YAML, also known as front matter, is designed to be file-level metadata that is readable by humans and Obsidian.

Front matter is a section of plain text attributes that starts at the first line of the file. It is one of the most popular ways to add metadata in a Markdown file, and has been popularized by static generators such as Jekyll, Hugo, and Gatsby.

A YAML block needs triple dashes at the start and end to be read by Obsidian (and other apps). ==It also needs to be placed at the very top of the file.==

For example:

key: value
key2: value2
key3: [one, two, three]
key4:
- four
- five
- six

As of 0.12.12, there are four keys natively supported:

• tags (more information)
• aliases (more information)
• cssclass
• publish(more information)

As Obsidian continues to develop, we will gradually make it more accessible by plugin developers, and make it more user friendly.