Task Router

Task Router is the place where Operon decides where tasks belong. It brings inline capture, Daily and Weekly Note configuration, File Task folders, parent-aware placement, and File Task archiving into one settings page, so the same routing rules govern creation and later lifecycle changes.

Routing changes location, not identity. An Operon task keeps its operonId, fields, relationships, and history when an eligible File Task moves between configured folders.

What Task Router controls

Task Router has six main sections:

Inline Task Default Save Location chooses the normal destination for new inline tasks.
Daily and Weekly Notes configures Operon management, filename formats, templates, and folders for those destinations.
Parent-Aware Inline Task Placement controls parent-based placement during creation and the separate option for keeping existing inline tasks with their parent.
File Task Default Save Location contains the fallback folder and Pipeline locations rules.
Parent-Aware File Task Placement controls parent-based placement when no pipeline folder overrides it.
Archive finished/cancelled File Tasks contains pipeline archive rules and the fallback archive folder.

Daily and Weekly Notes stays visible directly below Inline Task Default Save Location, whichever destination you select. Each management toggle reveals its own format, template, and folder settings. Choosing a destination does not turn management on automatically.

The separate Daily and Weekly Notes as File Tasks section under Tasks → File Tasks contains only the two toggles that make newly created Daily or Weekly Notes into Operon File Tasks. These control the note itself, not whether it can contain inline tasks. See Daily and Weekly Notes for creation and parent behavior.

Inline Task destinations

The default inline destination can be:

Daily Notes: the note for the routed day.
Weekly Notes: the note for the routed week.
Specific File: one configured Markdown file.
Active File: the note you are working in.
Ask Every Time: choose the destination during creation.

Daily Notes is available when Operon manages Daily Notes or Obsidian's Core Daily Notes plugin is available. Weekly Notes requires Operon's Weekly Notes management to be enabled.

For Daily Notes, Active File, and Ask Every Time, Inline task heading is a heading keyword rather than a whole Markdown heading. Operon inserts under the first Markdown heading in the note body whose text contains that phrase (case-insensitively), ignoring heading-like text in YAML frontmatter and fenced code blocks; if none exists, it creates a level-two heading where safe. Weekly Notes uses the routed daily-date heading described in Daily and Weekly Notes. Specific File mode uses a linked date heading based on the active Core Daily Notes format, with YYYY-MM-DD as fallback.

If frontmatter is unclosed, or a missing heading would have to be appended inside an unclosed code block, Operon stops the insertion instead of writing the task into metadata or code. Fix the note structure before retrying.

Create from an Excalidraw drawing

Creating from Excalidraw uses the same destination and parent-placement rules. The drawing’s Markdown can be a target when selected or resolved by those rules; opening Task Creator from a drawing does not force it to be the destination. For example, a parent-placement rule may send a new inline task to its parent’s note while its card remains in the drawing. See Excalidraw Task Cards.

Choosing with Ask Every Time

Ask Every Time opens a compact searchable picker before automatic parent placement. Its initial order is:

Active File, captured when creation starts.
Parent Location, when a parent is selected.
The last two different target files used.
Other used files, most frequently used first.
Unused Markdown files, alphabetically.

Missing targets are omitted. The same file and placement appears only once; different placements in one file can remain separate. Rows show file names, with long names shortened by an ellipsis. Hover for the destination context. Search matches file names and paths, ranking closer matches first and keeping the initial order for ties.

Parent Location places the task after an inline parent's checkbox block, or under the configured heading inside a File Task parent. Other file choices use Inline task heading and keep the selected parent relationship. Cancelling leaves the Task Creator draft available. Explicit destinations, such as creating at the cursor, keep their own placement.

The order learns from successful new inline tasks created through Operon. Edits, moves, conversions, automatic recurrence, and Runtime/API operations do not count. See Plugin data and state files for the stored history.

Parent-aware inline placement

A parent can override the normal inline destination:

With an inline parent, Operon can place the new task below that parent, after its uninterrupted checkbox block.
With a File Task parent, Operon can place the new task inside the parent note under the configured heading.
With either rule left at Default, the task goes to the normal inline destination and still keeps its parentTask relationship.

These dropdowns control creation. Ask Every Time lets you choose the destination instead.

Keep existing inline tasks with their parent

This separate toggle is off by default. When enabled, a direct edit through Operon moves the existing inline task if you add or change its parent, even within the same file. With the same parent, it moves only when the task is in a different file. Removing the parent does not move it.

Only the edited task and its own uninterrupted checkbox block move; subtasks and their checkboxes stay where they are. An inline parent receives it after its own checkbox block. A File Task parent receives it under Parent file heading keyword: an empty value uses Backlog, and a missing heading is created as ## at the end of the file.

