Smart Folders

Smart Folders are how Foam surfaces your saved queries in the VS Code side bar. Each Smart Folder is a query stored at .foam/queries/<id>.yaml — see Foam Queries for the query syntax.

Use them to navigate large workspaces without locking yourself into rigid tag hierarchies. For example: a “Work in Progress” folder showing notes tagged #wip but not #archive.

Create a Smart Folder

Open the Smart Folders panel in the Explorer and click Create Smart Folder, or run the command Foam: Create Smart Folder.

You will be asked for:

1. A name (e.g. “Work in Progress”)
2. Tags to include (multi-select — press Esc to skip and edit the YAML manually)

Foam creates a YAML file at .foam/queries/<name>.yaml and opens it for editing.

Edit a Smart Folder

Click the pencil icon next to a Smart Folder in the panel, or open the YAML file directly. Changes are picked up automatically.

For the full syntax — structured filters, sorting, links, Jexl expressions — see Foam Queries.

Delete a Smart Folder

Click the trash icon next to a Smart Folder in the panel and confirm. The YAML file is removed.

View options

In the panel title bar:

• Group By Folder / Flat list — group matching notes by their workspace path or show as a flat list
• Refresh — re-run all queries on demand

LINKS TO THIS PAGE

Using Foam Foam Queries Keep your notes in a subfolder