vault-frontmatter

created	"2026-04-17T00:00:00.000Z"
modified	"2026-05-09T00:00:00.000Z"
reviewed	"2026-04-25T00:00:00.000Z"
name	vault-frontmatter
description	Offline YAML frontmatter maintenance for Obsidian notes. Use when stripping legacy `id:`, cleaning Templater markers, or fixing bare emoji tags.
user-invocable	false
allowed-tools	Read, Edit, Write, Grep, Glob

Vault Frontmatter Maintenance

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when...	Use the alternative instead when...
Bulk-stripping legacy id: fields or null tags: entries across many .md files offline	Setting a single property on one live note via the running CLI — use properties
Cleaning up unrendered {{title}} / <% tp.file.cursor() %> placeholders inside YAML	Repairing those markers in note body text — use vault-templates
Adding missing frontmatter blocks to notes that lack one	Consolidating the actual tag values once the YAML structure is sound — use vault-tags

Offline, file-level repair of YAML frontmatter. Complements the properties skill (which uses the Obsidian CLI) by operating on .md files directly — safe for bulk mechanical passes.

When to Use

• Stripping the legacy id: field from a batch of notes
• Removing unrendered Templater markers (<% tp.file.cursor() %>, {{title}})
• Cleaning up null entries inside tags: lists
• Adding missing frontmatter blocks to notes that lack one
• Ensuring work-namespace notes carry context: work
• Normalizing tag case / pluralization drift

Canonical Frontmatter Shape

---
tags:
  - 🛠️/neovim       # emoji-prefixed category tag
  - 📝/notes         # note-type tag
context: work        # work-namespace notes only
---

Rules:

1. No id: field — removed from all current templates.
2. 2–3 tags per note; every tag either emoji/subcategory or a bare note-type like 📝/moc.
3. No bare emoji placeholders (📝, 🌱, 📝/🌱) — they indicate the tag was never specified.
4. No null tag values — YAML must be valid.
5. Work-namespace notes (e.g. under work/) carry context: work; personal notes omit the field.

Detection Patterns

Issue	Grep pattern	Notes
Legacy id:	^id: inside frontmatter block	Strip entire line
Bare placeholder tag	YAML tag value exactly 📝, 🌱, or 📝/🌱	Remove if note has other useful tags; else leave
Null tag	YAML tag value literally null	Remove list entry
Templater leak	<% tp\. or \{\{title\}\} or \{\{date\}\}	Replace {{title}} with filename stem; strip <% tp.* %>
Corrupt emoji	Tag contains Unicode replacement char \ufffd	Flag for manual fix — don't guess
Missing work context	File under the work namespace (e.g. work/) without context: work	Add the line

Edit Recipes

Strip legacy id

Before:

---
id: 20240118235900
tags: [🛠️/neovim]
---

After:

---
tags: [🛠️/neovim]
---

Remove bare placeholder (keeping useful tags)

Before:

tags:
  - 📝
  - 🛠️/ansible

After:

tags:
  - 🛠️/ansible

Legacy MOC tag → current

Before:

tags:
  - 🗺️

After:

tags:
  - 📝/moc

Edit Pattern

Use Edit with small targeted old_string / new_string replacements that preserve exact indentation. Never rewrite whole files when a line edit suffices — it minimizes the commit diff and makes reviews easy.

For bulk fixes across many files, drive from a script that emits one Edit call per file rather than running sed in Bash. The commit-per-category pattern (fix(tags): strip bare 📝 from 639 notes) relies on keeping all edits in one logical batch.

Safety

• Never write to .obsidian/, .claude/, .git/, Files/. The safety hook enforces this.
• Never add frontmatter to daily notes in Notes/ or work/notes/ without verifying — they often don't need any.
• When in doubt about what a placeholder tag meant, leave the note unchanged and report it rather than guess.

Related Skills

• properties — runtime property ops via Obsidian CLI (requires running Obsidian)
• vault-tags — tag taxonomy consolidation rules
• vault-templates — Templater convention reference