kebab/tasks/p1/p1-2-parse-md-frontmatter.md

phase, component, task_id, title, status, depends_on, unblocks, contract_source, contract_sections

phase	component	task_id	title	status	depends_on	unblocks	contract_source	contract_sections
P1	kebab-parse-md (frontmatter submodule)	p1-2	Markdown frontmatter parsing → Metadata	completed	p0-1	p1-4	../../docs/superpowers/specs/2026-04-27-kebab-final-form-design.md	design §3.6 Metadata design §3.7b kebab-parse-types (Warning) design §0 Q9 frontmatter design §10 errors

p1-2 — Markdown frontmatter parsing

Goal

Parse YAML/TOML frontmatter from Markdown bytes into kebab_core::Metadata, with auto-derive defaults and unknown-key preservation in metadata.user.

Why now / why this size

Frontmatter is small but contractually load-bearing (Q9 spec). Isolating it from block parsing keeps both halves of kebab-parse-md simple and lets us reach 100% test coverage on the rules in design §0 Q9.

Allowed dependencies

• kebab-core
• kebab-parse-types (provides shared Warning + WarningKind per design §3.7b)
• serde
• serde_yaml (or yaml-rust2) for YAML
• toml for TOML
• time
• lingua (lang auto-detect — accept feature-gate if heavy)
• thiserror

Forbidden dependencies

• kebab-store-*, kebab-llm*, kebab-rag, kebab-embed*, kebab-search, kebab-tui, kebab-desktop, kebab-source-fs, kebab-chunk, kebab-normalize, pulldown-cmark (block parser is a sibling task)

Inputs

input	type	source
Markdown bytes	&[u8]	extractor
body fallbacks	BodyHints { first_h1: Option<String>, fs_ctime: OffsetDateTime, fs_mtime: OffsetDateTime, fallback_lang: Option<String> }	caller

Outputs

output	type	downstream
(Metadata, Option<FrontmatterSpan>, Vec<kebab_parse_types::Warning>)	tuple	kebab-normalize → CanonicalDocument

Public surface (signatures only — no new types)

pub fn parse_frontmatter(
    bytes: &[u8],
    hints: &BodyHints,
) -> anyhow::Result<(kebab_core::Metadata, Option<FrontmatterSpan>, Vec<kebab_parse_types::Warning>)>;

Warning / WarningKind come from kebab-parse-types (shared with p1-3 blocks parser and downstream kebab-normalize). FrontmatterSpan is crate-internal; if any new public type is needed, STOP and update the frozen design doc first.

Behavior contract

• All Metadata fields are optional in input. Missing fields populated per design §0 Q9 derive table:
  • title ← first H1 (from BodyHints.first_h1) → filename without extension if no H1.
  • lang ← lingua auto-detect on first 4 KB of body → fallback BodyHints.fallback_lang or "und".
  • created_at / updated_at ← BodyHints.fs_ctime / fs_mtime if missing.
  • source_type default markdown; trust_level default primary.
  • aliases, tags default empty.
• Unknown keys → metadata.user (serde_json::Map), preserved verbatim, no warning.
• Unknown enum value (e.g. trust_level: weird) → emit kebab_parse_types::Warning { kind: WarningKind::MalformedFrontmatter, note: "unknown trust_level=weird, defaulted to primary" } + ingest continues with default.
• Malformed YAML → frontmatter discarded, body still parsed, Warning { kind: WarningKind::MalformedFrontmatter, note: "<error msg>" } emitted.
• No frontmatter at all → defaults applied silently.
• id: field captured into metadata.user_id_alias (alias only — does NOT influence doc_id per design §4.2).

Storage / wire effects

• None. Pure function.

Test plan

kind	description	fixture / data
unit	YAML frontmatter happy path → Metadata fields	inline
unit	TOML frontmatter happy path	inline
unit	unknown keys preserved in metadata.user	inline
unit	unknown enum value → warning + default	inline
unit	malformed YAML → empty Metadata + warning	inline
unit	no frontmatter → derive from BodyHints	inline
unit	id: field becomes user_id_alias, not doc_id factor	inline + assert via §4.2 recipe stub
snapshot	fixtures/markdown/frontmatter-only.md produces stable JSON	fixture
snapshot	mixed-language body with no lang: detects ko or en	fixtures/markdown/mixed-lang.md

All tests under cargo test -p kebab-parse-md --lib frontmatter.

Definition of Done

• cargo check -p kebab-parse-md passes
• cargo test -p kebab-parse-md frontmatter passes
• No pulldown-cmark import in this submodule
• Snapshot tests stable across two consecutive runs
• PR links design §0 Q9, §3.6

Out of scope

• Block parsing (p1-3).
• Building CanonicalDocument (p1-4).
• Persisting metadata (p1-6).

Risks / notes

• lingua model load is heavy on first call; tests should reuse a static instance.
• timezone normalization: parse created_at/updated_at to UTC; preserve original offset only in metadata.user.original_timestamps if present and non-UTC.