tolaria/docs/adr/0043-reactive-vault-state-on-save.md

type, id, title, status, date

type	id	title	status	date
ADR	0043	Reactive vault state: editor changes propagate immediately to all UI	active	2026-04-05

Context

When a user edits frontmatter in the raw editor (or BlockNote preserves it), changes to metadata fields like title, type, _favorite, _archived, and sidebar_label must be reflected immediately across all UI components — sidebar sections, note list, breadcrumb bar, inspector, and tabs.

Previously, after save_note_content, only derived fields (outgoingLinks, snippet, wordCount) were updated in vault.entries. Frontmatter-derived fields were stale until a full vault reload.

Decision

All frontmatter changes are parsed in real-time and applied to vault.entries via updateEntry() during content editing, not after save.

How it works

1. On every content change (keystroke in raw editor, or BlockNote onChange), useEditorSaveWithLinks.handleContentChange is called.
2. It invokes contentToEntryPatch(content) which parses frontmatter and maps known keys to VaultEntry fields.
3. If the parsed patch differs from the previous one, updateEntry(path, patch) merges it into vault.entries.
4. All UI components derive from vault.entries via React reactivity — they re-render automatically.

Mapped fields

contentToEntryPatch maps these frontmatter keys to VaultEntry fields:

Frontmatter key	VaultEntry field	Notes
title	title
type / is_a	isA
status	status
_favorite	favorite
_favorite_index	favoriteIndex
_archived / archived	archived
_trashed / trashed	trashed
_organized	organized
color	color	Type entries
icon	icon	Type entries
order	order	Type entries
sidebar_label	sidebarLabel	Type entries
visible	visible	Type entries
template	template	Type entries
sort	sort	Type entries
view	view	Type entries
aliases	aliases
belongs_to	belongsTo
related_to	relatedTo

Inspector operations use a separate, more direct path

When the user edits frontmatter via the Inspector panel, runFrontmatterAndApply calls the Tauri command and immediately applies the result via updateEntry(). This path was already reactive before this ADR.

View files (.yml)

View files are not markdown notes — they have no frontmatter delimiters. When a .yml file is saved, onNotePersisted triggers reloadViews() to refresh the sidebar view list.

Consequences

• Any new frontmatter key that should affect the UI must be added to frontmatterToEntryPatch and its delete counterpart.
• Components must read note metadata from vault.entries (via props), never from local state that could diverge.
• The reload_vault_entry Tauri command exists for full re-parsing from disk but is not needed in the normal editing flow — contentToEntryPatch handles it client-side.