Backlinks

The Backlinks plugin shows all notes that link to the current note, and surfaces unlinked mentions of its name across your vault.

The Backlinks plugin shows all backlinks for the active note — that is, every other note that links to it.

For example, if “Three laws of motion” contains a link to “Isaac Newton”, then “Three laws of motion” appears as a backlink on the “Isaac Newton” note.

Backlinks help you find context you may have forgotten — notes you wrote earlier that relate to what you’re reading now.

View backlinks

Click the Backlinks tab in the right sidebar to see backlinks for the active note.

If the Backlinks tab isn’t visible, open the Command palette and run Backlinks: Show backlinks to make it appear.

The Backlinks panel has two sections:

• Linked mentions — notes that contain an internal link ([[Note name]]) to the active note.
• Unlinked mentions — notes that contain the exact name of the active note as plain text, but without a link.

Panel options

Option	Description
Collapse results	Toggle whether each result is expanded to show matching text.
Show more context	Toggle between a short excerpt and the full paragraph containing the mention.
Change sort order	Control how mentions are ordered in the list.
Show search filter	Show a text field to filter mentions. Supports all Search operators.

Files matching your Settings → Excluded files patterns will not appear in unlinked mentions.

Open backlinks for a specific note

The default Backlinks tab updates whenever you switch notes. To pin the backlinks of a specific note, open a linked backlinks tab:

1. Open the Command palette

   Press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on macOS).

2. Run the command

   Select Backlinks: Open backlinks for the current note.

A separate tab opens next to your active note, showing a link icon to indicate it’s pinned to that note.

Show backlinks inside a note

Instead of using a sidebar panel, you can display backlinks directly at the bottom of a note.

1. Open the Command palette

   Press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on macOS).

2. Toggle in-document backlinks

   Select Backlinks: Toggle backlinks in document.

To make this the default for all notes, enable Backlink in document in the Backlinks plugin options under Settings → Core plugins → Backlinks.

Use backlinks to find connections

Unlinked mentions are especially useful for discovering connections you didn’t deliberately create. If you wrote a note about a topic before you had a dedicated note for that topic, the unlinked mentions section will surface it. You can then click the mention to create a proper link.