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Customize Knowledge Entry Templates

Goal​

Adapt the bundled templates to match team conventions — add required fields, remove unused ones, or change the default structure for lessons, ADRs, and session summaries.

Prerequisites​

  • KMGraph installed
  • Templates copied to docs/templates/ (auto-copied at init, or manually: cp -r core/templates/. docs/templates/)

How templates work​

All templates live in core/templates/. When the MCP server or a command creates a new entry, it reads the template from that directory. Editing files in core/templates/ changes all future entries of that type.

warning

core/templates/ is a PROTECTED directory. Per project conventions, do not commit changes to core/templates/ without explicit team review. Keep customizations in docs/templates/ for project-local overrides.

Available templates​

TemplateFileUsed by
Lesson learnedcore/templates/lessons-learned/lesson-template.md/kmgraph:capture-lesson
Architecture Decision Recordcore/templates/decisions/ADR-template.md/kmgraph:create-adr
Session summarycore/templates/sessions/session-template.md/kmgraph:session-summary
MEMORY.mdcore/templates/MEMORY-template.md/kmgraph:init
Knowledge entrycore/templates/knowledge/entry-template.md/kmgraph:update-graph
Meta-issuecore/templates/meta-issue/meta-issue-template.md/kmgraph:start-issue-tracking

Steps​

1. Copy the template to a working location​

cp core/templates/lessons-learned/lesson-template.md docs/templates/my-lesson-template.md

2. Edit the template​

Open the copy and add, remove, or rename fields. The YAML frontmatter fields are recognized by KMGraph. Custom fields in the body are preserved but not indexed.

3. Point the command to the custom template​

/kmgraph:capture-lesson --template docs/templates/my-lesson-template.md

4. Make it the default (optional)​

In kg-config.json, add a templateOverrides block:

{
  "templateOverrides": {
    "lesson": "docs/templates/my-lesson-template.md"
  }
}

Common customizations​

  • Add a "Team" field to tag entries by squad or domain
  • Add a "Severity" field to lessons for triage prioritization
  • Remove unused frontmatter (e.g., sprint, project) to reduce noise
  • Change the default category from debugging to a project-specific category

Verify​

Run a capture command and confirm the custom fields appear in the output file.

Next steps​