Problem
Fold notes and agent-home status notes use YAML frontmatter fields like related: to connect durable notes. Inline arrays in those fields concentrate many unrelated future edits onto one source line:
related: [writing-style, markdown-ordered-lists, status-is-not-session-log, conflict-minimized-status-surfaces]
That shape is conflict-prone in high-churn notes repos. It also undermines the source-editing discipline we want from patterns like editable-prose-lines and curated-related-frontmatter.
Recent example: while drafting ricon-family/fold#123, Or caught an inline related: line in a touched note and pointed out that it was itself likely to cause merge conflicts.
Desired lint
Add a codebase lint that detects inline YAML arrays in Markdown frontmatter for conflict-prone fields.
Suggested first scope:
- Parse only the YAML frontmatter block at the top of Markdown files.
- Flag inline arrays for
related: always.
- Consider
aliases: and tags: later, or only flag them when they exceed a small threshold / line length.
- Detection-only first; autofix can be a later enhancement.
Example warning:
notes/editable-prose-lines.md:9 related should use multiline YAML list syntax
Preferred form:
related:
- writing-style
- markdown-ordered-lists
- status-is-not-session-log
- conflict-minimized-status-surfaces
Non-goals
- Do not require every YAML sequence in every file to be multiline yet.
- Do not rewrite frontmatter automatically in the first pass.
- Do not duplicate full Markdown/frontmatter parsing logic if codebase already has a reasonable helper path.
Why codebase
This is a cross-repo source hygiene rule, not a fold-only convention. It would help encrypted/notes-managed repos, agent homes, and project notes that use frontmatter.
Related
ricon-family/fold#123 — candidate pattern cluster for conflict-minimized status surfaces.KnickKnackLabs/codebase#53 — similar source-shape lint idea for #USAGE field ordering, but different file format and rule.KnickKnackLabs/codebase#44 — existing multiline array parsing issue for codebase config, not this frontmatter lint.
Problem
Fold notes and agent-home status notes use YAML frontmatter fields like
related:to connect durable notes. Inline arrays in those fields concentrate many unrelated future edits onto one source line:That shape is conflict-prone in high-churn notes repos. It also undermines the source-editing discipline we want from patterns like
editable-prose-linesandcurated-related-frontmatter.Recent example: while drafting
ricon-family/fold#123, Or caught an inlinerelated:line in a touched note and pointed out that it was itself likely to cause merge conflicts.Desired lint
Add a codebase lint that detects inline YAML arrays in Markdown frontmatter for conflict-prone fields.
Suggested first scope:
related:always.aliases:andtags:later, or only flag them when they exceed a small threshold / line length.Example warning:
Preferred form:
Non-goals
Why codebase
This is a cross-repo source hygiene rule, not a fold-only convention. It would help encrypted/notes-managed repos, agent homes, and project notes that use frontmatter.
Related
ricon-family/fold#123— candidate pattern cluster for conflict-minimized status surfaces.KnickKnackLabs/codebase#53— similar source-shape lint idea for#USAGEfield ordering, but different file format and rule.KnickKnackLabs/codebase#44— existing multiline array parsing issue for codebase config, not this frontmatter lint.