author improved this template · View” when they use it. They can take each field or skip this time.
• Fields they edited themselves are unselected by default, so the author’s improvement never silently overwrites their own edits.
• No notification is sent; it shows up when you use the template.
• This works for task templates, memo templates, project templates, and catalog items.

In short

Your template is now reached in four moments: the second time you make a similar task, when you fix it in edit mode, when you finish the task, and when the author improves it.