# Special Fields

Astro Editor treats a few frontmatter fields specially – both in the frontmatter sidebar and elsewhere. The **title**, **date**, **description**, and **draft** fields can each be remapped per project or per collection in the [Preferences](https://astroeditor.danny.is/preferences/#frontmatter-mappings) – the precise override rules are covered in [Overrides](https://astroeditor.danny.is/reference/overrides/).

## Title

Represents the item's **title**. Uses `title` by default but can be overridden in the preferences. The title field is special in the following ways:

- **File list** — shown as each file's name in the [sidebar](https://astroeditor.danny.is/file-management/overview/), falling back to the filename when unset.
- **Frontmatter panel** — rendered as a larger, bold, auto-expanding input which always appears at the top of the panel. A **Copy as slug** button is shown below which copies a URL-friendly version of the title to your clipboard.
- **Sorting** — used as the **Title** [sort option](https://astroeditor.danny.is/file-management/drafts-filtering-and-sorting/), and the alphabetical tiebreaker which the **Default** sort uses for files that share a date or have none.
- **Filtering** — the filter box matches against the title as well as the filename.
- **Content Finder** — entries are listed and searched by their title.
- **New files** — a `title` field is pre-filled with a placeholder like "New Article".

## Date

Represents the item's primary **date** – usually its published date. Uses `date` by default but can be overridden in the preferences. The date field is used here:

- **File list** — shown next to each file if set, and used by the **Default** sort (newest first).
- **New files** — set to today's date when new files are created.
**Tip:** If your posts use a date field that isn't called `date` (such as `pubDate`), set it in the [Preferences](https://astroeditor.danny.is/preferences/#frontmatter-mappings) so sorting works as you'd expect.

## Description

This one is purely cosmetic: a field named `description` (or whatever's configured in the overrides) is rendered as an expanding multi-line textarea in the sidebar.

## Draft

Signifies that a content item is a **draft**. Defaults to `draft` but can be overridden. A file counts as a draft only when this field is set and is exactly `true`. It's used for:

- **File list** — draft files show a **Draft** badge in the sidebar.
- **Draft filtering** — the "Show Drafts Only" toggle uses this field. See [Drafts, Filtering & Sorting](https://astroeditor.danny.is/file-management/drafts-filtering-and-sorting/).

## Slug

Unlike the fields above, `slug` isn't a configurable mapping. Astro Editor always looks for a field named exactly `slug` and uses it only when a collection has a URL pattern configured: the `{slug}` placeholder is filled from the `slug` field rather than the file's `id`. See [Overrides](https://astroeditor.danny.is/reference/overrides/) for more.