Simple Markdown Files with YAML Frontmatter

YAML frontmatter stores structured metadata at the top of a Markdown document, usually between two lines containing three hyphens. A simple example is "title: Project Plan" and "tags: [planning, work]", which a parser can read separately from the document body.

Yes, ordinary Markdown links can connect related files, while frontmatter can store fields such as an identifier, project name, or related-document path. The linking works through the Markdown tool or static-site generator being used, not through YAML alone.

It works well for smaller datasets, notes, documentation, and records that benefit from being human-readable in Git. It becomes less suitable when you need transactions, concurrent writes, complex joins, or millions of records that a database engine would index more efficiently.

Static-site tools such as Jekyll and many Markdown-based knowledge systems can parse frontmatter, though the supported fields differ by tool. A file containing frontmatter is still plain text, so it can also be opened in a basic editor even when no parser is installed.