Frontmatter fields

Every note begins with a YAML frontmatter block. Cuaderno parses it into a typed structure — if it parses, it’s valid (see Business rules). This page lists the fields per note type. ? marks an optional field.

Notes that cdno creates are already well-formed. You mainly need this when hand-authoring or migrating notes — and cdno normalise will reorder keys to the canonical order for you.

daily

type: daily
date: 2026-04-25
tags: []          # auto-populated

weekly

type: weekly
week: 2026-W17
date_start: 2026-04-20
date_end: 2026-04-26

monthly

type: monthly
month: 2026-04
date_start: 2026-04-01
date_end: 2026-04-30

project

type: project
context: work          # work | side-project | university | family | household | legal | personal
status: active         # active | parked | completed | dropped
created: 2026-04-25
core_question?: "[[questions/research/surrogate-cost]]"
held_by?: "the harbour office"   # who else is moving it; set by hand-off, cleared by take-back
closed: null           # set by complete/drop, cleared by activate

status and closed are owned by the lifecycle verbs (park, activate, complete, drop), so cdno frontmatter set refuses both. status has to match the folder the map lives in: projects/ for active, projects/_parked/ for parked, and projects/_done/<year>/ for completed or dropped. A map written before closed: existed needs no edit, since a missing closed: reads as open.

held_by (optional, on an active or parked map) names whoever else is moving the project. An active map that names a holder does not count toward the cap; the map keeps its status and folder. cdno project hand-off writes it quoted and take-back writes held_by: null, each logging holder on [[<slug>]], so cdno frontmatter set refuses it. When you edit it by hand:

• A missing line, null, a blank value, or a value on [projects] holder_sentinels (me, tbd, someone, …) means no holder: the map is yours and counts. cdno lint warns on a sentinel or blank value.
• A value that is not a plain string (an unquoted [[people/ana]], which YAML reads as a list, a number, a date) also means no holder, and cdno lint reports it as an error. Quote a wikilink: held_by: "[[people/ana]]".

action

type: action
status: active         # active | completed | blocked | dropped
project: surrogate-model
energy: deep           # deep | medium | light
milestone?: "[[...]]"
due?: 2026-05-10
criteria?: "Definition of done"
blocker?: "What it's waiting on"
created: 2026-04-25
completed?: 2026-05-01
tags?: []

portfolio

type: portfolio
question: "Sparse vs dense attention OOD"
created: 2026-03-01
project?: "[[projects/surrogate-model]]"

evidence

type: evidence
created: 2026-03-15
source: "Chen et al. 2025"
portfolio: sparse-vs-dense-attention-ood
origin: "[[projects/surrogate-model]]"
kind?: pdf             # only for attachment stubs (pdf | image | video | …)

stewardship

type: stewardship
context: personal      # one of the life-domain contexts

tracking

type: tracking
stewardship: health
activity: gym
date: 2026-04-06
duration_min?: 60
routine?: "[[stewardships/health/routines/upper-body-a]]"

question

type: question
domain: research       # research | life
status: active         # active | parked | answered | retired
created: 2026-04-25
updated?: 2026-05-01

commitment

type: commitment
status: active         # active | completed | dropped
due: 2026-06-01
created: 2026-04-25
completed?: 2026-06-01
context: personal
project?: icml-paper
stewardship?: finances

Extending schemas

You can require additional fields per type via config.toml ([schemas.<type>] extra_required) — see Configuration reference. Required built-in fields are always enforced on top.