title: Zettelstore boxes role: manual tags: #configuration #manual #zettelstore syntax: zmk back: 00001003300000 00001004010000 00001006020000 00001012054600 00001012080500 backward: 00001003300000 00001004010000 00001006020000 00001012054600 00001012080500 box-name: manual copyright: (c) 2020-present by Detlef Stern created: 20210126175322 forward: 00001004011400 00001004011600 00001004050000 00001005090000 lang: en license: EUPL-1.2-or-later modified: 20260727185211 published: 20260727185211 visibility: public Zettelstore must store its zettel somewhere. In most cases you want to store your zettel as files in a directory. Under certain circumstances you may want to store your zettel elsewhere. An example is the [predefined zettel](00001005090000) that come with Zettelstore. They are stored within the software itself. In another situation you may want to store your zettel in volatile memory, e.g. if you want to provide a sandbox for experimenting. To cope with these (and more) situations, you configure Zettelstore to use one or more *boxes*. This is done using the `box-uri-X` keys of the [startup configuration](00001004010000#box-uri-X) (X is a number). Boxes are specified using special [URIs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier), similar to web addresses. The following box URIs are supported: All boxes that you configure via the `box-uri-X` keys form a chain of boxes. When Zettelstore retrieves a zettel, a search starts in the box specified with the `box-uri-1` key, then `box-uri-2` and so on. If a zettel is created or changed, it is always stored in the box specified with the `box-uri-1` key. This allows you to overwrite zettel from other boxes, e.g. the predefined zettel. Every box has a unique “name”. The name of a box can be assigned if you set the URI query parameter `name` to its desired value. It is an error if you give the same name twice. If no query parameter `name` is given, Zettelstore checks whether the URI scheme can be used as a unique name. As a last resort, a name is calculated by the URI position, and optionally made unique by adding the value of another counter. If you use the `mem:` box, where zettel are stored in volatile memory, it only makes sense if you configure it as `box-uri-1`. Such a box will be empty when Zettelstore starts, and only the first box will receive updates. You must ensure that your computer has enough RAM to store all zettel.