tolaria/docs/ABSTRACTIONS.md

Abstractions

Key abstractions and domain models in Tolaria.

Design Philosophy

Tolaria's abstractions follow the convention over configuration principle: standard field names and folder structures have well-defined meanings and trigger UI behavior automatically. This makes vaults legible both to humans and to AI agents — the more a vault follows conventions, the less custom configuration an AI needs to navigate it correctly.

The full set of design principles is documented in ARCHITECTURE.md.

Semantic Field Names (conventions)

These frontmatter field names have special meaning in Tolaria's UI:

Field	Meaning	UI behavior
title:	Legacy display-title fallback for older notes	Used only when a note has no H1; new notes do not write it automatically
type:	Entity type (Project, Person, Quarter…)	Type chip in note list + sidebar grouping
status:	Lifecycle stage (active, done, blocked…)	Colored chip in note list + editor header
icon:	Per-note icon (emoji, Phosphor name, or HTTP/HTTPS image URL)	Rendered on note title surfaces; editable from the Properties panel
url:	External link	Clickable link chip in editor header
date:	Single date	Formatted date badge
start_date: + end_date:	Duration/timespan	Date range badge
goal: + result:	Progress	Progress indicator in editor header
Workspace:	Vault context filter	Global workspace filter
Belongs to:	Parent relationship	Relationship chip in Properties panel
Related to:	Lateral relationship	Relationship chip in Properties panel

Relationship fields are detected dynamically — any frontmatter field containing [[wikilink]] values is treated as a relationship (see ADR-0010).

System Properties (underscore convention)

Any frontmatter field whose name starts with _ is a system property:

• It is not shown in the Properties panel (neither for notes nor for Type notes)
• It is not exposed as a user-visible property in search, filters, or the UI
• It is editable directly in the raw editor (power users can access it if needed)
• It is used by Tolaria internally for configuration, behavior, and UI preferences

Examples:

_pinned_properties:       # which properties appear in the editor inline bar (per-type)
  - key: status
    icon: circle-dot
_icon: shapes             # icon assigned to a type
_color: blue              # color assigned to a type
_order: 10                # sort order in the sidebar
_sidebar_label: Projects  # override label in sidebar

This convention is universal — apply it to all future system-level frontmatter fields. When a new feature needs to store configuration in a note's frontmatter (especially in Type notes), use _field_name to keep it hidden from normal user-facing surfaces while still stored on-disk as plain text.

The frontmatter parser (Rust: vault/mod.rs, TS: utils/frontmatter.ts) must filter out _* fields before passing properties to the UI.

Document Model

All data lives in markdown files with YAML frontmatter. There is no database — the filesystem is the source of truth.

VaultEntry

The core data type representing a single note, defined in Rust (src-tauri/src/vault/mod.rs) and TypeScript (src/types.ts).

classDiagram
    class VaultEntry {
        +String path
        +String filename
        +String title
        +String? isA
        +String[] aliases
        +String[] belongsTo
        +String[] relatedTo
        +Record~string,string[]~ relationships
        +String[] outgoingLinks
        +String? status
        +Number? modifiedAt
        +Number? createdAt
        +Number wordCount
        +String? snippet
        +Boolean archived
        +Boolean trashed ⚠ legacy
        +Number? trashedAt ⚠ legacy
        +Record~string,string~ properties
    }

    class TypeDocument {
        +String icon
        +String color
        +Number order
        +String sidebarLabel
        +String template
        +String sort
        +Boolean visible
    }

    class Frontmatter {
        +String type
        +String status
        +String url
        +String[] belongsTo
        +String[] relatedTo
        +String[] aliases
        ...custom fields
    }

    VaultEntry --> Frontmatter : parsed from
    VaultEntry --> TypeDocument : isA resolves to
    VaultEntry "many" --> "1" TypeDocument : grouped by type

