Nested YAML

[ararrocks]

hi, is there a way to utilise nested YAML too?

i have extensive use of nested yaml like:
relations:

• relation-type: Cousin
  relation-link: "[[Arne]]"
• relation-type: Wife
  relation-link: "[[Daniela]]"
• relation-type: Child
  relation-link: Valentin
• relation-type: Child
  relation-link: Johanna

or
jobs:

• job-name: Driver
  job-company: "[[Campany 1]]"
  active: true
• job-name: Booker
  job-company: "[[Comapny 2]]"
  active: false

is there a way to translate this into breadcrumbs?

[ChristinWhite]

Did you ever figure out if this was possible? I'm thinking about trying to use the same type of structure.

[ArneNostitz]

No i Never did - but would be happy to :-) i am not using breadcrumbs atm. but the nested yaml i use extensively

[ChristinWhite]

Yeah, I am as well, I'd not tried to nest significant edge fields though before. It doesn't seem like it would be super difficult to implement, I may have to take a crack at it when I get a little free time.

[michaelpporter]

Nested yaml is not supported in frontmatter. It turns in to json. It might be possible, what would a use case be?

[ArneNostitz]

hi michael :) its so long ago - i cant really remember ... ;-)

but i think that i wanted to use my existing nested yaml that defines relation.cousin as
relation

• type: cousin
  link: [[asdasd]]

or in a relation to jobs - that would automatically create links to a company hiararchy ... but i would have to think and look again :) cheers

[michaelpporter]

Short answer: Breadcrumbs reads links from flat frontmatter properties, and nested objects like relations: [{relation-type, relation-link}] aren't supported — and won't be.

The reason is Obsidian itself moved away from nested frontmatter. Since the Properties UI landed, only flat scalars and lists are first-class: nested objects can't be edited in the UI, and Obsidian's link resolution (frontmatterLinks) only indexes links in flat properties, not links buried inside nested arrays. A nested-YAML feature would produce data you can't manage in-app and links the vault can't resolve.

The good news is flat typed-link fields already express exactly what nested pairs would — one property per relation type:

---
parent: "[[Some Note]]"
friend: "[[Another Note]]"
---

Each becomes a typed edge, fully editable in the Properties UI and resolved natively. So there's no capability lost by staying flat. Closing as resolved — thanks!