Tags and frontmatter
Folders give one place to a note. Tags and frontmatter let a note belong to many things at once.
Tags — quick and casual
Section titled “Tags — quick and casual”Drop a #tag anywhere in a note:
Some thoughts about agents. #ai #learn
Tags can be nested with slashes: #project/whittech, #person/alice, #mood/anxious.
Click any tag in Obsidian → see every note that uses it. The tag pane (left sidebar → tag icon) shows your whole tag tree.
Frontmatter — structured metadata
Section titled “Frontmatter — structured metadata”YAML block at the top of a note:
---title: Q2 launch planstatus: activeowner: metarget_date: 2026-06-15priority: hightags: [project, q2]---
# Q2 launch planFrontmatter is machine-readable. Plugins like Dataview can query it. Claude Code reads it. You can build dashboards from it.
Tags vs frontmatter — when to use which
Section titled “Tags vs frontmatter — when to use which”| Use tags when | Use frontmatter when |
|---|---|
| You want to categorize | You want to describe |
| Casual, inline | Structured, queryable |
Examples: #idea, #learn | Examples: status: draft, due: 2026-06-01 |
Use both. They don’t conflict.
Tags this site uses
Section titled “Tags this site uses”The 10 workflows reference these tags in your vault:
#learn— flagged for spaced-repetition card generation#idea— fleeting ideas in inbox; gets routed to40-Resources/ideas/#project/[slug]— explicit project tagging if folder isn’t enough
Frontmatter the skills look for
Section titled “Frontmatter the skills look for”| Field | Used by | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
date: | Daily Driver | Note date |
mood:, energy:, event:, weather: | Visual Journal | Image prompt building |
status: | MOC Maintainer | Filter active vs done |
tags: | Multiple | Cross-cutting categorization |
aliases: | Prep-for, Inbox Zero | Match a note by other names |
archived:, outcome: | When moving to 50-Archive/ | Searchable archive context |
Don’t go nuts
Section titled “Don’t go nuts”You’ll see Obsidian forum posts about elaborate tag taxonomies with 50 tags and 8 nesting levels. Resist. Start simple:
- 5–10 top-level tags max
- Add nesting only when you have ≥5 notes that need the distinction
- Reuse existing tags before inventing new ones
- Periodically prune (the MOC Maintainer flags stale ones)
Plugins and the mobile app — extending Obsidian and using it on your phone.