Showing Obsidian front matter using Dataview queries

In this article, I want to share a cool trick for Obsidian that a friend and I used to display the YAML front matter of a note as a table.

YAML front matter in Obsidian

In Obsidian, we can add YAML front matter to our notes. This enables us to add structure to our notes as metadata. This is very useful and enables various use cases (e.g., automation). I use the front matter extensively in my PKM system.

Here's an example:

I've added a number of keys to my contact notes. These enable me to build a super simple (and useful!) contact management system. It makes it super easy to find the information I need when I need it.

The "problem" is that the front matter is only visible in the edit mode, which is not ideal. Luckily, my friend Alexis helped me build a Dataview query that makes it possible to display the YAML front matter as an inline table.

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Dataview query to display the front matter of a note as a table

Here's the dataview query that we've built:

This query first retrieves the contents of the YAML front matter, excludes the "Tags" field (as those are accessible in other ways already), and renders those as a table. The result looks like this in the view mode:

By the way, I've included this query in the "Person" template of my Obsidian Starter Kit.

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That's it for today! ✨

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Want to go deeper?

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Complete Obsidian vault with 40+ auto-filing templates, pre-configured plugins, and PKM methodology. 1,000+ users. 20+ years expertise. 30-day guarantee.

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About Sébastien

I'm Sébastien Dubois, and I'm on a mission to help knowledge workers escape information overload. After 20+ years in IT and seeing too many brilliant minds drowning in digital chaos, I've decided to help people build systems that actually work. Through the Knowii Community, my courses, products & services and my Website/Newsletter, I share practical and battle-tested systems.

I write about Knowledge Work, Personal Knowledge Management, Note-taking, Lifelong Learning, Personal Organization, Productivity, and more. I also craft lovely digital products and tools.

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