Spreadsheet File Format

Sheet notes are Markdown files with YAML frontmatter and a CSV-like body. The note uses _display: sheet when it should open in the spreadsheet editor. The type field remains ordinary semantic metadata.

For editing workflows, see Use Spreadsheets. For formula syntax and function references, see Spreadsheet Formulas.

Structure

---
type: Project
_display: sheet
tags:
  - planning
_sheet:
  show_grid_lines: true
  frozen_rows: 1
  frozen_columns: 1
  columns:
    A:
      width: 180
  rows:
    "1":
      height: 32
  cells:
    E6:
      num_fmt: "0.00%"
      bold: true
---
Metric,January,February,March,Q1 Total
Subscriptions,1200,1350,1500,=SUM(B2:D2)
Expenses,650,700,760,=SUM(B3:D3)
Net,=B2-B3,=C2-C3,=D2-D3,=SUM(B4:D4)
Growth,,=(C4-B4)/B4,=(D4-C4)/C4,=(E4-B4)/B4

The frontmatter stores note metadata. The body stores rows and cells. There is no Markdown table wrapper, fenced code block, or embedded workbook blob.

Frontmatter

All ordinary Tolaria fields remain available:

• type
• status
• date
• tags
• url
• relationship fields such as belongs_to, related_to, and custom wikilink properties

The _display: sheet field is the display-as marker. Omit it for ordinary text notes.

The _sheet key is reserved for spreadsheet presentation metadata. It follows the same system-field convention as other underscore-prefixed Tolaria fields: hidden from normal property editing, but visible and editable in raw source.

Body

The body is CSV-like text:

• rows are separated by line breaks
• cells are separated by commas
• cells containing commas, quotes, or line breaks are quoted
• quotes inside quoted cells are escaped by doubling them
• empty trailing rows and columns may be omitted on save

Any cell whose input starts with = is treated as a formula. Other cells are treated as literal values.

_sheet Metadata

Tolaria stores spreadsheet presentation state in _sheet as plain YAML.

Field	Meaning
show_grid_lines	Whether grid lines are shown.
frozen_rows	Number of frozen rows from the top.
frozen_columns	Number of frozen columns from the left.
columns.<column>.width	Custom column width, keyed by column letter such as A or BC.
rows."<row>".height	Custom row height, keyed by one-based row number.
cells.<cell>.num_fmt	Number format code for a cell.
cells.<cell>.bold	Bold text style.
cells.<cell>.italic	Italic text style.
cells.<cell>.underline	Underline text style.
cells.<cell>.strike	Strikethrough text style.
cells.<cell>.font_size	Font size.
cells.<cell>.font_color	Text color.
cells.<cell>.fill_color	Cell fill color.
cells.<cell>.horizontal_align	Horizontal alignment.
cells.<cell>.vertical_align	Vertical alignment.
cells.<cell>.wrap_text	Text wrapping.
cells.<cell>.border_top	Top border style.
cells.<cell>.border_right	Right border style.
cells.<cell>.border_bottom	Bottom border style.
cells.<cell>.border_left	Left border style.

Cell metadata is keyed by A1-style cell addresses such as A1, B12, or AA30.

Border values are stored as a style name with an optional color, for example:

border_bottom: "thin #d0d7de"

Number Formats

Number formats are stored in num_fmt using spreadsheet-style format codes. Common examples:

Format	Example output
#,##0	1,250
#,##0.00	1,250.50
0.00%	12.35%
$#,##0.00	$1,250.50
yyyy-mm-dd	2026-06-15

These formats affect presentation, not the underlying cell input in the CSV body.

Markdown Style Import

When Tolaria imports a non-formula CSV cell, simple Markdown wrappers can seed initial styles:

Cell text	Stored value	Style
**Revenue**	Revenue	bold
_Estimate_	Estimate	italic
***Total***	Total	bold and italic
~~Removed~~	Removed	strike

After save, the style belongs in _sheet metadata and the body keeps the unwrapped text.

Wikilinks

Non-formula cells can store normal Tolaria wikilinks:

Account,Source
Newsletter,[[newsletter-revenue]]
Sponsors,[[sponsorship-pipeline]]

Formula cells can reference another sheet note with Tolaria's cross-sheet syntax:

=[[newsletter-revenue]].B5
=ROUND([[business-plan]].$E$12, 2)

Cross-sheet references resolve another sheet note by wikilink target, then read a single A1-style cell. Circular references and very deep chains are treated as unresolved.

Guidance For Agents And Scripts

When editing a sheet note programmatically:

• preserve the YAML frontmatter delimiter and ordinary Tolaria fields
• keep _display: sheet when the file should display as a spreadsheet
• keep spreadsheet presentation state under _sheet
• parse and serialize the body as CSV, not by splitting on every comma manually
• preserve formulas as formulas, including [[sheet]].A1 references
• avoid converting formulas to their displayed values
• quote CSV cells when they contain commas, quotes, or line breaks
• do not add workbook tabs inside one note; create another note with _display: sheet instead
• do not store opaque binary workbook state in the Markdown file

If a script cannot safely preserve _sheet, it should leave that block untouched and edit only the CSV body cells it understands.