---
title: Project Alpha
created: 2026-01-15
updated: 2026-01-23
status: active
type: project
tags:
  - engineering
  - priority
priority: high
---

# Project Alpha

Note content starts here...

Querying Frontmatter

Find by Field Value

To find notes with specific metadata:

# Find all notes with status: active
Grep "^status: active" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Find notes by type
Grep "^type: project" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Find high priority items
Grep "^priority: high" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

Find by Tag in Frontmatter

# Find notes with specific tag
Grep "tags:[\s\S]*?- engineering" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md" --multiline

# Simpler: search for tag line
Grep "^\s*- engineering$" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

Find by Date Range

# Find notes created in January 2026
Grep "^created: 2026-01-" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

# Find notes updated this week
Grep "^updated: 2026-01-2[0-3]" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

Extracting Frontmatter

Parse Frontmatter from Note

To extract frontmatter as structured data:

# Extract frontmatter block
sed -n '/^---$/,/^---$/p' "${NOTE_PATH}" | sed '1d;$d'

# Extract specific field
grep "^status:" "${NOTE_PATH}" | sed 's/status: //'

List All Values for a Field

To see all unique values:

# All unique status values in vault
Grep "^status:" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md" -o | sort | uniq -c

# All unique types
Grep "^type:" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md" -o | sort | uniq -c

Updating Frontmatter

Update Single Note

To update a field in one note:

Read the note using Read tool
Identify the frontmatter block (between --- markers)
Modify the field or add if missing
Write the updated content using Edit tool

Example update pattern:

# Change status from "active" to "completed"
Edit "${NOTE_PATH}"
  old_string: "status: active"
  new_string: "status: completed"

# Also update the updated date
Edit "${NOTE_PATH}"
  old_string: "updated: 2026-01-15"
  new_string: "updated: 2026-01-23"

Bulk Updates

For updating multiple notes:

Find matching notes using Grep
Confirm with user before bulk changes
Update each note individually
Report results

Example workflow:

User: "Mark all notes in Projects/Archive as status: archived"

1. Find notes:
   Grep "^status: active" --path "${VAULT_PATH}/Projects/Archive" --glob "*.md"

2. Confirm:
   "Found 12 notes. Update all to status: archived?"

3. Update each:
   For each file, use Edit tool to change frontmatter

4. Report:
   "Updated 12 notes. All now have status: archived"

Common Frontmatter Fields

Field	Purpose	Example Values
`created`	Creation date	`2026-01-23`
`updated`	Last modified	`2026-01-23`
`status`	Current state	`draft`, `active`, `completed`, `archived`
`type`	Note category	`project`, `meeting`, `person`, `resource`
`tags`	Categorization	List of strings
`priority`	Importance	`high`, `medium`, `low`
`aliases`	Alternative names	List of strings
`cssclass`	Obsidian styling	CSS class names

Frontmatter Validation

Check for Missing Fields

To find notes missing required metadata:

# Find notes without status field
find "${VAULT_PATH}" -name "*.md" -exec grep -L "^status:" {} \;

# Find notes without created date
find "${VAULT_PATH}" -name "*.md" -exec grep -L "^created:" {} \;

Validate Field Values

To find notes with unexpected values:

# Find notes with unrecognized status
# (not active, completed, draft, or archived)
Grep "^status: (?!active|completed|draft|archived)" --path "${VAULT_PATH}" --glob "*.md"

Adding Frontmatter to Notes

For notes without frontmatter:

# Check if note has frontmatter
head -1 "${NOTE_PATH}" | grep -q "^---$"

# If not, add it
# Use Edit tool to prepend frontmatter block

Template for new frontmatter:

---
created: 2026-01-23
updated: 2026-01-23
status: active
type: note
tags: []
---

Integration with Other Skills

obsidian-search - Combine content and metadata search
obsidian-templates - Populate frontmatter from templates
obsidian-vault - Navigate to matching notes

User Interaction

When querying frontmatter:

Show summary - "Found 45 notes with status: active"
Group by value - "23 high priority, 15 medium, 7 low"
Offer actions - "View list? Update any?"

When updating frontmatter:

Confirm scope - "This will update 12 notes"
Show preview - "Changing status: active → completed"
Report results - "Updated 12 notes successfully"

Troubleshooting

Malformed Frontmatter

If frontmatter doesn't parse:

Check for proper --- delimiters
Verify YAML syntax (no tabs, proper indentation)
Escape special characters in values

Field Not Found

If search returns nothing:

Check field name spelling
Verify field exists in notes
Check for variations (e.g., Status vs status)

Quick Reference

Task	Pattern
Find by field	`Grep "^field: value" --path $VAULT --glob "*.md"`
List unique values	`Grep "^field:" --path $VAULT -o \| sort \| uniq -c`
Find missing field	`find $VAULT -name "*.md" -exec grep -L "^field:" {} \;`
Update field	Use Edit tool with old_string/new_string
Extract field	`grep "^field:" note.md \| sed 's/field: //'`

obsidian-frontmatter

Obsidian Frontmatter Management

Configuration

Understanding Frontmatter