// src/types.ts
interface VaultEntry {
  path: string              // Absolute file path
  filename: string          // Just the filename
  title: string             // From first # heading, or filename fallback
  isA: string | null        // Entity type: Project, Procedure, Person, etc. (from frontmatter `type:` field)
  aliases: string[]         // Alternative names for wikilink resolution
  belongsTo: string[]       // Parent relationships (wikilinks)
  relatedTo: string[]       // Related entity links (wikilinks)
  relationships: Record<string, string[]>  // All frontmatter fields containing wikilinks
  outgoingLinks: string[]   // All [[wikilinks]] found in note body
  status: string | null     // Active, Done, Paused, Archived, Dropped
  modifiedAt: number | null // Unix timestamp (seconds)
  // Note: owner and cadence are now in the generic `properties` map
  createdAt: number | null  // Unix timestamp (seconds)
  fileSize: number
  wordCount: number | null  // Body word count (excludes frontmatter)
  snippet: string | null    // First 200 chars of body
  archived: boolean         // Archived flag
  trashed: boolean          // Kept for backward compatibility (Trash system removed — delete is permanent)
  trashedAt: number | null  // Kept for backward compatibility (Trash system removed)
  properties: Record<string, string>  // Scalar frontmatter fields (custom properties)
}

Entity Types (isA / type)

Entity type is stored in the type: frontmatter field (e.g. type: Quarter). The legacy field name Is A: is still accepted as an alias for backwards compatibility but new notes use type:. The VaultEntry.isA property in TypeScript/Rust holds the resolved value.

Type is determined purely from the type: frontmatter field — it is never inferred from the file's folder location. All notes live at the vault root as flat .md files:

~/Laputa/
├── my-project.md          ← type: Project (in frontmatter)
├── weekly-review.md       ← type: Procedure
├── john-doe.md            ← type: Person
├── some-topic.md          ← type: Topic
├── ...
├── type/                  ← type definition documents
└── config/                ← meta-configuration files (agents.md, etc.)

New notes are created at the vault root: {vault}/{slug}.md. Changing a note's type only requires updating the type: field in frontmatter — the file does not move. The type/ folder exists solely for type definition documents, and config/ for configuration files.

A flatten_vault migration command is available to move existing notes from type-based subfolders to the vault root.

Types as Files

Each entity type can have a corresponding type document in the type/ folder (e.g., type/project.md, type/person.md). Type documents:

• Have type: Type in their frontmatter (Is A: Type also accepted as legacy alias)
• Define type metadata: icon, color, order, sidebar label, template, sort, view, visibility
• Are navigable entities — they appear in the sidebar under "Types" and can be opened/edited like any note
• Serve as the "definition" for their type category

Type document properties (read by Rust and used in the UI):

Property	Type	Description
icon	string	Type icon as a Phosphor name (kebab-case, e.g., "cooking-pot")
color	string	Accent color: red, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange
order	number	Sidebar display order (lower = higher priority)
sidebar_label	string	Custom label overriding auto-pluralization
template	string	Markdown template for new notes of this type
sort	string	Default sort: "modified:desc", "title:asc", "property:Priority:asc"
view	string	Default view mode: "all", "editor-list", "editor-only"
visible	bool	Whether type appears in sidebar (default: true)

Type relationship: When any entry has an isA value (e.g., "Project"), the Rust backend automatically adds a "Type" entry to its relationships map pointing to [[type/project]]. This makes the type navigable from the Inspector panel.

UI behavior:

• Clicking a section group header pins the type document at the top of the NoteList if it exists
• Viewing a type document in entity view shows an "Instances" group listing all entries of that type
• The Type field in the Inspector is rendered as a clickable chip that navigates to the type document

Frontmatter Format

Standard YAML frontmatter between --- delimiters:

---
title: Write Weekly Essays
type: Procedure
status: Active
belongs_to:
  - "[[grow-newsletter]]"
related_to:
  - "[[writing]]"
aliases:
  - Weekly Writing
---

Supported value types (defined in src-tauri/src/frontmatter/yaml.rs as FrontmatterValue):

• String: status: Active
• Number: priority: 5
• Bool: archived: true
• List: Multi-line - item or inline [item1, item2]
• Null: owner: (empty value)

Custom Relationships

The Rust parser scans all frontmatter keys for fields containing [[wikilinks]]. Any non-standard field with wikilink values is captured in the relationships HashMap:

---
Topics:
  - "[[writing]]"
  - "[[productivity]]"
Key People:
  - "[[matteo-cellini]]"
---

Becomes: relationships["Topics"] = ["[[writing]]", "[[productivity]]"]

This enables arbitrary, extensible relationship types without code changes.

Outgoing Links

All [[wikilinks]] in the note body (not frontmatter) are extracted by regex and stored in outgoingLinks. Used for backlink detection and relationship graphs.

