Frontmatter and Metadata

YAML frontmatter at the top of a document stores properties used by the editor, public bundled guides, and exported files.

Table of Contents

Example Frontmatter

A frontmatter block lives between two --- lines at the very top of the file:

YAML Source

---
title: "Welcome to MDash"
seoTitle: "MDash Welcome Guide"
description: "Markdown editor with bilingual RTL support."
tags: ["markdown", "editor"]
keywords: ["mdash", "editor"]
author: "Mohammad Anini"
updated: "2026-09-05"
dir: auto
theme: default
---

# Document body starts here

This example gives the document an export title and description, organizes it with tags and keywords, records an author and review date, leaves text direction automatic, and selects the default presentation theme. Frontmatter remains metadata rather than visible body text.

Editing in the UI

Click the Edit Metadata button in the toolbar, or run Edit Document Metadata from the command palette. The form edits the standard text fields plus Document Direction and Slide Theme, while preserving other YAML keys. See Themes and Direction and Presentation Mode for practical guidance.

Recognized Fields

Field	Purpose	Used By
`title`	Human-readable document title	HTML export and public guide metadata
`description`	Short summary of the document	HTML export and public guide metadata
`author`	Document author	HTML export and public guide byline
`tags`	Inline YAML array for visible classification	Preview chips and HTML keywords metadata
`keywords`	Inline YAML array for additional search terms	HTML keywords metadata
`dir`	Document direction: `auto`, `ltr`, or `rtl`	Editor, Preview, presentations, and exports
`theme`	Presentation theme: `default`, `dark`, `minimal`, or `heritage`	Presentation Mode and presentation PDF export
`updated`	Date when a public guide was reviewed	Public bundled guides and structured metadata
`seoTitle`	Search title for a public guide	Public bundled guides only

Regular vault documents preserve updated and seoTitle, but MDash does not otherwise assign those fields application behavior.

Exports

When you export to HTML, MDash:

Uses title as the page title.
Emits <meta name="description"> if set.
Emits <meta name="author"> if set.
Merges tags and keywords into <meta name="keywords">.

This gives exported HTML useful basic metadata. PDF export uses the browser print engine, so document properties can vary by browser and operating system. Import, Export, and Backup explains each output format.

The keywords meta tag is preserved for compatibility and document organization. Major search engines do not use it as a ranking signal.

Lists versus Scalars

Scalar (title: "value"): single line, optionally quoted.
List (tags: ["a", "b"]): inline YAML array. The metadata modal writes this form.

MDash's metadata form edits single-line scalars and inline arrays. For complex YAML such as nested mappings or multi-line strings, edit the frontmatter directly in the Markdown source. The form preserves keys it does not edit.

Troubleshooting

Keep the opening frontmatter delimiter on the first line.
Use inline arrays for tags and keywords.
If a field is not recognized, MDash preserves it but does not assign application behavior to it.