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Property Types Reference

This reference documents the expected data types for each frontmatter property that TaskNotes uses.

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Quick Reference

Property Type Example
title text "My Task"
status text "open", "in-progress", "done"
priority text "low", "normal", "high"
due text (date) "2025-01-15"
scheduled text (date) "2025-01-10"
completedDate text (date) "2025-01-20"
dateCreated text (datetime) "2025-01-01T08:00:00Z"
dateModified text (datetime) "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"
tags list ["work", "urgent"]
contexts list ["@office", "@home"]
projects list ["[[Project A]]"]
timeEstimate number 120 (minutes)
recurrence text "FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=MO"
recurrence_anchor text "scheduled" or "completion"
timeEntries list (objects) See Time Entries
blockedBy list (objects) See Dependencies
reminders list (objects) See Reminders
complete_instances list ["2025-01-08", "2025-01-15"]
skipped_instances list ["2025-01-22"]
icsEventId list ["event-abc123"]

Property Details

Text Properties

title

  • Type: text (string)
  • Description: The task's title or name
  • Example: title: "Complete project documentation"

status

  • Type: text (string)
  • Description: The task's current status. Must match one of the status values configured in your settings.
  • Default values: "open", "in-progress", "done"
  • Example: status: "in-progress"
  • Note: Also supports boolean values (true/false) for Obsidian checkbox compatibility. See Boolean Status Values.

priority

  • Type: text (string)
  • Description: The task's priority level. Must match one of the priority values configured in your settings.
  • Default values: "low", "normal", "high"
  • Example: priority: "high"

Date Properties

All date properties are stored as text strings in your frontmatter. TaskNotes expects specific formats:

due

  • Type: text (date string)
  • Format: YYYY-MM-DD or ISO 8601 timestamp
  • Description: The task's due date
  • Examples:

yaml due: "2025-01-15" due: "2025-01-15T17:00:00"

scheduled

  • Type: text (date string)
  • Format: YYYY-MM-DD or ISO 8601 timestamp
  • Description: When the task is scheduled to be worked on
  • Examples:

yaml scheduled: "2025-01-10" scheduled: "2025-01-10T09:00:00"

completedDate

  • Type: text (date string)
  • Format: YYYY-MM-DD
  • Description: The date when the task was completed
  • Example: completedDate: "2025-01-20"

dateCreated

  • Type: text (datetime string)
  • Format: ISO 8601 timestamp
  • Description: When the task was created
  • Example: dateCreated: "2025-01-01T08:00:00Z"

dateModified

  • Type: text (datetime string)
  • Format: ISO 8601 timestamp
  • Description: When the task was last modified
  • Example: dateModified: "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z"

List Properties

List properties must be arrays, even when containing a single value.

tags

  • Type: list (array of strings)
  • Description: Tags associated with the task
  • Examples:

yaml tags: ["work", "documentation"] tags: - work - documentation

contexts

  • Type: list (array of strings)
  • Description: Context labels for the task
  • Examples:

yaml contexts: ["office", "computer"] contexts: - "office" - "computer"

projects

  • Type: list (array of strings)
  • Description: Project references (typically wiki-links)
  • Examples:

yaml projects: ["[[Website Redesign]]", "[[Q1 Planning]]"] projects: - "[[Website Redesign]]" - "[[Q1 Planning]]"

Numeric Properties

timeEstimate

  • Type: number
  • Unit: minutes
  • Description: Estimated time to complete the task
  • Example: timeEstimate: 120 (2 hours)

Recurrence Properties

recurrence

  • Type: text (string)
  • Format: RFC 5545 RRULE format
  • Description: Defines how the task repeats
  • Examples:

yaml recurrence: "FREQ=DAILY" recurrence: "FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=MO,WE,FR" recurrence: "FREQ=MONTHLY;BYMONTHDAY=1"

recurrence_anchor

  • Type: text (string)
  • Valid values: "scheduled" or "completion"
  • Description: Determines whether the next occurrence is calculated from the scheduled date or when the task was completed
  • Example: recurrence_anchor: "scheduled"

complete_instances

  • Type: list (array of date strings)
  • Format: YYYY-MM-DD
  • Description: Dates when recurring task instances were completed
  • Example:

yaml complete_instances: - "2025-01-08" - "2025-01-15"

skipped_instances

  • Type: list (array of date strings)
  • Format: YYYY-MM-DD
  • Description: Dates when recurring task instances were skipped
  • Example:

yaml skipped_instances: - "2025-01-22"

Complex Properties

These properties contain structured data with multiple fields.

Time Entries

  • Type: list (array of objects)
  • Description: Time tracking entries for the task
  • Structure:

yaml timeEntries: - startTime: "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z" # Required: ISO 8601 timestamp endTime: "2025-01-15T11:15:00Z" # Optional: ISO 8601 timestamp description: "Initial work" # Optional: text

Dependencies (blockedBy)

  • Type: list (array of objects)
  • Description: Tasks that must be completed before this task can start
  • Structure:

yaml blockedBy: - uid: "path/to/blocking-task.md" # Required: path to blocking task reltype: "FINISHTOSTART" # Required: relationship type gap: "P1D" # Optional: ISO 8601 duration offset

  • Relationship types: FINISHTOSTART, STARTTOSTART, FINISHTOFINISH, STARTTOFINISH
    • Note: As of version 4.1.0, only the FINISHTOSTART duration offset is supported

Reminders

  • Type: list (array of objects)
  • Description: Reminder notifications for the task
  • Structure for relative reminders:

yaml reminders: - id: "rem_1" # Required: unique identifier type: "relative" # Required: "relative" or "absolute" relatedTo: "due" # Required for relative: "due" or "scheduled" offset: "-PT1H" # Required for relative: ISO 8601 duration description: "1 hour before due" # Optional: description

  • Structure for absolute reminders:

yaml reminders: - id: "rem_2" type: "absolute" absoluteTime: "2025-01-15T09:00:00Z" # Required for absolute: ISO 8601 timestamp description: "Morning reminder"

icsEventId

  • Type: list (array of strings)
  • Description: ICS calendar event IDs linked to this task
  • Example:

yaml icsEventId: - "event-abc123" - "event-def456"

Complete Example

Here's a complete task with all property types:

---
title: "Complete quarterly report"
status: "in-progress"
priority: "high"
due: "2025-01-31"
scheduled: "2025-01-25"
tags:
  - work
  - reports
contexts:
  - "@office"
projects:
  - "[[Q1 Planning]]"
timeEstimate: 240
dateCreated: "2025-01-01T08:00:00Z"
dateModified: "2025-01-20T14:30:00Z"
timeEntries:
  - startTime: "2025-01-20T10:00:00Z"
    endTime: "2025-01-20T11:30:00Z"
blockedBy:
  - uid: "tasks/gather-data.md"
    reltype: "FINISHTOSTART"
reminders:
  - id: "rem_1"
    type: "relative"
    relatedTo: "due"
    offset: "-P1D"
    description: "Due tomorrow"
---

Field Mapping

All property names can be customized via Settings → Task Properties → Field Mapping. If you change a field mapping, TaskNotes will read and write using your custom property name.

For example, if you map due to dueDate, TaskNotes will expect:

dueDate: "2025-01-15"

See Field Mapping for configuration details.

Custom User Fields

You can define additional properties with these types:

  • text - Single text value
  • number - Numeric value
  • date - Date string (YYYY-MM-DD)
  • boolean - true/false
  • list - Array of values

See Custom User Fields for configuration details.