Links and backlinks

Linking notes together is the one habit that makes Nodez more useful than a folder of text files. Everything else - backlinks, the graph, what an AI assistant can answer - is built from the links you write.

Writing a link#

Put the name of another note in double square brackets:

See Vault Model for how this works.

That is the whole syntax. The link becomes clickable, and the note you linked to now knows about it.

You can link to a note that does not exist yet. Nodez marks it as unresolved rather than treating it as a mistake - writing Migration Plan before you have written that note is a perfectly good way to leave yourself a marker. The unresolved links are worth reviewing occasionally; they are usually either notes worth writing or typos worth fixing.

Backlinks come free#

A backlink is the link in reverse. If your Architecture note links to Vault Model, then Vault Model shows Architecture in its backlinks - without you doing anything, and without editing that note.

This is more useful than it sounds. You write links forwards, in the direction your thinking happens to run at the time. Backlinks let you read them backwards: open any note and see everything that referred to it. Notes you had forgotten turn up next to the ones you were expecting.

Both directions are shown side by side, so you can see what a note points at and what points back.

Tags#

Tags are the other way to group notes, for when a link would be too strong a claim. Write them in the note body or in the frontmatter at the top of the file:

---
title: Vault Model
tags:
  - architecture
  - storage
---

Links say these two things are related. Tags say this belongs to that category. Most vaults end up using both.

What Nodez keeps track of#

As you write, Nodez quietly maintains a list of what is in your vault: note titles, file paths, headings, tags, which notes link out, which link back, and which links are still unresolved.

You never interact with this directly. It is what makes search return results as you type and backlinks appear the moment you save. It is rebuilt from your files and is never the source of truth - delete it and Nodez builds it again from the Markdown.

Changes show up straight away, including edits made in another app while Nodez is open.

Searching#

Search looks across your notes and returns matches as you type.

Being straight about where this stands: search today is fast but simple. It finds your text, but it does not yet rank results as well as it should - a match in a note's title ought to count for more than a passing mention halfway down a long note, and currently it does not. Better ranking is on the list. See What's next.

For finding things by relationship rather than by word - what connects to this, how do these two notes relate - the graph is the better tool. See How Nodez works.