Templates

Templates are reusable structures that save you from rebuilding the same skeleton every time you start a new book or chapter. Bibliogon has two kinds:

• Book templates pre-fill a new book with a chapter list (title, type, order). Five genres ship with the app: Children's Picture Book, Sci-Fi Novel, Non-Fiction / How-To, Philosophy, and Memoir.
• Chapter templates pre-fill a single chapter with a structured outline in TipTap JSON. Four ship with the app: Interview, FAQ, Recipe, Photo Report.

Both kinds distinguish built-in templates (ship with Bibliogon, read-only, marked with a lock badge) from user templates (saved from your own books or chapters, deletable via a trash icon on the template card).

Creating a book from a template

1. Click New Book on the Dashboard.
2. Switch to the From template tab at the top of the dialog.
3. Pick a template card. Each card shows name, genre, description, and chapter count.
4. Fill in title and author. Language and description are pre-filled from the template but can be edited.
5. Click Create. The new book opens in the editor with all chapters ready.

Under the hood, POST /api/books/from-template creates the book and all its chapters in a single database commit. If any chapter insert fails, the whole book is rolled back.

Saving a book as a template

1. Open the book in the editor.
2. In the sidebar footer, alongside Metadata, TOC, and Export, click Save as template.
3. Enter a name (required, unique) and a description (required). Name is capped at 100 characters, description at 500.
4. Pick Empty placeholders (recommended) or Preserve content:
5. Empty placeholders saves only the structure: titles, types, order. The content field stays empty. Best for reusable blueprints.
6. Preserve content copies the full chapter bodies into the template. Best if you want a pattern book with example prose in each chapter.
7. Expand Preview chapters if you want to confirm the chapter list before saving.
8. Click Save. Your template now appears in the template picker for future Create from template flows.

If a template with the same name already exists, the server responds with a 409 and the name field shows an inline error. Pick a different name.

Creating a chapter from a template

1. In the editor sidebar, click the + icon to open the new-chapter dropdown.
2. Select From template... at the top of the "Chapter" group.
3. Pick a chapter template card. Each card shows name, chapter type, description, and a built-in lock or user delete button.
4. Click Insert. The new chapter is added at the end of the list with the template's title (rename it inline with a double-click), chapter type, and content.

Saving a chapter as a template

1. Right-click a chapter in the sidebar to open its context menu.
2. Click Save as template.
3. Name, description, and content mode (empty placeholder / preserve content) work the same as for book templates. The name is pre-filled from the chapter title; change it if you want a more generic template name.

Managing user templates

Open the appropriate template picker (book or chapter) and hover over a user template card. A trash icon appears in the card header. Click it, confirm the dialog, and the template is deleted. Built-in templates do not have this icon and cannot be deleted.

Templates are global to your installation. They apply to every book you create or edit. There is no per-book or per-user scoping (Bibliogon is single-user by design).

Built-in chapter template details

Template	Default structure
Interview	H2 Introduction, H2 Questions (3-item ordered list), H2 Closing
FAQ	3 x (H3 Question + paragraph answer)
Recipe	H2 Ingredients (bullet list), H2 Preparation (ordered list), H2 Notes
Photo Report	H2 Location, empty paragraph, H2 Impressions, description placeholder, H2 Reflection

All placeholders are short and meant to be replaced.

Differences between book and chapter templates

	Book template	Chapter template
Scope	Whole book structure	One chapter
Stores	Title, description, genre, language, chapter list	Name, description, chapter type, content
Entry point	New Book dialog ("From template" tab)	Sidebar + dropdown ("From template..." item)
Save trigger	Sidebar footer "Save as template" button	Chapter context menu "Save as template"
API prefix	/api/templates/	/api/chapter-templates/