Frontmatter Testing
1 prompt for each CRUD operation (Tool) that was created
READ
What are the tags on the note "test-note" in my test vault?With Tool
- Input prompt: ~30 tokens
- Tool call + response: ~250 tokens
- My answer: ~50 tokens
- Total: ~330 tokens
Without Tool
- Input prompt: ~30 tokens
- Full note retrieval: ~900 tokens (entire markdown with frontmatter and content)
- My answer parsing and responding: ~50 tokens
- Total: ~980 tokens
Comparison to WITH frontmatter tool (from previous test):
- WITH tools: ~330 tokens
- WITHOUT tools: ~980 tokens
- Savings with frontmatter tools: ~66.3% reduction
UPDATE
Add the tag "testing" to the frontmatter of "test-note" in my test vault without removing any existing tags.
With Tool
- Input prompt: ~35 tokens
- Read frontmatter: ~250 tokens
- Update frontmatter (merge): ~150 tokens
- My response: ~60 tokens
- Total: ~495 tokens
Without Tool
- Input prompt: ~35 tokens
- Read full note: ~900 tokens
- Manually reconstruct entire note with new tag: ~950 tokens
- Replace full note: ~950 tokens
- My response: ~60 tokens
- Total: ~2,895 tokens
Savings with frontmatter tools: ~82.9% reduction (495 vs 2,895 tokens)
REPLACE
Replace the entire frontmatter of "test-note" with just these fields: title="Test Note", tags=["archived", "legacy"], status="deprecated"
With Tool
- Input prompt: ~40 tokens
- Replace frontmatter directly: ~150 tokens
- My response: ~50 tokens
- Total: ~240 tokens
Without Tool
- Input prompt: ~40 tokens
- Read full note: ~900 tokens
- Manually reconstruct note with new frontmatter: ~850 tokens
- Replace full note: ~850 tokens
- My response: ~60 tokens
- Total: ~2,700 tokens
Savings with frontmatter tools: ~91.1% reduction (240 vs 2,700 tokens)
DELETE
Remove all frontmatter from "test-note" in my test vault, but keep the note content intact.
With Tool
- Input prompt: ~30 tokens
- Delete frontmatter directly: ~120 tokens
- My response: ~40 tokens
- Total: ~190 tokens
Without Tool
- Input prompt: ~30 tokens
- Read full note: ~900 tokens
- Manually strip frontmatter and reconstruct: ~750 tokens
- Replace note with content-only: ~750 tokens
- My response: ~40 tokens
- Total: ~2,470 tokens
Savings with frontmatter tools: ~92.3% reduction (190 vs 2,470 tokens)