# Obsidian Front Matter Syntax

**Obsidian’s front matter follows YAML syntax**, with a few **important caveats**.
### What works (standard YAML)

Obsidian uses **YAML front matter** at the top of a note, delimited by `---`. Most standard YAML features work as expected, see this short example:

```YAML
---

title: My Note

tags:

  - obsidian

  - yaml

published: true

rating: 4.5

created: 2026-04-21

---
```


Obsidian calls these metadata variables 'Properties'. These include:

- Key–value pairs
- Lists (arrays)
- Booleans, numbers, strings, dates
- Nested objects


### Obsidian-specific limitations & quirks

Although it’s YAML, Obsidian does **not support the full YAML spec equally everywhere**:

1. **Tabs are not allowed**  
    YAML requires spaces for indentation. Tabs can break parsing.
    
2. **Advanced YAML features may not be recognized** These may technically be valid YAML but are not reliably usable in Obsidian:
    
    - Anchors (`&` / `*`)
    - Complex inline objects
    - Multi-document YAML

3. **Everything is treated as metadata, not logic** Obsidian doesn’t “execute” YAML — it just reads values for:
    
    - Properties panel
    - Search
    - Filters
    - Plugins (e.g., Dataview)

4. **Some plugins impose their own expectations** For example:
    
    - `tags` should usually be a list of strings
    - Dates may need to be ISO-like (`YYYY-MM-DD`) for queries to work

5. **Inline formatting is treated as plain text** Links or markdown inside front matter are just strings:
    
    `author: "[[Richard Kranendonk]]"`
      ``
    
### ✅ Best practice

Think of Obsidian front matter as:

> **“Well-behaved, simple YAML meant for metadata, not configuration logic.”**

Stick to:

- Scalars (strings, numbers, booleans)
- Lists
- Simple nesting
- Spaces (not tabs)