ADR-002-Custom-YAML-Serialization

ADR 002: Custom YAML Frontmatter Generation

Date: 2026-03-31
Status: Accepted

Context:
Obsidian Properties and Dataview require highly specific YAML frontmatter formatting. Standard serialization crates like serde_yaml introduce a runtime dependency for writing and often format arrays or special characters in ways that Obsidian handles poorly.

Decision:
Write a custom generate_frontmatter pipeline instead of relying on generic serializers.

  • Auto-injects and prioritizes the date field.
  • Automatically double-quotes values containing YAML-special characters.
  • Detects comma-separated string inputs and expands them into YAML lists.

Consequences:
Higher initial maintenance for the formatting logic, but guarantees Obsidian-compatible properties without bloating the binary.

See also System-Architecture-Overview, pour-design-spec, and sprint-3-output-pipeline-report.