Field pickers overview

When you set a field in the Task Creator or Task Editor, you do not type a raw value. Operon opens a picker: a small control sized to that field. A date opens a calendar, a status opens your pipeline's stages, a color opens a palette. This page is how Operon chooses which picker to open, and where each picker is documented in full.

How Operon picks the picker

Two things decide which picker opens:

  • The field. Built-in fields each have a purpose-built picker. status opens the status picker, dateDue opens the date picker, repeat opens the recurrence picker, and so on. These are the specialized pickers.
  • The type. A field you defined yourself, a custom key, has no purpose-built picker, so Operon opens the general picker that matches its property type: a date custom key opens the date picker, a list custom key opens the list picker. See Custom field pickers.

So a built-in field is matched by name, and a custom field by its type. Every picker still reads and writes the same Markdown field underneath. See Task properties for what a property type is.

Specialized pickers and where they live

Each built-in field opens a picker built for it. The property type is noted so you know what kind of value it writes.

Field Property type Picker Page
dateDue, dateScheduled, dateStarted, dateCompleted, dateCancelled Date Date picker Date and time picker
datetimeStart, datetimeEnd, datetimeRepeatEnd Date & time Date and time picker Date and time picker
repeat Text Recurrence picker Recurrence picker
status Text Status picker Status and priority picker
priority Text Priority picker Status and priority picker
taskIcon Text Icon picker Icon picker
taskColor Text Color picker Color picker
location Text Location picker Location picker
parentTask, blocking, blockedBy, related Text and List Task link pickers Task link and list pickers
assignees, contexts, tags, links List List pickers Task link and list pickers
estimate Number Estimate picker Task link and list pickers

General pickers for custom keys

A custom key opens a picker by its type, not its name. Five types are surfaced:

Property type Picker behavior
Text Free text, with suggestions from values already used.
Number A numeric entry.
Date The same date picker the built-in dates use.
Date & time The same date and time picker.
List A list picker for multiple values.

A checkbox custom key is stored but does not get a picker surface yet. The full detail is in Custom field pickers.

Why this matters

Knowing the field-to-picker rule explains the whole editing experience: why a custom date key behaves exactly like a built-in due date, why a list key lets you add several values, and why setting a type on a custom key decides how you will fill it. Choose a custom key's type with the picker you want in mind. See Custom keys.