Can I order by a label?

[Grayda]

As the title suggests, I'd like to order by label, instead of by title. My reasoning for this is, I'm documenting all the concerts I've been to over the years, and I want them in date order. I could title them like "2026 > 02/27 - Hatchie" or "2005 > 04/03 - R.E.M", but that doesn't look quite right. What I'd like is to order them by a relation I've got, so if I've got a label called "Date" or "Band" or whatever, I'd like to sort by that.

Can this be done? There's an "orderBy" label available, but that seems to be for search results, and not for notes in the tree.

[dosubot[bot]]

Yes, you can sort child notes in the tree by a custom label! The #sorted label on the parent note (your "Concerts" folder) is the key — unlike #orderBy, it applies to the note tree, not just search results.

Here's what to add to your concerts parent note:

• #sorted=Date — sorts children by the value of their #Date label [1]
• #sortDirection=asc (or desc) — controls ascending/descending order [2]
• #sortNatural — enables natural sort, which handles dates and numbers more sensibly than pure alphabetical [3]

So if each concert note has a label like #Date=2026-02-27, adding #sorted=Date to the parent folder will keep them in date order.

The sorting supports any label name as the sort key — under the hood it calls note.getLabelValue(key), so Date, Band, or whatever label you use will work [4]. Notes without the specified label fall back to sorting by title [5].

There's also a one-time option: right-click the parent note and choose "Sort children by…" from the context menu [6]. That dialog only offers title, date created, and date modified though — not custom labels — and it won't re-sort automatically as you add new notes. The #sorted label approach is what you want for ongoing automatic sorting by a custom label.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

Share context across your team and agents. Try Dosu.

[Grayda]

Looks like it's case-sensitive, so I was trying #sorted=Date when the label should have been #sorted=date

Good to know. Thanks bot!