Wikilinks & Backlinks

Wikilinks are how knowledge connects in MindWiki. Backlinks are the automatic reverse view of those connections. Together they let your vault build a graph of itself with no extra effort beyond writing.

Writing a wikilink

Anywhere in a page, type:

[[Target Page]]

The link resolves to a page with that title or filename. Click it to navigate.

If you want different display text from the target name:

[[Target Page|how it should appear]]

Wikilinks work in body text, list items, table cells, and code-adjacent prose. They're standard markdown plus the [[...]] extension.

Autocomplete

Type [[ and an autocomplete menu opens with every page in your vault. Filter as you type. Press Enter to insert.

  • Web app — autocomplete fires on [[ automatically.
  • macOS app — autocomplete fires on [[, plus the /wikilink slash command lets you insert an empty wikilink with the cursor pre-positioned.

Resolution rules

When you write [[Target Page]], MindWiki resolves it in this order:

  • Exact match on the target page's title frontmatter field.
  • Exact match on the file name (case-insensitive, with or without .md).
  • Path-suffix match (e.g. Target Page matches research/target-page.md).

If multiple pages match, the macOS app shows a chooser; the web app picks the most recently updated match.

Clicking a wikilink

In both editors, clicking a [[wikilink]] opens the target page. In the macOS app you can also Cmd+Click to open in a new tab.

If a wikilink doesn't resolve to anything, clicking it offers to create the page.

Backlinks

When page A contains [[Page B]], page B automatically gains a backlink from page A. You don't have to do anything — the inverse relationship is computed from the link graph.

The macOS app shows backlinks in the Inspector panel on the right side of every page. The panel lists every page that links to the current page, with a snippet showing the surrounding context.

The graph

Every wikilink is also an edge in the knowledge graph. The macOS app has a full-canvas Knowledge Graph view that visualizes every page as a node and every wikilink as an edge. Pages with the most inbound links are highlighted as hubs. See Knowledge Graph.

Bulk linking patterns

A few patterns that make linking less of a chore:

  • Wikilink as you write. Whenever you mention a concept that already has a page, link it then and there. The cost is one keystroke; the benefit is permanent.
  • Hub pages. Create an index page for any topic you write about a lot (e.g. a project, a research area). Link new pages from the hub. Backlinks then provide the reverse navigation for free.
  • Daily review. Every few days, scan recent captures and add wikilinks where they fit. The linking effort compounds without ever feeling like work.

Renaming and links

Renaming a page on macOS updates the file on disk. Existing wikilinks pointing to the old name continue to resolve as long as either the new file name or the new title frontmatter still matches. For ambiguous cases, fix the wikilinks manually — the macOS app's Find feature can locate every reference quickly.

Where to go next