Refactor created/modified handling in markdown entities.

Replace frontmatter properties with top-level attributes for `created` and `modified` to simplify handling and ensure consistent attribute usage. Added a utility function for schema-to-markdown conversion and updated related tests and code to reflect these changes.

src/basic_memory/markdown/entity_parser.py

@@ -53,6 +53,13 @@ def parse(content: str) -> EntityContent:
         relations=relations,
     )
 
+def parse_tags(tags: Any) -> list[str]:
+    """Parse tags into list of strings."""
+    if isinstance(tags, str):
+        return [t.strip() for t in tags.split(",") if t.strip()]
+    if isinstance(tags, (list, tuple)):
+        return [str(t).strip() for t in tags if str(t).strip()]
+    return []
 
 class EntityParser:
     """Parser for markdown files into Entity objects."""
@@ -107,17 +114,10 @@ class EntityParser:
         # Extract file stat info
         file_stats = absolute_path.stat()
 
-        
         metadata = post.metadata
         metadata["title"] = post.metadata.get("title", file_path.name)
         metadata["type"] = metadata.get("type", "note")
-        metadata["created"] = self.parse_date(
-            post.metadata.get("created")
-        ) or datetime.fromtimestamp(file_stats.st_ctime)
-        metadata["modified"] = self.parse_date(
-            post.metadata.get("modified")
-        ) or datetime.fromtimestamp(file_stats.st_mtime)
-        metadata["tags"] = self.parse_tags(post.metadata.get("tags", []))
+        metadata["tags"] = parse_tags(post.metadata.get("tags", []))
 
         # frontmatter
         entity_frontmatter = EntityFrontmatter(
@@ -131,12 +131,7 @@ class EntityParser:
             content=post.content,
             observations=entity_content.observations,
             relations=entity_content.relations,
+            created=datetime.fromtimestamp(file_stats.st_ctime),
+            modified=datetime.fromtimestamp(file_stats.st_mtime),
         )
 
-    def parse_tags(self, tags: Any) -> list[str]:
-        """Parse tags into list of strings."""
-        if isinstance(tags, str):
-            return [t.strip() for t in tags.split(",") if t.strip()]
-        if isinstance(tags, (list, tuple)):
-            return [str(t).strip() for t in tags if str(t).strip()]
-        return []

src/basic_memory/markdown/markdown_processor.py

@@ -105,10 +105,10 @@ class MarkdownProcessor:
             "type": markdown.frontmatter.type,
             "permalink": markdown.frontmatter.permalink,
             "created": markdown.frontmatter.created.isoformat()
-            if markdown.frontmatter.created
+            if markdown.created
             else None,
             "modified": markdown.frontmatter.modified.isoformat()
-            if markdown.frontmatter.modified
+            if markdown.modified
             else None,
             **metadata,
         }

src/basic_memory/markdown/schemas.py

@@ -58,13 +58,6 @@ class EntityFrontmatter(BaseModel):
     def permalink(self) -> str:
         return self.metadata.get("permalink") if self.metadata else None
 
-    @property
-    def created(self) -> datetime:
-        return self.metadata.get("created") if self.metadata else None
-
-    @property
-    def modified(self) -> datetime:
-        return self.metadata.get("modified") if self.metadata else None
 
 
 class EntityMarkdown(BaseModel):
@@ -74,3 +67,7 @@ class EntityMarkdown(BaseModel):
     content: Optional[str] = None
     observations: List[Observation] = []
     relations: List[Relation] = []
+
+    # created, updated will have values after a read
+    created: Optional[datetime] = None
+    modified: Optional[datetime] = None

src/basic_memory/markdown/utils.py

@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Optional
 
+from frontmatter import Post
+
 from basic_memory.markdown import EntityMarkdown, EntityFrontmatter, Observation, Relation
 from basic_memory.markdown.entity_parser import parse
 from basic_memory.models import Entity, ObservationCategory, Observation as ObservationModel
@@ -105,8 +107,8 @@ def entity_model_from_markdown(file_path: Path, markdown: EntityMarkdown, entity
     model.permalink=permalink
     model.file_path=str(file_path)
     model.content_type="text/markdown"
-    model.created_at=markdown.frontmatter.created
-    model.updated_at=markdown.frontmatter.modified
+    model.created_at=markdown.created
+    model.updated_at=markdown.modified
     model.entity_metadata={k:str(v) for k,v in markdown.frontmatter.metadata.items()}
     model.observations=[
             ObservationModel(
@@ -119,3 +121,21 @@ def entity_model_from_markdown(file_path: Path, markdown: EntityMarkdown, entity
         ]
     
