Frontmatter Input

An Obsidian plugin to manage frontmatter tags through interactive nested checkbox and radio button lists — no more typing tags manually.

Overview

Define your tag structure once in a frontmatterinput code block using simple YAML. The plugin renders a clickable UI inside your note — check a box and the tag is added to your frontmatter; uncheck it and the tag (and all its children) are removed. Works great in templates.

Features

• Checkboxes for multi-select tagging, radio buttons for exclusive single-selection
• Nested hierarchies — child lists appear only when their parent is selected, building structured tags like activity/run/race/10k
• Smart cleanup — unchecking a parent removes all its child tags automatically
• Flexible layout — choose vertical or horizontal orientation per list
• Duplicate prevention — only unique tags are written to frontmatter
• Template-friendly — embed in note templates for consistent tagging across your vault

Installation

Option 1: Community Plugins (Pending Review)

The plugin has been submitted to the Obsidian community plugin list. Once approved it will be searchable directly in Settings > Community Plugins.

Option 2: BRAT (Recommended while pending)

BRAT (Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tester) is the standard Obsidian way to install plugins awaiting review.

1. Install BRAT from Community Plugins if you haven't already
2. Open Settings > BRAT > Add Beta Plugin
3. Paste: scottgrayart/Frontmatter-input
4. Enable the plugin under Settings > Community Plugins

BRAT will also notify you of future updates automatically.

Option 3: Manual Installation

1. Go to the latest release
2. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css
3. Create the folder .obsidian/plugins/frontmatter-input/ inside your vault
4. Copy the three downloaded files into that folder
5. Enable the plugin under Settings > Community Plugins

Usage

Add a frontmatterinput code block to any note or template. The plugin renders it as an interactive list in Reading view and Live Preview.

Minimal example

```frontmatterinput
btns:
- Option A: { tag: option-a }
- Option B: { tag: option-b }
- Option C: { tag: option-c }
```

Full example — workout log

```frontmatterinput
root: activity
orientation: horizontal
btns:
- Run:
    tag: run
    type: radio
    btns:
    - Regular: { tag: regular }
    - Long: { tag: long }
    - Race:
        tag: race
        type: radio
        orientation: horizontal
        btns:
        - 5k: { tag: 5k }
        - 10k: { tag: 10k }
        - Half Marathon: { tag: half }
- Walk: { tag: walk }
- Hike: { tag: hike }
```

Selecting Run > Race > 10k adds activity/run/race/10k to your frontmatter tags. Deselecting Run removes all three tags at once.

YAML Reference

Top-level options

Button options

Each item under btns uses the label as its key. The value can be shorthand or expanded:

Shorthand (no nesting needed):

btns:
- My Label: { tag: my-label }

Expanded (use when adding nested lists, type, or orientation):

btns:
- My Label:
    tag: my-label
    type: radio
    orientation: horizontal
    btns:
    - Child A: { tag: child-a }
    - Child B: { tag: child-b }

Tag naming rules

Tag values must follow Obsidian's tag rules: lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores, and forward slashes only. No spaces. Use quotes around values containing special characters: tag: "my-tag".

YAML tips

• Indentation uses 2 spaces (not tabs)
• Comments start with #
• The root attribute only applies to the top-level list, not nested lists

How tags are structured

The root value and each nested tag value are joined with / to form the final tag:

root: activity
  tag: run
    tag: race
      tag: 10k
→ activity/run/race/10k

If no root is set, the chain starts at the first selected tag.

Contributing

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome. Please open an issue with a description and, if relevant, the YAML block that reproduces the problem.

Support

If this plugin saves you time, consider supporting its development:

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.