Better Backlinks

Better Backlinks

Better Backlinks shows each note's backlinks as cards, at the bottom of the note, in a sidebar, or both. Each note that links to the current note gets a card, and each card shows the whole block around the link as rendered markdown, not a one-line search hit.

It also finds notes that are related without linking: notes whose title contains this note's name, and notes that mention its name as plain text, with a button to turn each mention into a link. Daily and weekly notes can list the notes created on their day or during their week.

What it shows

Backlinks

One card per linking note, however many times it links here. The card shows the block the link sits in:

• A link in a heading shows that heading's whole section.
• A link in a list item shows the item and everything nested under it. When the item is nested, its parent items appear above it, dimmed, for context.
• A link in a paragraph, table, blockquote or callout shows that block.
• A link in a property, such as related: "[[Project Phoenix]]", appears as a row at the top of the card, showing the property's name and all its values.
• If several links fall in the same block, or one block contains another, they appear once, with every link highlighted.

Each card shows how many times the note links here and when it was last modified. Links in code blocks and embeds (![[...]]) don't count as backlinks.

Title matches

Notes whose title contains this note's name also appear, even if they never link to it. For example, 2026-09-24 Meeting with Joe appears under the daily note 2026-09-24. These cards show just the title, with the matching part highlighted.

The name must appear as a whole word, in any case, so a note called Joe matches Meeting with Joe but not Joel's plan. Titles identical to the note's name don't count, and neither do one-character names. If a note also links here, it gets a normal backlink card instead.

Unlinked mentions

An Unlinked mentions group lists notes that write this note's name as plain text without linking it. For example, "Planning to do x on 2026-09-24 in the evening" appears under the daily note 2026-09-24. Each card shows the block around the mention, with the text marked by a dashed underline. The cards start collapsed.

• Link after a mention turns that text into a link: 2026-09-24 becomes [[2026-09-24]]. Text cased differently from the note's name keeps its wording as the link's display text, so project atlas becomes [[Project Atlas|project atlas]]. Links follow your vault's link settings (wikilinks or Markdown links, and the path format).
• Link all on a card links every mention in that note.
• Click the marked text to jump to it in the source note.

Once a note is linked, its card moves up into the backlinks. Mentions are matched like titles (whole words, any case), and text inside existing links, tags, properties, code, URLs, %% comments %% and math is ignored. Finding mentions means reading every note, so in a large vault this group fills in over a second or so after the note opens. The backlinks above it appear straight away.

Notes created on this day or this week

Daily and weekly notes can list the notes created during their day or week, in a Created on this day or Created this week group. Both are off by default; turn them on under Daily notes and Weekly notes in the settings.

Each card shows when the note was created (the time, and on a weekly note the weekday too) and previews how the note starts. Like every group, they follow the sort order; choose Created (oldest first) to read the day or week in the order it was written.

• Recognizing daily notes: by default the plugin uses the date format and folder from Obsidian's Daily notes settings. If you use another plugin for daily notes, set Date format and Folder under Daily notes.
• Recognizing weekly notes: Obsidian has no built-in weekly notes. If the Periodic Notes plugin is on with weekly notes turned on, its format and folder are used. Otherwise weekly notes are named by ISO week, such as 2026-W40, in any folder. Either way you can set Week format and Folder under Weekly notes. ISO tokens (GGGG, WW) give Monday-to-Sunday weeks; locale tokens (gggg, ww) follow your locale's first day of the week.
• Creation dates: a note's creation date comes from its created property (for example created: 2026-09-24 or created: 2026-09-24T09:42) when it has one, and from the file otherwise. File dates can change when notes are synced, copied or restored; a property doesn't. You can change which property is used under Creation dates.

One list or groups

By default, backlinks, notes created on the day or week, and unlinked mentions appear in separate groups. Turn on Show everything in one list to see them together in a single list, in the note's sort order, without group headings. A note that would appear in several groups gets one card that combines them, for example "1 mention · 1 unlinked · created 9:42 AM", with its excerpts and Link buttons together.

Where it shows

At the bottom of notes

The Backlinks section sits under the note in Live Preview, Source mode and Reading view, and scrolls with it. On a short note it sits at the bottom of the pane like a footer. It's hidden when a note has nothing to show. Turn it off with Show backlinks section in the settings or the Toggle backlinks section command, or leave it out of Reading view with Show in Reading view.

Obsidian's core Backlinks plugin can also list backlinks at the bottom of notes, which would give you two lists. To turn that off, go to Settings → Core plugins → Backlinks and switch off Show backlinks at the bottom of notes. The core Backlinks pane in the sidebar isn't affected.