Title / Filename Sync

Tolaria separates display title from the file identifier:

• Display title resolution (extract_title in vault/parsing.rs): first # H1 on the first non-empty body line, then legacy frontmatter title:, then slug-to-title from the filename stem.
• Opening a note is read-only: selecting a note does not inject or auto-correct title: frontmatter.
• Explicit filename actions (rename_note): breadcrumb rename/sync actions update the filename and wikilinks across the vault. The editor body remains the title editing surface.
• Untitled drafts start as untitled-*.md and are auto-renamed on save once the note gains an H1.

Title Surface (UI)

The BlockNote body is the only title editing surface:

• The first H1 is the canonical display title.
• There is no separate title row above the editor, even when a note has no H1.
• Notes without an H1 show the editor body and placeholder only.
• Filename changes are explicit breadcrumb actions, not a dedicated title-input side effect.

Sidebar Selection

Navigation state is modeled as a discriminated union:

type SidebarFilter = 'all' | 'archived' | 'changes' | 'pulse'

type SidebarSelection =
  | { kind: 'filter'; filter: SidebarFilter }
  | { kind: 'sectionGroup'; type: string }    // e.g. type: 'Project'
  | { kind: 'entity'; entry: VaultEntry }      // specific entity selected
  | { kind: 'topic'; entry: VaultEntry }        // topic selected

File System Integration

Vault Scanning (Rust)

vault::scan_vault(path) in src-tauri/src/vault/mod.rs:

1. Validates the path exists and is a directory
2. Scans root-level .md files (non-recursive)
3. Recursively scans protected folders: type/, config/, attachments/
4. Files in non-protected subfolders are not indexed (flat vault enforcement)
5. For each .md file, calls parse_md_file():
   • Reads content with fs::read_to_string()
   • Parses frontmatter with gray_matter::Matter::<YAML>
   • Extracts title from first # heading
   • Reads entity type from type: frontmatter field (Is A: accepted as legacy alias); type is never inferred from folder
   • Parses dates as ISO 8601 to Unix timestamps
   • Extracts relationships, outgoing links, custom properties, word count, snippet
6. Sorts by modified_at descending
7. Skips unparseable files with a warning log

A vault_health_check command detects stray files in non-protected subfolders and filename-title mismatches. On vault load, a migration banner offers to flatten stray files to the root via flatten_vault.

Vault Caching

vault::scan_vault_cached(path) wraps scanning with git-based caching:

1. Reads cache from ~/.laputa/cache/<vault-hash>.json (external to vault)
2. Compares cache version, vault path, and git HEAD commit hash
3. If cache is valid and same commit → only re-parse uncommitted changed files
4. If different commit → use git diff to find changed files → selective re-parse
5. If no cache → full scan
6. Writes updated cache atomically (write to .tmp, then rename)
7. On first run, migrates any legacy .laputa-cache.json from inside the vault

Frontmatter Manipulation (Rust)

frontmatter/ops.rs:update_frontmatter_content() performs line-by-line YAML editing:

1. Finds the frontmatter block between --- delimiters
2. Iterates through lines looking for the target key
3. If found: replaces the value (consuming multi-line list items if present)
4. If not found: appends the new key-value at the end
5. If no frontmatter exists: creates a new --- block

The with_frontmatter() helper wraps this in a read-transform-write cycle on the actual file.

Content Loading

• Tauri mode: Content loaded on-demand when a tab is opened via invoke('get_note_content', { path })
• Browser mode: All content loaded at startup from mock data
• Content for backlink detection (allContent) is stored in memory as Record<string, string>

Git Integration

Git operations live in src-tauri/src/git/. All operations shell out to the git CLI (not libgit2).

Data Types

interface GitCommit {
  hash: string
  shortHash: string
  message: string
  author: string
  date: number       // Unix timestamp
}

interface ModifiedFile {
  path: string          // Absolute path
  relativePath: string  // Relative to vault root
  status: 'modified' | 'added' | 'deleted' | 'untracked' | 'renamed'
}

interface GitRemoteStatus {
  branch: string
  ahead: number
  behind: number
  hasRemote: boolean
}

interface PulseCommit {
  hash: string
  shortHash: string
  message: string
  date: number
  githubUrl: string | null
  files: PulseFile[]
  added: number
  modified: number
  deleted: number
}

Operations

Module	Operation	Notes
history.rs	File history	git log — last 20 commits per file
status.rs	Modified files	git status --porcelain — filtered to .md
status.rs	File diff	git diff, fallback to --cached, then synthetic for untracked
commit.rs	Commit	git add -A && git commit -m "..."
remote.rs	Pull / Push	git pull --rebase / git push
conflict.rs	Conflict resolution	Detect conflicts, resolve with ours/theirs/manual
pulse.rs	Activity feed	git log with --name-status for file changes