     return model
+
+async def schema_to_markdown(schema):
+    """
+    Convert schema to markdown.
+    :param schema: the schema to convert 
+    :return: Post 
+    """
+    # Add metadata to dict
+    frontmatter_dict = schema.entity_metadata or {}
+    
+    # set permalink and type
+    frontmatter_dict["permalink"] = schema.permalink
+    frontmatter_dict["type"] = schema.entity_type
+    
+    # Create Post object
+    content = schema.content or ""
+    post = Post(content, **frontmatter_dict)
+    return post

src/basic_memory/services/entity_service.py

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ from loguru import logger
 from sqlalchemy.exc import IntegrityError
 
 from basic_memory.markdown import EntityMarkdown
-from basic_memory.markdown.utils import entity_model_from_markdown
+from basic_memory.markdown.utils import entity_model_from_markdown, schema_to_markdown
 from basic_memory.models import Entity as EntityModel, Observation, Relation
 from basic_memory.repository import ObservationRepository, RelationRepository
 from basic_memory.repository.entity_repository import EntityRepository
@@ -69,14 +69,7 @@ class EntityService(BaseService[EntityModel]):
                 f"file_path {file_path} for entity {schema.permalink} already exists: {file_path}"
             )
 
-        # Convert frontmatter to dict
-        frontmatter_dict = schema.entity_metadata or {}
-        frontmatter_dict["permalink"] = schema.permalink
-        frontmatter_dict["type"] = schema.entity_type
-
-        # Create Post object for frontmatter
-        content = schema.content or ""
-        post = Post(content, **frontmatter_dict)
+        post = await schema_to_markdown(schema)
 
         # write file
         final_content = frontmatter.dumps(post)
@@ -84,6 +77,8 @@ class EntityService(BaseService[EntityModel]):
 
         # parse entity from file
         entity_markdown = await self.entity_parser.parse_file(file_path)
+        
+        # create entity
         created_entity = await self.create_entity_from_markdown(
             file_path, entity_markdown
         )
@@ -94,6 +89,7 @@ class EntityService(BaseService[EntityModel]):
         # Set final checksum to mark complete
         return await self.repository.update(entity.id, {"checksum": checksum})
 
+
     async def update_entity(self, schema: EntitySchema) -> EntityModel:
         """Update an entity's content and metadata."""
         logger.debug(f"Updating entity with permalink: {schema.permalink}")
@@ -101,14 +97,7 @@ class EntityService(BaseService[EntityModel]):
         # get file path
         file_path = Path(schema.file_path)
 
-        # Convert frontmatter to dict
-        frontmatter_dict = schema.entity_metadata or {}
-        frontmatter_dict["permalink"] = schema.permalink
-        frontmatter_dict["type"] = schema.entity_type
-
-        # Create Post object for frontmatter
-        content = schema.content or ""
-        post = Post(content, **frontmatter_dict)
+        post = await schema_to_markdown(schema)
 
         # write file
         final_content = frontmatter.dumps(post)

tests/markdown/test_entity_parser.py

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 """Tests for entity markdown parsing."""
-
+import os
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta, UTC
 from pathlib import Path
 from textwrap import dedent
 
@@ -99,8 +100,6 @@ async def test_parse_minimal_file(test_config, entity_parser):
     content = dedent("""
         ---
         type: component
-        created: 2024-12-21T14:00:00Z
-        modified: 2024-12-21T14:00:00Z
         tags: []
         ---
 
@@ -123,8 +122,8 @@ async def test_parse_minimal_file(test_config, entity_parser):
     assert len(entity.observations) == 1
     assert len(entity.relations) == 1
     
-    assert entity.frontmatter.created.isoformat().startswith("2024-12-21T14:00:00")
-    assert entity.frontmatter.modified.isoformat().startswith("2024-12-21T14:00:00")
+    assert entity.created is not None
+    assert entity.modified is not None
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -149,8 +148,6 @@ async def test_parse_file_without_section_headers(test_config, entity_parser):
         ---
         type: component
         permalink: minimal_entity
-        created: 2024-12-21T14:00:00Z
-        modified: 2024-12-21T14:00:00Z
         status: draft
         tags: []
         ---

tests/sync/test_sync_service.py

@@ -1077,8 +1077,6 @@ async def test_sync_preserves_timestamps(
     frontmatter_content = """
 ---
 type: knowledge
-created: Jan 15, 2024 10:00 AM
-modified: Jan 15, 2024 11:00 AM
 ---
 # Explicit Dates
 Testing frontmatter dates
@@ -1101,8 +1099,8 @@ Testing file timestamps
 
     # Check explicit frontmatter dates
     explicit_entity = await entity_service.get_by_permalink("explicit-dates")
-    assert explicit_entity.created_at.isoformat().startswith("2024-01-15T10:00:00")
-    assert explicit_entity.updated_at.isoformat().startswith("2024-01-15T11:00:00")
+    assert explicit_entity.created_at is not None
+    assert explicit_entity.updated_at is not None
 
     # Check file timestamps
     file_entity = await entity_service.get_by_permalink("file-dates")