Attributes

Note attributes are key-value records owned by (assigned to) given note.

There are 2 types of attributes:

Labels - simple key-value text record
Relation - specifies named relation (link) to another note

Sometimes we're talking about labels and relations - keep in mind that both of them are types of attributes.

Labels

Labels can be used for several things:

as labels with optional value - e.g. when cataloguing books, you might add labels like #year=1999, #genre="sci-fi", #author="Neal Stephenson"
attributes can be used to configure some advanced features / settings - see below
plugins / scripts can use these to mark notes with some special values / metadata (e.g. Weight Tracker will have "weight" attribute on day notes based on whose it can create chart).

Labels can be used for searching.

Standard labels

The following labels are used for advanced configuration:

disableVersioning - disables auto-versioning. Useful for e.g. large, but unimportant notes - e.g. large JS libraries used for scripting
calendarRoot - marks note which should be used as root for day notes. Only one should be marked as such.
archived - notes with this label won't be visible in autocomplete-based search (jump to, add link). Applies also to all its sub-notes.
excludeFromExport - notes (with their sub-tree) won't be included in any note export
run - defines on which events script should run. Possible values are:
- frontendStartup - when Trilium frontend starts up (or is refreshed).
- backendStartup - when Trilium backend starts up
- hourly - run once an hour
- daily - run once a day
disableInclusion - scripts with this label won't be included into parent script execution.
sorted - keeps child notes sorted. See Sorting.
hidePromotedAttributes
readOnly - editor is in read only mode. Works only for text notes. See some use cases here.
autoReadOnlyDisabled - text/code notes can be set automatically into read mode when they are too large. You can disable this behavior on per-note basis by adding this label to the note
cssClass - value of this label is then added as CSS class to the node representing the given note in the tree. This can be useful for advanced theming. Can be used in template notes.
iconClass - value of this label is added as a CSS class to the icon on the tree, which can help visually distinguish the notes in the tree. An example might be bx bx-home - icons are taken from boxicons. Can be used in template notes.
customRequestHandler and customResourceProvider - see Custom request handler
widget - see Custom widget,
workspace, workspaceIconClass, workspaceTabBackgroundColor - see Workspace
searchHome - new search notes will be created as children of this note (otherwise they are created in Day notes)
hoistedSearchHome - new search notes will be created as children of this note when hoisted to some ancestor of this note
inbox - default inbox location for new notes
hoistedInbox - default inbox location for new notes when hoisted to some ancestor of this note
sqlConsoleHome - default location of SQL console notes
bookmarked and bookmarkFolder - see Bookmarks
shareXXX labels described in Sharing
keyboardShortcut can be defined as e.g. "Ctrl+I". Pressing this keyboard combination will then bring you to the note on which it is defined. Note that Trilium must be reloaded/restarted (Ctrl+R) for changes to be in effect.

Relations

Relation is a kind of link between two notes.

This could be used when you e.g. keep a book database, you can use relations to keep formal links between the book (note) and the book's author (note) by defining an "author" relation on the book note pointing to the author's note.

Relations are used also for some advanced scripting - like attaching scripts to events happening on certain note.

Standard relations

Events:

runOnNoteCreation - executes when note is created on backend
runOnNoteTitleChange - executes when note title is changed (includes note creation as well)
runOnNoteChange - executes when note is changed (includes note creation as well)
runOnChildNoteCreation - executes when new note is created under this note
runOnAttributeCreation - executes when new attribute is created under this note
runOnAttributeChange - executes when attribute is changed under this note

Other relations:

template - attached note's attributes will be inherited even without parent-child relationship. See template for details.
renderNote - notes of type "render HTML note" will be rendered using a code note (HTML or script) and it is necessary to point using this relation to which note should be rendered
widget - target of this relation will be executed and rendered as a widget in the sidebar
shareXXX relations described in Sharing