al0cam_AutoMover/docs/project-rules.md

Project Rules

Project rules allow you to organize files by project using frontmatter metadata. Files with a Project or project field in their frontmatter will be matched against project rules first, before checking regular moving rules or tag rules.

How Project Rules Work

1. Frontmatter matching: Add a Project or project field to your file's frontmatter
2. Project folder: Each project rule has a base folder where all project files go
3. Sub-rules: Within each project, you can define moving rules that work just like regular moving rules
4. Fallback to project root: If no sub-rule matches, the file is moved to the project root folder

Project Rule Precedence

The plugin checks rules in this order:

1. Project rules (if file has Project frontmatter)
2. Moving rules (filename-based)
3. Tag rules (tag-based)

Fallback Behavior

Files with project frontmatter will always end up in their project folder, even if no specific rule matches:

• No sub-rules defined: File goes to project root folder
• No sub-rule matches: File goes to project root folder
• Sub-rule with empty folder or ./: File goes to project root folder
• Sub-rule with specific folder: File goes to that subfolder within the project

Example

Imagine you have a project called "Book Collection" with the following structure:

File frontmatter:

---
Project: Book Collection
---

Project rule setup:

• Project name: Book Collection
• Project folder: Projects/Books
• Sub-rules:
  • Regex: Chapter → Folder: Chapters
  • Regex: Character → Folder: Characters
  • Regex: Index → Folder: ./

Results:

• Chapter 1.md → Projects/Books/Chapters/Chapter 1.md
• Character Notes.md → Projects/Books/Characters/Character Notes.md
• Index.md → Projects/Books/Index.md (using ./ moves to project root)
• Random Note.md → Projects/Books/Random Note.md (no matching rule, goes to project root)