Auto-Sync

useAutoSync hook handles automatic git sync:

• Configurable interval (from app settings: auto_pull_interval_minutes)
• Pulls on interval, pushes after commits
• Detects merge conflicts → opens ConflictResolverModal
• Tracks remote status (branch, ahead/behind via git_remote_status)
• Handles push rejection (divergence) → sets pull_required status
• pullAndPush(): pulls then auto-pushes for divergence recovery
• ConflictNoteBanner: inline banner in editor for conflicted notes (Keep mine / Keep theirs)

useGitRemoteStatus is the commit-time companion to useAutoSync:

• Re-checks git_remote_status when the Commit dialog opens and right before submit
• Converts hasRemote: false into a local-only commit path
• Keeps the normal push path unchanged for vaults that do have a remote

Frontend Integration

• Modified file badges: Orange dots in sidebar
• Diff view: Toggle in breadcrumb bar → shows unified diff
• Git history: Shown in Inspector panel for active note
• Commit dialog: Triggered from sidebar or Cmd+K
• No remote indicator: Neutral chip in the bottom bar when GitRemoteStatus.hasRemote === false
• Pulse view: Activity feed when Pulse filter is selected
• Pull command: Cmd+K → "Pull from Remote", also in Vault menu
• Git status popup: Click sync badge → shows branch, ahead/behind, Pull button
• Conflict banner: Inline banner in editor with Keep mine / Keep theirs for conflicted notes

BlockNote Customization

The editor uses BlockNote for rich text editing, with CodeMirror 6 available as a raw editing alternative.

Custom Wikilink Inline Content

Defined in src/components/editorSchema.tsx:

const WikiLink = createReactInlineContentSpec(
  {
    type: "wikilink",
    propSchema: { target: { default: "" } },
    content: "none",
  },
  { render: (props) => <span className="wikilink">...</span> }
)

Markdown-to-BlockNote Pipeline

flowchart LR
    A["📄 Raw markdown\n(from disk)"] --> B["splitFrontmatter()\n→ yaml + body"]
    B --> C["preProcessWikilinks(body)\n[[target]] → ‹token›"]
    C --> D["tryParseMarkdownToBlocks()\n→ BlockNote block tree"]
    D --> E["injectWikilinks(blocks)\n‹token› → WikiLink node"]
    E --> F["editor.replaceBlocks()\n→ rendered editor"]

    style A fill:#f8f9fa,stroke:#6c757d,color:#000
    style F fill:#d4edda,stroke:#28a745,color:#000

Placeholder tokens use \u2039 and \u203A to avoid colliding with markdown syntax.

BlockNote-to-Markdown Pipeline (Save)

flowchart LR
    A["✏️ BlockNote blocks\n(editor state)"] --> B["blocksToMarkdownLossy()"]
    B --> C["postProcessWikilinks()\nWikiLink node → [[target]]"]
    C --> D["prepend frontmatter yaml"]
    D --> E["invoke('save_note_content')\n→ disk write"]

    style A fill:#cce5ff,stroke:#004085,color:#000
    style E fill:#d4edda,stroke:#28a745,color:#000

Wikilink Navigation

Two navigation mechanisms:

1. Click handler: DOM event listener on .editor__blocknote-container catches clicks on .wikilink elements → onNavigateWikilink(target).
2. Suggestion menu: Typing [[ triggers SuggestionMenuController with filtered vault entries.

Wikilink resolution (resolveEntry in src/utils/wikilink.ts) uses multi-pass matching with global priority: filename stem (strongest) → alias → exact title → humanized title (kebab-case → words). No path-based matching — flat vault uses title/filename only. Legacy path-style targets like [[person/alice]] are supported by extracting the last segment.

Raw Editor Mode

Toggle via Cmd+K → "Raw Editor" or breadcrumb bar button. Uses CodeMirror 6 (useCodeMirror hook) to edit the raw markdown + frontmatter directly. Changes saved via the same save_note_content command.

