# Core Concepts

TaskNotes follows the "one note per task" principle, where each task lives as a separate Markdown note with structured metadata in YAML frontmatter.

## The Note-Per-Task Approach

Individual Markdown notes replace centralized databases or proprietary formats. Each task file can be read, edited, and backed up with any text editor or automation tool.

### Task Structure

A TaskNotes task is a standard Markdown file with YAML frontmatter:

```markdown
---
tags:
  - task
title: Review quarterly report
status: in-progress
priority: high
due: 2025-01-15
scheduled: 2025-01-14
contexts:
  - "@office"
projects:
  - "[[Q1 Planning]]"
---

## Notes

Key points to review:
- Revenue projections
- Budget allocations

## Meeting Notes

Discussion with finance team on 2025-01-10...
```

The frontmatter contains structured, queryable properties. The note body holds freeform content—research findings, meeting notes, checklists, or links to related documents.

### Obsidian Integration

Since tasks are proper notes, they work with Obsidian's core features:

- **Backlinks**: See which notes reference a task
- **Graph View**: Visualize task relationships and project connections
- **Tags**: Use Obsidian's tag system for additional categorization
- **Search**: Find tasks using Obsidian's search
- **Links**: Reference tasks from daily notes, meeting notes, or project documents

This approach creates many small files. TaskNotes stores tasks in a configurable folder (default: `TaskNotes/Tasks/`) to keep them organized.
In practice, this lets TaskNotes fit into existing vault habits instead of replacing them. You keep using normal note workflows, and TaskNotes adds structure, filtering, and commands on top.

## YAML Frontmatter

Task properties are stored in YAML frontmatter, a standard format with broad tool support.
Treat frontmatter as the machine-readable layer and the note body as the human-readable layer. TaskNotes automations and Bases filters rely on frontmatter; your project notes and context stay in the body.

### Property Types

TaskNotes uses several property types:

| Type | Example | Description |
|------|---------|-------------|
| Text | `title: Buy groceries` | Single text value |
| List | `tags: [work, urgent]` | Multiple values |
| Date | `due: 2025-01-15` | ISO 8601 date format |
| DateTime | `scheduled: 2025-01-15T09:00` | Date with time |
| Link | `projects: ["[[Project A]]"]` | Obsidian wikilinks |
| Number | `timeEstimate: 60` | Numeric values (minutes) |

### Field Mapping

Property keys are configurable. If your vault uses `deadline` instead of `due`, you can map TaskNotes to use your existing field names without modifying your files.

### Custom Fields

Add any frontmatter property to your tasks. User-defined fields work in filtering, sorting, and templates. Define custom fields in `Settings -> TaskNotes -> Task Properties` to include them in task modals and views.

## Bases Integration

TaskNotes v4 uses Obsidian's Bases core plugin for its main views. Bases provides:

- **Filtering**: Query tasks using AND/OR conditions
- **Sorting**: Order tasks by any property
- **Grouping**: Organize tasks by status, priority, project, or custom fields
- **Views**: Task List, Kanban, Calendar, and Agenda are all Bases views

Views are stored as `.base` files in `TaskNotes/Views/`. These files contain YAML configuration that defines the view's query and display settings. You can duplicate, modify, or create new views by editing these files.
This makes view behavior inspectable and predictable. If a task appears in the wrong place, you can open the `.base` file and see exactly which filter or grouping rule produced that result.

### Enabling Bases

Bases is a core plugin included with Obsidian 1.10.1+:

1. Open `Settings -> Core Plugins`
2. Enable "Bases"
3. TaskNotes views will now function