Vault Expressions

Vault expressions let rendered content read values from Tolaria notes. The {{...}} template form currently runs in HTML blocks. Sheet formulas use the same [[note]].field reference forms inside = formulas, but spreadsheet calculations still use IronCalc functions.

Reference Syntax

Expression	Result
{{status}}	Current note property.
{{this.status}}	Current note property with explicit this.
{{[[project-alpha]].status}}	Scalar property from another note.
{{[[device]].power.watts}}	Nested scalar frontmatter path.
{{[[essay]].has_notes}}	Relationship or array property as comma-separated text.
{{[[essay]].title}}	Referenced note title.
{{[[budget]].B5}}	Single cell from a sheet note.
{{[[brief]].2}}	Second raw body line from another note.

Wikilink targets resolve like normal Tolaria links, so they can use filenames, paths, or note titles when those targets are unambiguous.

Line references are 1-based and exclude YAML frontmatter. [[note]].A1 means grid or cell access and may split comma-separated content. [[note]].1 means the whole first body line, preserving commas as text.

Values

Properties can resolve to strings, numbers, booleans, null, or arrays of strings, numbers, and booleans. Arrays render as comma-separated text unless you pass them to json(...).

Unresolved expressions remain visible as escaped placeholders, such as {{missing_property}}, so broken dashboards fail visibly instead of silently showing the wrong value.

Expression output is escaped as text by default. A property value such as <strong>Draft</strong> displays as text, not as live HTML.

Formatting Helpers

Helper	Example
upper(value)	{{upper(status)}}
lower(value)	{{lower(status)}}
title(value)	{{title(status)}}
trim(value)	{{trim(name)}}
truncate(value, length, suffix?)	{{truncate(summary, 120)}}
replace(value, from, to)	{{replace(status, "_", " ")}}
round(value, digits?)	{{round(score, 1)}}
formatNumber(value, digits?)	{{formatNumber(revenue, 0)}}
formatPercent(value, digits?)	{{formatPercent(conversion_rate, 1)}}
formatCurrency(value, currency, digits?)	{{formatCurrency(amount, "USD", 0)}}
formatDate(value, format?)	{{formatDate(publish_date, "long")}}
default(value, fallback)	{{default(status, "Draft")}}
isEmpty(value)	{{isEmpty(owner)}}
json(value)	{{json([[essay]].has_notes)}}

formatDate supports short, medium, long, and YYYY-MM-DD. Formatting uses the app locale when available.

The only operator is +, which concatenates text:

<p>{{first_name + " " + last_name}}</p>

Vault expressions do not run arbitrary JavaScript. They do not support loops, mutation, user-defined functions, raw HTML interpolation, or remote data access.

Structured JSON

Use json(...) when an HTML block script needs data instead of already-rendered text:

<script type="application/json" id="notes-data">
{{json([[essay]].has_notes)}}
</script>

For scalar values, json(...) returns the JSON representation of that value. For a wikilink or a relationship array made of wikilinks, it returns note summary objects:

{
  "title": "Acceleration whiplash",
  "target": "acceleration-whiplash",
  "path": "/vault/acceleration-whiplash.md",
  "status": "Evergreened",
  "raw": "[[acceleration-whiplash]]",
  "deepLink": "tolaria://refactoring-vault/acceleration-whiplash.md"
}

The JSON is escaped so it cannot close the surrounding script tag. Put it in a non-executable script tag, then parse it from a scripts="sandboxed" HTML block when you need to build markup with standard DOM APIs.

Sheet Formula Parity

The same note target forms work in sheet formulas:

=[[newsletter-revenue]].B5
=[[project-alpha]].status
=[[launch-brief]].2

Use Spreadsheet Formulas for spreadsheet-specific syntax and IronCalc function behavior.