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metadata-standard.md

File metadata and controls

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The Metadata Standard

Every file gets a metadata block at the top. This is what makes the system queryable. Your AI can scan summaries and tags without reading full documents.

Example: Personal Wiki

---
type: knowledge
summary: Weekly meal prep workflow including grocery list generation and batch cooking schedule.
tags: [cooking, how-to, meal-prep]
status: active
owner: Jane
updated: 2026-04-07
related: "[favorite-recipes.md](2-Knowledge/References/favorite-recipes.md)"
---

# How I Organize My Weekly Meal Prep

Example: Developer Wiki

---
type: knowledge
summary: Step-by-step deployment process including rollback procedures and monitoring checks.
tags: [engineering, how-to, deployment]
status: active
owner: Jane
updated: 2026-04-07
related: "[ci-pipeline-setup.md](2-Knowledge/HowTo/ci-pipeline-setup.md)"
---

# How We Deploy to Production

What Each Field Does

Field Purpose
Summary Enables query routing. Your AI reads summaries to find relevant files without loading entire documents.
Status Prevents draft accumulation. The Definition of Done module uses this to distinguish live knowledge from work-in-progress.
Related Creates a navigable knowledge graph. Your AI follows these links to surface connected context. Obsidian renders them in the graph view.
Tags Secondary discovery. When summary-based routing doesn't surface what you need, tags provide cross-cutting categories.
Updated Powers the lint system. Active files not updated in 90+ days get flagged for review.

Why YAML Frontmatter

This system uses standard YAML frontmatter because:

  • Renders as Obsidian's Properties panel in reading view — clean labeled rows, no dots, collapsible
  • Renders as a bordered table on GitHub — labeled and scannable
  • Human-readable and widely understood in raw form
  • Native to the markdown ecosystem — every static site generator, documentation tool, and AI model handles it

Tags use the YAML array format ([engineering, how-to]) with no # prefix — this is the correct format for frontmatter tags in Obsidian and most other tools.

Full Specification

See _config/standard.md for the complete spec and rationale.

Examples

The examples/ directory contains four files showing the standard in action:

  • example-knowledge-article.md — A personal how-to guide (meal planning)
  • example-decision-record.md — A technical decision with full context and outcome tracking
  • example-initiative.md — A multi-artifact project (documentation overhaul)
  • example-inbox-capture.md — A quick capture from the inbox (cooking notes)

Read these to understand the patterns, then delete them when you're comfortable.