Note types

Every note in a vault has a type: in its frontmatter. Cuaderno parses that frontmatter into a typed structure — if it parses, it’s valid. There are twelve note types.

Type	Lives in	Mutability	Purpose
`daily`	`journal/<year>/daily/`	Append-only	One day’s chronological log
`weekly`	`journal/<year>/weekly/`	Append-only	Weekly review (Wins, Challenges, One Improvement, This Week’s Goal)
`monthly`	`journal/<year>/monthly/`	Append-only	Monthly review (Wins, Themes, Next Month’s Focus) + links to the month’s weeks
`project`	`projects/` (+ `_parked/`, `_done/<year>/`)	Mutable	Project map: state, next actions, milestones, waiting-on
`action`	`actions/` → `actions/_done/<year>/`	Mutable while open, then archived	Manifest note for an action-as-investigation
`portfolio`	`portfolios/<slug>/_index.md`	Occasionally edited	Index/summary of an evidence dossier
`evidence`	`portfolios/<slug>/`	Append-only	A single piece of evidence (paper, result, note)
`stewardship`	`stewardships/` (flat or folder)	Occasionally edited	Dashboard for a perpetual responsibility
`tracking`	`stewardships/<slug>/tracking/`	Append-only	One time-series entry (a gym session, a measurement)
`question`	`questions/research/` or `questions/life/`	Status transitions	An important research or life question
`commitment`	`commitments/` → `commitments/_done/`	Moves when it ends, kept or dropped	A standalone dated promise

Plus the inbox: raw, untyped captures in inbox/ awaiting triage.

The journal: `daily`, `weekly`, and `monthly`

The chronological backbone. Daily notes collect timestamped log lines plus structured sections (Intention, Agenda, Standup, Meeting), and a ## Notes section for worked-out substance that the log points at (see The concept library). Weekly notes hold the review (Wins, Challenges, One Improvement) and the week’s single goal. Monthly notes hold the higher-altitude review (Wins, Themes, Next Month’s Focus) and a ## Weeks block that links the month’s weekly notes rather than copying them, so the weeks stay the source of truth. All three are append-only — the historical record only grows.

`project` — the one mutable map

Projects are the only freely-mutable note type. A project carries a Current State, a list of next actions (inline bullets by default), milestones, and waiting-on items. When you update the Current State, the previous state is auto-logged to today’s daily note first, so history is never lost (see Business rules). At most five projects are active at once; the rest live parked in projects/_parked/, and a completed or dropped project moves to projects/_done/<year>/.

`action` — inline by default, a note when it grows

An action’s default form is a checkbox bullet on its project map. That’s usually all you need. When a single action becomes an investigation spanning days and artefacts, you promote it to a manifest action note (heavier: status, energy, criteria, links). Completing an action removes the bullet, logs it, and — if it had a note — archives that note to actions/_done/<year>/. See Actions.

`portfolio` + `evidence` — dossiers per question

A portfolio is a folder named for a question, with an _index.md (the portfolio note) and a set of evidence notes filed into it over time. Each evidence note records a source and an origin (a wikilink to whatever produced it). Evidence is append-only — a portfolio is a growing record. See Research and evidence.

`stewardship` + `tracking` — long-haul responsibilities

A stewardship is a dashboard for something you tend indefinitely. It can be flat (a single stewardships/<slug>.md) or expanded (a stewardships/<slug>/ folder with _index.md, a tracking/ subfolder for time-series entries, and a routines/ subfolder for reference docs). Expanded stewardships accept tracking notes via cdno track. See Stewardships and tracking.

`question` — important questions, kept visible

A question note has a domain (research or life) and a status (active, parked, answered, retired). Questions anchor portfolios and projects (via the core_question link). List the active ones any time with cdno questions.

`commitment` — dated promises

A standalone promise with a hard due: date and a context. It moves to commitments/_done/<year>/ when it ends — stamped completed if it was kept, dropped if it was cancelled or overtaken. Both are terminal; the frontmatter says which. Standalone commitments are one of four sources feeding the aggregated commitments view.

These twelve are a closed set with built-in behaviour. For an entity they don’t cover (people, books, clients), you can declare a schema-only custom note type in config.toml — a folder, field rules, and a template, with no recompile (see the worked Tracking people recipe).

One custom type comes declared for you: cdno init writes a concept type (concepts/, mutable, refined in place) into a new vault’s config, for understanding you will reuse — a theorem, a technique, a procedure. It is an ordinary custom type you may delete. See The concept library.

For the exact frontmatter fields of each type, see Frontmatter fields. Next: The concept library.

Which notes can be renamed

cdno note rename takes:

Type	Renamable?
`project`	Yes.
`action` notes	Active ones only; an archived action note (`actions/_done/`) is refused.
`question`	A portfolio with the same slug moves with it, as a pair.
`portfolio`	Directly, and its folder moves with it. A portfolio that shares a question’s slug is renamed through the question instead.
custom types	Any type declared in `[note_types.<type>]`, as a flat note; a custom note kept as a folder (`<dir>/<slug>/_index.md`) is refused.

Not renamable: daily, weekly and monthly (the journal is addressed by date), archived action notes, commitment, stewardship, evidence, tracking, inbox items, folder notes (other than a portfolio’s) and a note with no type. They are refused with note_not_renamable, and nothing is written. A rename corrects references, which is the one exception to the append-only rule; see the method page.

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