Show matching tags when inserting tags into frontmatter

It seems we now have two ways to assign tags to notes:

  1. Traditional way of inserting tags anywhere in the note - using this way reveals matching alternative tags as you type - fast way to see multiple tags to choose from and save time
  2. Inserting tags in frontmatter - using this way, matching tags do not show as you type - no fast way to select a tag while typing

Is it possible to make matching alternative tags appear as quick selection options when tags are inserted in frontmatter?

22 Likes

I am somewhat confused by this “tag as metadata / in frontmatter” context: Are frontmatter tags any different than normal tags mentioned within the content?..

I think they are: Unless I insert the tag inside the note content, the normal search for that tag does not show up in the search results.

Am I missing something?

1 Like

When I use the syntax for tags in the frontmatter that goes without a hash character, like

---
tags: one, two, three
---

then I do not get auto completion for the tags when typing them.

Autocompletion only happens when I enter a hash symbol.

It would make creating frontmatter sections much easier and avoid creating duplicate, similar tags, if Obsidian would regognize that it is in the tag section and offer auto completion for tags here.

7 Likes

A second vote for type-ahead in metadata for tags. My current workflow is,

  1. type the opening bracket for an array ( [ )
  2. type a space so that the type ahead will work.
  3. type # to trigger the tag type-ahead.
  4. finish typing tags.
  5. delete the #s so that the YAML is valid.
7 Likes

Came here looking for the same thing. I kludged some bash scripts together to strip the #s so I can enter them using autocomplete but this is slow and clunky. Hope this one gets some attention.

2 Likes

Yea, same issue here. I love the front matter functionality for aliases but the tag thing is confusing because you don’t get autocomplete. And that makes it very hard to use unfortunately.

5 Likes

Chiming in. I too like the autocompletion in the front matter tags. Ditto for losing the quotes around a tag if they are in a YAML list. That also prevents the autocompletion to kick in.

So please support (with autocompletion out of the box):

tags:
  - #tag1
  - #tag2/subtag

rather than (which does work now to recognise the tags, but prevents autocompletion and is very tedious to write):

tags:
  - '#tag1'
  - '#tag2/subtag'
3 Likes

Piling on here for the +1. I’m not even picky about the format as long as it’s not tedious to type and gets me autocomplete. Currently I use tags: [tag/subtag, tag2/anotherSubtag] so that would be my top preference. I would expect the autocomplete to appear when I start typing after a comma as well.

I’m using

tags:
- tag1
- tag2
- tag1/childtag1

for tags in my frontmatter. Is there a reason why we don’t have tag completion with this syntax?

1 Like

I am afraid there is not a good solution by now.

+1 for tag completion in Frontmatter.

I just found this plugin: obsidian-frontmatter-tag-suggest. It seems to do what you are asking for.

2 Likes