Skip to main content

​
Overview

A summary template decides what a meeting note turns into. It carries the prompt the AI is given, and a handful of settings that apply to every recording made with it: which tags the note gets, whether system audio is recorded at all, which language the summary is written in, and whether a summary is generated at all. Vowen ships with one built-in template, Meeting Notes, which everyone gets. On top of that there is a library of 44 ready-made templates you can install and edit, and you can write your own from scratch. Templates live in Notes in the left sidebar, then the gear icon in the toolbar, then the Templates tab.

​
The template library

Browsing the library is free. Adding a template from it is a Pro feature.
Click Add from library at the top of the Templates tab. Writing a good summary prompt is fiddly, and the shipped ones are already tuned, so the library beats starting from scratch.
1

Find a template

Search by name, description or section heading. Typing “action” finds the templates with an Action items section, not just the one called Action Items Only.
2

Preview it

Click any card to see its full section list, each section’s instruction, any caveat the template carries, and, under View full prompt, the exact prompt it will send.
3

Add it

Click Add to my templates, or Add on the card itself. The template is copied into your own list, where it is yours to rename and rewrite. Nothing stays linked to the library copy.
Installed templates show as Added in the library, with a Remove link that takes them back out again. A template you have added but then renamed still shows as Added, because the match is on the underlying library entry rather than the name.

​
What is in the library

The 44 templates cover nine areas: Some carry their own caveats in the preview. Follow-Up Email Draft writes a ready-to-send email rather than notes. Clinical Note (SOAP), Therapy Session (DAP) and Legal Client Intake all say to review the output before using it, because Vowen is not a medical, clinical or legal record system. Four of them record your microphone only, with system audio off: In-Person Meeting, One-on-One, Voice Journal and Doctor’s Appointment. That is flagged in the preview.

​
Custom templates

Creating your own template is a Pro feature, as is editing one you installed from the library. Everyone can edit the built-in Meeting Notes template.
Click Create template on the Templates tab for a blank one, or the pencil on any installed template to edit it. Starting from a library template and rewriting it is usually faster than starting from nothing.

​
Writing the prompt

Do not start your prompt with TITLE:. Vowen prepends the title contract itself before your prompt is sent, and none of the 44 shipped templates restate it. Writing your own TITLE: line duplicates an instruction the model has already been given and works against it.The in-app hint under the prompt box still suggests adding one. That hint is out of date. Ignore it.
Write the prompt as if the transcript is already in front of the model, because it is. Vowen assembles the request as the title contract, then any context you typed during the recording, then any moments you marked as important, then the transcript, then your prompt under the heading YOUR TASK:. Your prompt fully replaces the built-in instructions, so it needs to say everything you want.
The shipped templates all use the same shape: name the exact markdown H2 headings you want, give each one a one-line instruction, then add rules at the bottom. Most of them end with a rule telling the model to write “Not discussed” for an empty section rather than inferring content. Open View full prompt on any library template to copy the pattern.

​
Every per-template setting

The name is what you see in the template list, the default-template picker and the meeting detection banner. The description is a one-line hint shown under it. Names are capped at 60 characters, descriptions at 100.
Tags stamped on every note this template creates. They are applied when the note record is first written, so the note carries them from the moment it appears in your list as “Processing”, not after the summary lands.Meeting notes keep their own tag pool, separate from the transcription tags.
On by default. It records what you hear, meaning the other people on the call, alongside your microphone. Turn it off for a microphone-only template.This is not a summary setting, it changes what is recorded. Use it for in-person meetings, one on ones in a room, voice journalling, or anything where capturing your speakers would pick up the wrong thing. The choice is read when the recording starts, from whichever template that session is using.
On by default. Turn it off and recordings with this template save the transcript only, with no call to your AI provider at all. The prompt box and the summary language row disappear while it is off, and the template is badged Transcript only in the list.You can still generate a summary by hand on any such note afterwards.
Three states. Left alone it inherits your global summary language, and the button reads “Use global default”. Set to Auto-detect it writes the summary in whichever language the transcript is in. Set to a specific language it always writes that language, whatever was spoken.Useful for a template you use for calls in one language but need summarized in another.
The instructions sent with the transcript. Only shown when Generate AI summary is on. See the warning above about TITLE:.
Summary citations are off globally by default and are Pro. A template can additionally opt out of them, in which case its summaries never carry citations even when the global switch is on. The only shipped template that opts out is Follow-Up Email Draft, where timestamp pills in a draft email would be wrong. There is no per-template switch for this in the editor.

​
The built-in Meeting Notes template

The built-in template is editable by everyone, but it works slightly differently from a custom one. You cannot replace its prompt. Instead there is a Custom instructions toggle that appends your extra instructions to the built-in prompt, and that toggle is Pro. Its tags, system-audio, generate-summary and summary-language settings are all free and behave exactly as described above.
If you find yourself fighting the custom instructions box, create a custom template instead. It gives you the whole prompt rather than an appendix to somebody else’s.

​
Choosing which template gets used

​
Your default template

Every template card has a star. Clicking it makes that template your default, and the card is badged Default. Deleting your default template resets the default back to the built-in Meeting Notes. The default is what gets used by the toolbar Start button, the tray, the start shortcut, the idle pill and any watch folder that has not overridden it.

​
The split button on the Notes page

The Start Taking Notes button on the Notes page is a split button. The left half starts a recording with your current default. The chevron on the right opens a list of every template.
Picking a template from that chevron does not start a recording, and it is not a one-off choice for the next meeting. It rewrites your default template, permanently, for every future recording and every other place a recording can start from.If you only want a different template for one meeting, use the picker on the meeting detection banner instead.
The chevron menu also has a Manage templates entry at the bottom, which jumps straight to the Templates tab.

​
One-off overrides

When Vowen detects a meeting and shows its banner, that banner’s Start button is also a split button. The pop-over there lists your templates and picks one for that session only. Your default is left alone. You can also change a note’s template after the fact by regenerating its summary. See Summaries.

​
Deleting a template

Click the bin icon on a template card, then click the tick to confirm. The built-in template cannot be deleted. Removing a library template from inside the library modal does the same thing, and the entry becomes available to add again.
Deleting a template does not touch notes that were created with it. Their summaries stay as they are.