Tasks and query blocks
How do I turn tasks on or off?
Section titled “How do I turn tasks on or off?”They are on by default. Settings > General > Tasks > Enable Tasks controls both the vault-wide index and the Tasks icon in the activity bar.
What are the four checkbox states?
Section titled “What are the four checkbox states?”- [ ] to do, - [/] in progress, - [x] done, - [-] cancelled. Clicking the checkbox cycles through the first three. Cancelled is deliberately off that ring — use /cancel-task in the editor or Cancel task in the agenda’s row menu — so a stray extra click can never land there.
[/] and [-] are not part of GitHub Flavored Markdown, so an editor that doesn’t know them shows the raw [/] instead of a checkbox. The line itself is never lost.
How do I set a due date without typing an emoji?
Section titled “How do I set a due date without typing an emoji?”Three ways, all of which write the same 📅2026-09-30:
- Word trigger — type
due:2026-09-30(ordue:t,due:m,due:+3,due:9/30) followed by a space - Plain language — write “by friday” or “내일”; Baram underlines what it recognized and
Tabconfirms it - Slash command —
/dueopens a calendar
sched: / /sched sets ⏳ and start: / /start sets 🛫 the same way.
How do I set a priority?
Section titled “How do I set a priority?”Type prio:1 through prio:5 (or the short !1…!5) followed by a space, or use /priority. P1 is the most urgent: 🔺 ⏫ (nothing) 🔽 ⏬.
How do I make a task repeat?
Section titled “How do I make a task repeat?”/repeat — it’s the only entry point, because the rule contains spaces and so can’t be a word trigger. Rules look like every day, every 2 weeks, every weekday, every week on Monday, every month on the 15th.
Completing or cancelling a repeating task rolls it forward: the dates move to the next occurrence and the state returns to [ ], all on the same line. If the chip says (no date to move) the task has a rule but no date to roll; (not understood) means the rule doesn’t match the grammar above.
Where does the Tasks panel get its tasks from?
Section titled “Where does the Tasks panel get its tasks from?”Every markdown file in the roots covered by Agenda scope (Settings > General > Tasks), which defaults to All vaults. Folders listed under Exclude folders are skipped. Query blocks are different — they always search the vault the note lives in, so a note shows everyone the same list.
Why is my task in “Past scheduled” instead of “Overdue”?
Section titled “Why is my task in “Past scheduled” instead of “Overdue”?”Overdue means a missed 📅 due date — a commitment you made. Past scheduled means a missed ⏳ scheduled date — a day you meant to start, which is a much softer signal. Keeping them apart stops every undated capture from turning the panel red.
Does completing a task record the date?
Section titled “Does completing a task record the date?”Yes, ✅ with today’s date, controlled by Record completion date (on by default). Record created date does the same with ➕ when you finish typing a new task line.
Can Baram track how long a task takes?
Section titled “Can Baram track how long a task takes?”Turn on Settings > General > Tasks > Track time on tasks in progress. While a task sits in [/] it carries a ⏱ field, and the elapsed time is banked when it leaves that state. It’s off by default because switching a task to “in progress” would otherwise write a new field into a file other apps also read.
What happens to old completed tasks?
Section titled “What happens to old completed tasks?”Nothing, until you ask. Archive completed tasks in the panel moves anything finished more than N days ago (default 30) into tasks/archive/YYYY-MM.md. Archived tasks stay indexed and searchable. Nothing is ever archived automatically.
Where else do tasks show up besides the Tasks panel?
Section titled “Where else do tasks show up besides the Tasks panel?”Two places. The Backlinks panel has a Tasks in this note section listing every task in your vault whose line links to the open note. The Zettel hub shows a compact Tasks section — overdue and due today only, up to seven rows, with See all opening the full agenda. Both use the same rows as the agenda, so you can check tasks off from either.
What do the −5d and 12d badges on a task row mean?
Section titled “What do the −5d and 12d badges on a task row mean?”−5d counts days past the date that put the task in its bucket — the due date in Overdue, the scheduled date in Past scheduled. 12d with a Stale tooltip means the task has gone 30 days or more since its ➕ created date without being finished; it’s there to surface things quietly rotting in the inbox.
Can AI pull tasks out of my meeting notes?
Section titled “Can AI pull tasks out of my meeting notes?”Yes — select the prose and run /extract-tasks (Extract Action Items). The proposed task lines go through the usual AI diff preview, so nothing is written until you accept.
Query Blocks
Section titled “Query Blocks”What is a query block?
Section titled “What is a query block?”A saved search that lives inside a note and renders its results there. Insert one with /query, or write a ```query fenced code block by hand. It can list notes or tasks.
Do query results update by themselves?
Section titled “Do query results update by themselves?”Not continuously. A block re-runs when you close its builder, when the query text changes, when you press Run query, and when you check off a task in its own results. A note query reads every markdown file in the vault, so running it on every keystroke would mean scanning the vault non-stop.
How do I write a query by hand?
Section titled “How do I write a query by hand?”Each line is key: value — source, filter, sort, display, limit. All are optional:
```querysource: tasksfilter: state = "todo" AND due before "+7d"sort: due ascdisplay: listlimit: 10```The full field and operator tables are in the User Guide.
Why does my query return nothing?
Section titled “Why does my query return nothing?”Most often a field/operator combination that doesn’t exist — an unknown pair matches nothing rather than raising an error, so the block just looks empty. Open the builder and re-pick the field; it only ever offers operators that work. The other common cause is priority: queries filter on a signed weight (🔺=2, ⏫=1, normal=0, 🔽=-1, ⏬=-2), not on the P1–P5 rank you type, so high-priority tasks are priority > "0".
Can I check off a task from inside a query block?
Section titled “Can I check off a task from inside a query block?”Yes, in the default display: list. The checkbox writes to the task’s own file and the block re-runs. That’s what makes a Map of Content usable as a project board. Clicking a row jumps to the task in its source file.
Do query blocks break my file for other editors?
Section titled “Do query blocks break my file for other editors?”No. On disk a query block is an ordinary fenced code block with the query info string, so other tools show it as a code block.