---
title: "07 Properties"
canonical_url: https://mdflow.cz/share/c/h0L7MvX5Cy5sST3qPnApqHOmrQ36JTVy169qJMtDMya9Kc30zm04cg9OuPSSPwvj/ed2210c4-8301-4474-b2e3-5af726a8d4c4
md_url: https://mdflow.cz/share/c/h0L7MvX5Cy5sST3qPnApqHOmrQ36JTVy169qJMtDMya9Kc30zm04cg9OuPSSPwvj/ed2210c4-8301-4474-b2e3-5af726a8d4c4.md
visibility: public
---

# Web Clipper: Properties

Properties are typed fields added to the top of a clipped document as **frontmatter**.

## Types

| Type | Use for |
| --- | --- |
| **Text** | Author, publisher, URL |
| **List** | Tags, authors, ingredients |
| **Number** | Rating, price, word count |
| **Checkbox** | Read / unread, archived |
| **Date** | Published date |
| **Date and time** | Clipped-at timestamp |

## Pre-populating from the page

Properties can be **pre-populated from page variables**, so they fill themselves — see [06 Variables and Filters](/doc/3bffaf4b-3def-4db6-8c53-df72d1066906). An `author` property backed by the `author` variable is simply correct on every clip, without you typing anything.

Combine with filters to normalize as you go — a date parsed into a consistent format, a list split from a comma-separated string.

## Managing properties

- **Manage all properties in one place**, and **remove unused ones**.
- **Import and export** property definitions.

The import/export matters if you use the clipper on more than one machine, since extension configuration lives locally in each browser.

## What frontmatter means in MDflow

Here is the honest picture, and it is worth being clear rather than overselling:

> **MDflow has no concept of properties.** Frontmatter is just text at the top of your markdown body. MDflow does not parse it, index it as fields, filter by it, or offer a properties UI.

So what is it good for?

- **Full-text search finds it.** Searching for a tag or an author name matches the frontmatter text, because MDflow searches the whole body — see [04 Search](/doc/43588057-54ed-4d26-84b2-d1a625c5e7ff).
- **AI agents read it.** A model fetching the document gets the metadata in context — source URL, author, date — which is exactly what it needs to cite the document correctly or judge its relevance.
- **Other tools use it properly.** Export your workspace (see [02 Exporting a Workspace](/doc/7666542c-b167-4475-9026-2fb85f335e19)) and open it in Obsidian, and that frontmatter becomes real, queryable properties. This is standard YAML frontmatter, not an MDflow invention.
- **You read it.** Six months later, "where did this come from?" is answered at the top of the document.

## What to include

A useful default for clips:

```yaml
---
title: The page title
source: https://example.com/article
author: Someone
published: 2026-07-16
clipped: 2026-07-16T13:00
tags: [research, markdown]
---
```

The **source URL** is the one to never omit. A clipped article without its origin is much less useful — you cannot check it, cite it, or return to it. Everything else is optional; the URL is not.