al0cam_AutoMover/docs/tag-rules.md

Tag Rules

Tag rules allow you to organize files based on their Obsidian tags. When a file contains tags, the plugin will check each tag against your defined tag rules and move the file accordingly.

How Tag Rules Work

1. Tag matching: The plugin checks all tags in a file against your tag rules
2. First match wins: If multiple tag rules match, only the first matching rule is applied
3. Tag format flexibility: Tags are matched with or without the # prefix (both work)
4. Regex support: You can use regex patterns to match tags and extract groups for dynamic folder paths

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)

Important Notes

Important note 1: The text is case sensitive.

Important note 2: Use the "/" character to separate folders.

Important note 3: The regex flavor used is ECMAScript (JavaScript). The biggest difference from PCRE2 is that {} brackets require the first value to be something ({0,1} works, but {,1} does not).

Writing Regex: The best tool for writing regex is Regex101 (https://regex101.com/)

Examples without Regex

Let's imagine you have files tagged with #work, #personal, and #urgent.

Tag rules setup:

• Regex: work → Folder: Work
• Regex: personal → Folder: Personal
• Regex: urgent → Folder: Urgent

Note: You can use #work or just work in the regex field - both will match the tag #work.

Results:

• A file tagged with #work → moves to Work/
• A file tagged with #personal → moves to Personal/
• A file tagged with #urgent → moves to Urgent/
• A file tagged with #work and #urgent → moves to Work/ (first matching rule)

Example with Regex and Groups

Imagine you have files tagged with tags like #project-alpha, #project-beta, and #project-gamma.

You want to extract the project name and organize files into subfolders based on that name.

Tag rule setup:

• Regex: #?project-(.+) → Folder: Projects/$1

The regex pattern explained:

• #? - Optionally matches the # symbol
• project- - Matches the literal text "project-"
• (.+) - Captures one or more characters (the project name)
• $1 - In the folder path, this is replaced with the captured group

Results:

• File tagged with #project-alpha → moves to Projects/alpha/
• File tagged with #project-beta → moves to Projects/beta/
• File tagged with #project-gamma → moves to Projects/gamma/

Advanced Example with Multiple Groups

You can use multiple capture groups for more complex organization:

Tag rule setup:

• Regex: #?([a-z]+)-([0-9]+) → Folder: $1/Year-$2

Results:

• File tagged with #archive-2023 → moves to archive/Year-2023/
• File tagged with #draft-2024 → moves to draft/Year-2024/

Tips

• Test your regex: Use Regex101.com to test patterns before adding them to the plugin
• Tag priority: If a file has multiple tags, organize your tag rules with the most specific patterns first
• Combine with other rules: Remember that project rules take priority over tag rules
• Escape special characters: If your tags contain regex special characters like . or (), escape them with a backslash