Styling

The app uses a single light theme — the vault-based theming system was removed (see ADR-0013). Styling is defined in two layers:

1. Global CSS variables (src/index.css): App-wide colors via :root, bridged to Tailwind v4
2. Editor theme (src/theme.json): BlockNote typography, flattened to CSS vars by useEditorTheme

Inspector Abstraction

The Inspector panel (src/components/Inspector.tsx) is composed of sub-panels:

1. DynamicPropertiesPanel (src/components/DynamicPropertiesPanel.tsx): Renders frontmatter as editable key-value pairs:

   • Editable properties (top): Type badge, Status pill with dropdown, boolean toggles, array tag pills, text fields. Click-to-edit interaction.
   • Info section (bottom, separated by border): Read-only derived metadata — Modified, Created, Words, File Size. Uses muted styling with no interaction.
   • Keys in SKIP_KEYS (type, aliases, notion_id, workspace, is_a, Is A) are hidden from the editable section.

2. RelationshipsPanel: Shows belongs_to, related_to, and all custom relationship fields as clickable wikilink chips.

3. BacklinksPanel: Scans allContent for notes that reference the current note via [[title]] or [[path]].

4. GitHistoryPanel: Shows recent commits from file history with relative timestamps.

Search

Search

Keyword-based search scans all vault .md files using walkdir:

interface SearchResult {
  title: string
  path: string
  snippet: string
  score: number
}

Search Integration

SearchPanel component provides the search UI:

• Real-time results as user types (300ms debounce)
• Click result to open note in editor
• Shows relevance score and snippet

No indexing step required — search runs directly against the filesystem.

Vault Management

Vault Switching

useVaultSwitcher hook manages multiple vaults:

• Persists vault list to ~/.config/com.tolaria.app/vaults.json (reads legacy com.laputa.app on upgrade)
• Switching closes all tabs and resets sidebar
• Supports adding, removing, hiding/restoring vaults
• Default vault: Getting Started demo vault

Vault Config

Per-vault settings stored locally and scoped by vault path:

• Managed by useVaultConfig hook and vaultConfigStore
• Settings: zoom, view mode, tag colors, status colors, property display modes, Inbox note-list column overrides, explicit organization workflow toggle
• One-time migration from localStorage (configMigration.ts)

Getting Started / Onboarding

useOnboarding hook detects first launch:

• If vault path doesn't exist → show WelcomeScreen
• User can create a new empty vault, open an existing folder, or clone the public Getting Started vault into a chosen folder
• Welcome state tracked in localStorage (tolaria_welcome_dismissed, with legacy fallback)

Remote Git Operations

Tolaria delegates remote auth to the user's system git setup:

• CloneVaultModal captures a remote URL and local destination
• clone_repo shells out to system git for clone operations
• Existing git_pull / git_push commands keep surfacing raw git errors
• No provider-specific token or username is stored in app settings

Settings

App-level settings persisted at ~/.config/com.tolaria.app/settings.json (reads legacy com.laputa.app on upgrade):

interface Settings {
  auto_pull_interval_minutes: number | null
  telemetry_consent: boolean | null
  crash_reporting_enabled: boolean | null
  analytics_enabled: boolean | null
  anonymous_id: string | null
  release_channel: string | null
}

Managed by useSettings hook and SettingsPanel component.

Telemetry

Components

• TelemetryConsentDialog — First-launch dialog asking user to opt in to anonymous crash reporting. Two buttons: accept (sets telemetry_consent: true, generates anonymous_id) or decline.
• TelemetryToggle — Checkbox component in SettingsPanel for crash reporting and analytics toggles.

Hooks

• useTelemetry(settings, loaded) — Reactively initializes/tears down Sentry and PostHog based on settings. Called once in App.

Libraries

• src/lib/telemetry.ts — initSentry(), teardownSentry(), initPostHog(), teardownPostHog(), trackEvent(). Path scrubber via beforeSend hook. DSN/key from VITE_SENTRY_DSN / VITE_POSTHOG_KEY env vars.
• src-tauri/src/telemetry.rs — Rust-side Sentry init with beforeSend path scrubber. init_sentry_from_settings() reads settings and conditionally initializes. reinit_sentry() for runtime toggle.

Tauri Commands

• reinit_telemetry — Re-reads settings and toggles Rust Sentry on/off. Called from frontend when user changes crash reporting setting.

---

Updates & Feature Flags

Hooks

• useUpdater() — Checks for updates using the Tauri updater plugin. Automatic download and install.
• useFeatureFlag(flag) — Returns boolean for a named feature flag. Checks localStorage override (ff_<name>), then falls back to compile-time default. Type-safe via FeatureFlagName union.

CI/CD

• .github/workflows/release.yml — Stable builds from main. Produces latest.json on GitHub Pages.