Traitor

Define reusable traits and validate your note frontmatter against trait requirements.

Traitor helps you keep metadata consistent across your vault. You assign traits with Obsidian nested tags under a configurable prefix (default trait/…), and Traitor warns you when required properties are missing or have the wrong type.

Why use Traitor?

• Reuse metadata rules across many notes (people, projects, books, etc.)
• Catch mistakes early with in-editor warning banners
• Keep your frontmatter clean and predictable
• Apply traits through a picker (updates the tags field) or by adding nested tags yourself

What it does

• Adds a ribbon action and command to set traits on the current note
• Lets you create trait definition files from inside Obsidian
• Validates notes against trait-defined property rules
• Provides a Traitor trait problems side pane that lists validation issues across the vault (ribbon icon or command)
• Shows clear warnings when:
  • a trait tag is present but has no definition file
  • a required property is missing
  • a property value has the wrong type
  • a string value does not match a required regex pattern

Installation

From Community Plugins (when listed)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins
2. Select Browse
3. Search for Traitor
4. Install and enable

Manual install

1. Download manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css (if present) from the latest release
2. Create this folder in your vault: .obsidian/plugins/traitor/
3. Copy the files into that folder
4. Reload Obsidian
5. Enable Traitor in Settings → Community plugins

Quick start

1. Run the command Traitor: Create trait definition file
2. Name it (for example person, or media/music for a nested trait file path)
3. Edit the generated file in your traits folder
4. Open a note and run Traitor: Set traits on current note
5. Select one or more traits and save (this adds nested tags such as trait/person with the default prefix)
6. Fill in required frontmatter fields until warnings disappear

How traits are identified

• Definition files live in your configured traits folder (default: _traits). The trait id is the path of the Markdown file without .md, using / for nesting.
  • _traits/person.md → trait id person
  • _traits/media/music.md → trait id media/music
• Notes use Obsidian nested tags whose first segment is your configured trait prefix (default: trait). Examples with the default prefix:
  • Tag trait/media applies the trait defined by media.md.
  • Tag trait/media/music applies both media and media/music (every prefix segment), so parent and child definition files both apply.

The trait picker writes minimal tags under the configured prefix (for example, with default prefix trait, if you only need media/music, it does not also add trait/media).

Trait definition format

Trait definition files are Markdown notes in your traits folder. The filename (and folder path) defines the trait; frontmatter holds description and properties only:

---
description: Notes about people
properties:
  status:
    type: string
    required: true
  birthday:
    type: date
    required: false
  email:
    type: string
    required: false
    pattern: "^[^\\s@]+@[^\\s@]+\\.[^\\s@]+$"
---

Supported property types:

• string
• number
• boolean
• array
• date (valid date string)

Note example (tags + properties)

Use the tags property (and/or inline #tags) for traits. Other frontmatter holds the data Traitor validates:

---
tags:
  - trait/person
status: active
birthday: 1993-07-16
email: hello@example.com
---

Commands

• Set traits on current note
• Show trait problems
• Create trait definition file

Settings

• Traits folder: folder containing your trait definition files (default: _traits)
• Trait tag prefix: root tag segment used to identify traits (default: trait)
• Warn about missing trait definitions: toggle warnings when a trait tag has no matching definition file

When you change the trait tag prefix, Traitor asks whether you want to migrate existing trait tags across the vault.

Compatibility

• Minimum Obsidian version: 0.15.0
• Desktop and mobile supported