This toggle works independently of the creation dropdowns. File watching, index refreshes, and indirect parent timestamp updates do not trigger further moves. See Parent and sub-tasks.

File Task destinations

File Task Default Save Location is the fallback folder for new File Tasks. Leave it empty to use the vault root.

Pipeline locations can map each pipeline to its own folder. A matching pipeline folder takes priority over parent-aware placement and the default File Task folder. This keeps, for example, Project and Personal File Tasks in different working areas without changing how they are created.

When an eligible open File Task changes to a pipeline with a valid location rule, Operon moves it to that matching folder after about five seconds. The delay lets the task update and index settle before the file move. If its pipeline is missing, unknown, ambiguous, unconfigured, or mapped to an unsafe destination, Operon leaves the file in place rather than guessing or falling back to the default folder. An explicitly saved empty folder remains a valid rule for the vault root.

What happens when routing settings change

Pipeline-location reconciliation is scoped to the rule you actually changed:

Adding a valid pipeline rule, or changing its target folder, moves only eligible open File Tasks that resolve to that pipeline.
Reordering rules does not move files.
Removing a rule leaves existing files where they are.
Changing File Task Default Save Location affects newly created File Tasks and notes converted afterward when Move converted notes to their pipeline location is enabled; it does not reorganize existing File Tasks.
An incomplete, unresolved, or unsafe rule produces no move and does not redirect the task to a fallback.

If Operon cannot safely resolve the requested move, it postpones that scoped reconciliation instead of moving files. Once the safety checks recover, the same affected pipeline scope can continue without turning into a vault-wide relocation.

Converted notes

Converting a plain note into an Operon File Task normally keeps the note where it is. Turn on Move converted notes to their pipeline location when converted notes should move after about five seconds to their matching pipeline folder, or to the default File Task folder when no pipeline rule matches.

This option is separate from conversion itself. Conversion preserves the note's content and establishes task identity; routing decides whether its file location should then change. See Converting inline and file tasks.

File Task recurrence destinations are also separate from existing-file reconciliation. Changing File occurrence destination affects newly created occurrences only; it does not relocate current open occurrences. See Recurring tasks.

Parent-aware File Task placement

When no pipeline folder overrides it, a parent can influence where a new File Task is created:

An inline parent can place the File Task in the parent's folder.
A File Task parent can place it in the parent's folder.
Default uses the configured File Task folder instead.

The relationship is independent of the chosen folder. A task may keep its parent even when routing uses a pipeline or default destination.

Archive finished/cancelled File Tasks

Finished and cancelled File Tasks can move out of working folders without being deleted.

A pipeline archive location is the first choice for a terminal task in that pipeline.
The fallback archive folder is used when no pipeline archive rule matches.
Leaving the fallback empty keeps unmatched terminal tasks in place.

Terminal moves happen after about five seconds. Operon moves only eligible File Tasks, creates safe missing folders when possible, and refuses an occupied or unsafe destination. A matching pipeline archive always takes priority over the fallback.

Example setup

Suppose Project tasks work in 20 Projects/Tasks, Personal tasks work in 40 Areas/Tasks, and all unmatched tasks use File Tasks:

Map Project to 20 Projects/Tasks.
Map Personal to 40 Areas/Tasks.
Set File Tasks as the default File Task folder.
Map their terminal tasks to matching archive folders.
Set one fallback archive for every other pipeline, or leave it empty to keep unmatched tasks where they are.

The rule set remains readable: the matching pipeline wins, then the relevant fallback applies.

FAQ

Does changing a pipeline location move every task immediately? No. Only eligible open File Tasks that resolve to the newly added or changed pipeline rule move, after about five seconds. Inline tasks and tasks belonging to other pipelines stay where they are.

Does changing the default File Task folder reorganize existing tasks? No. It changes later File Task creation and the fallback for notes converted afterward when movement is enabled.

Does a pipeline folder remove the parent relationship? No. It overrides physical placement, not the relationship.

Are converted notes always moved? No. They move only when Move converted notes to their pipeline location is enabled.

Are archived tasks deleted? No. Their Markdown files move; their task identity and data stay intact.

What happens when a destination is unsafe or occupied? Operon leaves the task in place and reports the problem instead of selecting another path silently.

Settings

These settings live in Settings → Operon → Tasks → Task Router, in the six sections listed above. Configure note management, formats, templates, and folders under Daily and Weekly Notes. The two note-as-task toggles remain under Settings → Operon → Tasks → File Tasks → Daily and Weekly Notes as File Tasks.

In Settings Search, use daily, daily note, daily notes, weekly, weekly note, or weekly notes to find the corresponding management and note-as-task settings.