In the sidebar

Everything is also available in a sidebar, like Obsidian's own Backlinks pane. Open it with Better Backlinks: Open sidebar from the command palette, or with the ribbon icon (a stack of cards). It opens in the right sidebar, and you can drag it anywhere.

The sidebar shows the note you're working in and follows you as you switch notes. It works with the bottom section on or off, so you can use either or both. Collapsed cards and sort order are shared between the two.

On mobile

Better Backlinks works on phones and tablets. On mobile, and in the sidebar, cards are more compact so titles have room: titles are a little smaller, and the card's details drop their words ("1 · 3h ago" instead of "1 mention · 3h ago").

Everything takes its colours and fonts from your theme, in light and dark mode.

Using it

• Click a card's title to open that note. Cmd/Ctrl-click opens it in a new tab.
• Click a highlighted link to jump to that exact spot in the source note. The link is selected and briefly flashes so you can find it.
• Click a highlighted property link to open the source note with that property flashing.
• Tick a checkbox in an excerpt to update the task in the source note. Apart from Link on unlinked mentions, this is the only change the plugin makes to your notes.
• Click a card's header to collapse or expand it, or use Collapse all / Expand all in the Backlinks header for every card in the note: backlinks, notes created that day or week, and unlinked mentions. Each card remembers its state for the note you're viewing.
• Hover a title or link while holding Cmd/Ctrl to see a Page Preview popover. You can change whether the modifier is needed under Settings → Core plugins → Page preview → Better Backlinks.

Sorting

Cards are sorted by modified date, newest first, unless you choose otherwise. The sort button in the Backlinks header offers name (A to Z or Z to A), modified date and created date (newest or oldest first). The order applies to every group (backlinks, notes created on the day or week, and unlinked mentions) and to the whole list when everything is shown in one list. Blocks inside a card stay in the order they appear in the note.

The order you pick is saved for the note you're viewing. Other notes keep the default, which you can change in the settings. To make a note follow the default again, choose Use default in its sort menu. When sorting by created date, cards show when each note was created instead of when it was modified. Created dates come from a note's created property when it has one, and from the file otherwise.

Installing

From Obsidian: open Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Better Backlinks, then install and enable it.

By hand: download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release into <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/better-backlinks/, then enable Better Backlinks under Settings → Community plugins.

Better Backlinks works on desktop and mobile and needs Obsidian 1.7.2 or later.

Settings

Creation dates

Daily notes

Weekly notes

Privacy

Better Backlinks works entirely inside your vault and makes no network requests.

• Backlinks come from Obsidian's own link index, plus the text of each linking note, read to show its excerpt.
• Title matches and notes created on a day or week go through the list of your notes, using their names, properties and file dates.
• Unlinked mentions read your notes' text to find this note's name written without a link.

Only those last three go through your whole vault, and only while they're turned on. With Include title matches and Show unlinked mentions off (and the daily and weekly groups left off), the plugin reads only the notes that link to the one you're viewing. Nothing is stored outside the plugin's own settings file.

Development

npm install
npm run dev     # rebuild on change
npm run build   # type-check and production build
npm run lint    # ESLint with Obsidian's plugin review rules

To try a build, copy main.js, manifest.json and styles.css into a vault's .obsidian/plugins/better-backlinks/ folder, or symlink this folder there. If a vault named test-vault sits in this folder, each build is copied into it automatically.

• src/main.ts is the plugin entry: events, commands, the sidebar view and saved state.
• src/panel.ts builds the groups and cards for one note. Both places that show them host a panel: src/view.ts at the bottom of a note, and src/sidebar.ts in the sidebar.
• src/backlink-index.ts finds backlinks, title matches, unlinked mentions and notes created in a period, using Obsidian's metadata cache.
• src/excerpt.ts decides which block to show for each link. src/unlinked.ts, src/title-match.ts, src/periodic-notes.ts, src/properties.ts and src/sort.ts hold the other rules. None of these use the DOM, so they can be unit-tested.
• src/settings-tab.ts declares the settings, so they appear in Obsidian's settings search.

Releasing

1. Run npm version patch (or minor / major). This updates manifest.json, package.json and versions.json, commits, and tags the new version without a v, as Obsidian requires.
2. Run git push --follow-tags. Push one tag at a time: GitHub skips workflows when more than three tags arrive in one push.
3. The Release workflow builds the plugin and publishes a GitHub release for the tag with main.js, manifest.json and styles.css.

License

MIT