04-1 Frontmatter Properties 🪪

The properties (frontmatter) you put between the --- markers at the very top of a document — write down info like title, tags, status, and due date, and search, Bases, the Calendar, and the Dashboard will recognize those values and put them to use. No need to type raw YAML — just pick them with the "Add Property" button!

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Adding properties, here's how ➕

• Right-click in the body → ＋ Insert ▸ Insert Frontmatter to make a box, and title and created get filled in for you. (The ＋ Insert group only appears when no text is selected, and if frontmatter already exists this item is hidden entirely. Add the note's kind (type) when you need it — via 'Add Property' or the kind suggestion chips.)
• Click "Add Property" below the box and a key input field appears, suggesting frequently used properties as autocomplete (pick with ↑↓ and Enter). Keys you've already used in the vault show up too.
• Once you pick a key, the value field smartly changes to match it (see the table below).

In Korean, in English 🇰🇷🇬🇧

When the app language is set to Korean, Korean-named properties appear in the autocomplete alongside the English ones — pick whichever you like. - Korean: 상태 · 마감일 · 태그 · 우선순위 · 종류 … - English: status · due · tags · priority · type …

The two are separate, real properties (fully compatible with Obsidian). Within a single vault we recommend sticking to one side — Bases and the Calendar recognize them exactly as written.

That said, a few common ones are understood either way: 태그=tags · 종류=type · 제목=title · 표지=cover · 저자=author · 별칭=aliases. Features like kind suggestion chips, the bookshelf, and the ontology dictionary recognize the Korean keys just the same.

🤖 The AI agent writes standard English keys when it creates new documents (values can stay in your language — type: 회의 is fine). If your vault already uses Korean keys consistently, it follows that convention and never renames keys you wrote.

Value fields that adapt to the key 🎛️

Manage progress with 'status' ✅

status (or 상태 in Korean) is a choice type, so you pick from these values:

To-do · In progress · Waiting · Review · Blocked · On hold · Done · Cancelled · Draft · Published · Archived

This vocabulary carries straight over to the Project View and kanban boards — group a kanban by status and just dragging a card changes its status, and it shows up in the Dashboard and Calendar as in progress (half-filled box) or cancelled (strikethrough) too.

Properties that trigger magic ✨

Some properties, the moment you pick a value, pull in related properties automatically or pop open a window for you. - para (project organizing) — pick from project · area · resource · archive, and choosing project automatically attaches start and deadline (both defaulting to today) plus parent_area (the area it belongs to — pick a vault area note with a [[link]]). → Structuring Knowledge - Set type to book — reading properties like author, publisher, cover, total_pages/read_pages, rating, and book_status fill in all at once, and a book search window pops up right away to pull the cover, table of contents, and intro off the internet (the document title is renamed to the book title too!). → Library & Reading Log - Set type to expense / income — everything you need for one line of household accounts comes along at once: date (today by default), amount, merchant, category, method, and memo. → Ledger - Set type to source — for material you brought in from somewhere (a web page, a paper, a lecture), you get a matching set of properties (see just below).

Where did I get this again? — the source property set 📌

When you're collecting material, the most frustrating question is always "where did I see this?" Set type to source and you get a set of properties that gets you back there.

• Good news! Pages saved with the Web Clipper, lecture notes made by AI transcription, and book lookups all fill in these same property names. So no matter where a note came from, one method finds and gathers them all.
• For instance, sort by collected in Bases and you've got everything you collected this month; group by author and you've got a collection per author! 📊
• Don't feel you have to fill in every field. The point isn't academic bibliography management — it's just being able to get back to the original. 😉

Edit existing values right in place ▾ ✏️

You can also fix the value of a line already written in the frontmatter box — - choice keys like status get a ▾ button at the end of the line to pick a value — and Type your own… at the top of the list lets you enter a brand-new value right there (Enter to confirm, Esc to cancel), - date keys like due get a calendar button, - color gets a color swatch, and cover gets a ＋ pick image button.

Korean keys and English keys both work exactly the same way.

🎨 A hidden talent of the color property: give a note a color and its title bar is painted as a color band (banner)! Text color flips automatically between white and black to match the background brightness. Color-code your notes by project or topic (remove the property to go back to normal).

The values you've used show up in the list 🗂️

Type a value that isn't in the list — like type: example — and from then on it appears in the ▾ list and in autocomplete. You only have to remember it once.

• The list is split into My kind dictionary / Built-ins / Used in your vault.
• Values you use more often come first.
• Properties that never had a list — place, client — grow a ▾ button on their own once you reuse the same values. Properties where every value differs, like title or description, don't get one.
• The 'Add property' dialog has a Type your own… option, so you can create a value that isn't in the list right there.

💾 Nothing is stored separately. The list is read straight from the notes in your vault. Fix a typo in the note and it disappears from the list too — and it follows you to other devices as soon as the notes sync.

Little details 💡

• Frontmatter is only recognized when it starts on the very first line of the document, at the ---.
• Use the copy button at the top-right of the box to copy the whole thing at once.
• Properties are the columns of Bases and the raw material for tags & relationships — the more you fill in, the smarter your tables, graphs, and calendar get.
• A property whose value is a [[link]] — like parent_area — becomes a relation on its own: pull values from the other note with parent_area.status, or roll up the notes pointing at you! → Bases (Data Tables)
• Add ai: deny and that note is never handed to the AI agent (false, no, private and friends mean the same). Perfect for journals and health records. → AI Sources & Privacy You can now just pick ai ("AI access guard") in the 'Add property' picker and the value deny fills in automatically — no typing needed.
• Ask the AI Agent something like "fill in name, status, and tag properties for each character note" and it'll set up properties across your existing manuscripts in a flash. → AI Agent

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