Template Property Types (Beta)

When a QuickAdd template or capture writes front matter, this feature makes sure each value lands as the right Obsidian property type - a real List, Number, or Checkbox - instead of a string that only looks right. You get clean, typed front matter without hand-formatting YAML, so scripts can hand QuickAdd normal JavaScript values and templates stay readable.

What gets converted

There are two layers, and only the second one is a beta toggle.

Always on, no setting required. When a script provides a list (array) or object value for a front matter field, QuickAdd writes it as a real Obsidian List or object property through Obsidian’s own YAML serializer. This is what makes templates like the Movie & Series script produce valid front matter out of the box: a returned array of links becomes a List of links instead of broken YAML.

Behind the beta toggle. The setting below additionally converts string values into typed properties: a comma or bullet-list string becomes a List, "42" becomes a Number, "true" becomes a Checkbox, and so on. This is the beta part, because it changes a value’s type based on its contents. It is disabled by default.

Here is what the string conversion does to a comma-separated author list:

Before:

authors: "John Doe, Jane Smith, Bob Wilson"  # Manual string formatting

After:

authors:
  - John Doe
  - Jane Smith
  - Bob Wilson

Prefer explicit format-syntax options

When you want a specific input or type, format syntax gives you one directly, with no beta toggle required:

• {{VALUE:x|type:number}} / |type:slider / |type:checkbox / |type:text - pick the right input widget; |type:slider|min:0|max:100 is useful for bounded Number properties, and |type:text keeps a number-looking value (e.g. 0042) a string.
• {{VALUE:a,b,c|multi}} - a multi-select picker that writes a real List (also |multi:linklist for link lists).
• {{VDATE:when,fmt|time}} - a date and time picker for Date & time properties.

Plain {{VALUE}} already round-trips numbers, booleans, and dates to the correct type without any setting. The beta string conversion below mainly adds comma/bullet-string to List for properties typed as a list.

Turn on string conversion (beta)

List and object handling needs no setting. To also convert string values into typed properties, enable the beta toggle:

1. Open Settings → QuickAdd.
2. Toggle “Convert string front matter variables to typed properties (Beta)”.

String conversion is disabled by default for safety.

Walkthrough

1. Set structured data in a script

Instead of manually formatting data as strings, use native JavaScript types:

// ✅ NEW: Use native data structures
QuickAdd.variables.authors = ["John Doe", "Jane Smith", "Bob Wilson"];
QuickAdd.variables.tags = ["research", "ai", "papers"];
QuickAdd.variables.metadata = {
    rating: 5,
    conference: "ICML",
    keywords: ["ML", "AI"]
};
QuickAdd.variables.published = true;
QuickAdd.variables.year = 2023;
QuickAdd.variables.notes = null;

// ❌ OLD: Manual string formatting (no longer needed)
// QuickAdd.variables.authors = "John Doe, Jane Smith, Bob Wilson";

2. Use them in a template

Your template syntax stays exactly the same:

---
title: "{{VALUE:title}}"
authors: "{{VALUE:authors}}"
tags: "{{VALUE:tags}}"
metadata: "{{VALUE:metadata}}"
published: "{{VALUE:published}}"
year: "{{VALUE:year}}"
notes: "{{VALUE:notes}}"
---

# {{VALUE:title}}

Content here...

3. Get perfect property types

The result is properly formatted as Obsidian property types:

---
title: "My Research Paper"
authors:
  - John Doe
  - Jane Smith
  - Bob Wilson
tags:
  - research
  - ai
  - papers
metadata:
  rating: 5
  conference: ICML
  keywords:
    - ML
    - AI
published: true
year: 2023
notes: null
---

# My Research Paper

Content here...

Which JavaScript type becomes which property

JavaScript Type	Property Output	Example
Array	List property	["a", "b"] → - a - b
Empty Array	Empty list	[] → []
Object	Object property	{key: "value"} → key: value
Empty Object	Empty mapping	{} → {}
Number	Number literal	42 → 42
Boolean	Boolean literal	true → true
Null	Null literal	null → null
String	String (unchanged)	"text" → text

QuickAdd respects the type you set in Obsidian

QuickAdd looks at the type you’ve assigned in Obsidian’s Properties UI for each field and formats the value accordingly:

• tags / multi-select (multitext) / list - strings such as foo, bar or bullet items become proper arrays.
• Scalar types (text, number, date, datetime, checkbox) stay as single values, even if the text contains commas or line breaks.
• Unknown type - falls back to the v2.0 behaviour (it will still split obvious arrays like YAML lists or JSON arrays).

This means you can safely type natural prose like Hello, world into a description prompt without QuickAdd turning it into a YAML list, while sources marked as a multi-value property will still receive a properly formatted array.

Nesting goes as deep as you need: objects inside objects, arrays inside objects, arrays of objects (a project’s tasks: [{ name: "Research", complete: true }] becomes a list of mappings), and null leaves all serialize the same way. The worked example below shows a nested structure end to end.

A worked example: academic papers

One structure from a script, through a template, into typed front matter.

Script:

// From Zotero or other source
const paper = {
    title: "Attention Is All You Need",
    authors: ["Ashish Vaswani", "Noam Shazeer", "Niki Parmar"],
    year: 2017,
    venue: "NIPS",
    keywords: ["attention", "transformer", "neural networks"],
    metrics: {
        citations: 50000,
        pages: [3000, 3010]
    }
};

Object.assign(QuickAdd.variables, paper);

Template:

---
title: "{{VALUE:title}}"
authors: "{{VALUE:authors}}"
year: "{{VALUE:year}}"
venue: "{{VALUE:venue}}"
keywords: "{{VALUE:keywords}}"
metrics: "{{VALUE:metrics}}"
---

# {{VALUE:title}}

## Summary
Paper by {{VALUE:authors}} published in {{VALUE:venue}} ({{VALUE:year}}).

Output:

---
title: Attention Is All You Need
authors:
  - Ashish Vaswani
  - Noam Shazeer
  - Niki Parmar
year: 2017
venue: NIPS
keywords:
  - attention
  - transformer
  - neural networks
metrics:
  citations: 50000
  pages:
    - 3000
    - 3010
---

# Attention Is All You Need

## Summary
Paper by Ashish Vaswani,Noam Shazeer,Niki Parmar published in NIPS (2017).

Captures and fresh templates

When a capture choice creates a new file, QuickAdd analyses the just-generated front matter instead of relying on cached metadata. The capture payload is inserted after the closing ---, so YAML stays at the top of the note even on the first run.

For list-style placeholders inside the front matter, QuickAdd resolves the parent property and respects the type you set in Obsidian:

---
sources:
  - "{{VALUE:sources}}"
description: "{{VALUE:description}}"
---

Property type (in Obsidian)	Behaviour
multitext, tags, list	sources becomes a YAML array (- value) using your prompt input.
text, number, checkbox, date, datetime	Values remain scalars; commas or line breaks no longer force list formatting.

Example output:

sources:
  - [[Episode 1]]
  - [[Episode 2]]
description: This stays a single string, even with commas.

Feedback and support

This is a beta feature. It is designed to be safe and backward-compatible, but test it with your own templates before relying on it for important workflows - and when reporting an issue, include the template and the variable data that triggered it.