Discourse Graph

Overview

Break down the research process into atomic units to augment the knowledge synthesis process. Create distinct objects for questions, claims, evidence, hypotheses or choose your own to suit your specific needs. These objects can then be related, resurfaced, and reused throughout your research journey to help you efficiently build arguments and create new knowledge.

Installation

Discourse Graphs depends on the Datacore plugin, so install Datacore first. Both plugins are available in Obsidian's community plugin browser.

1. Install Datacore

Datacore is required for Discourse Graphs to work, so install and enable it before the Discourse Graphs plugin.

1. Open Obsidian settings
2. Go to Community plugins and disable Restricted Mode
3. Click "Browse", search for "Datacore", then install and enable it

2. Install Discourse Graphs

Once Datacore is installed and enabled, add the Discourse Graphs plugin from Obsidian's community plugin browser:

1. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for "Discourse Graphs", then install and enable it

Or install directly from the community plugin page.

Getting started

The Discourse Graphs plugin gives you the ability to add additional semantic structure to your notes via specified page types (nodes) and relation types that model scientific discourse and enable more complex and structured knowledge synthesis work.

The plugin ships with several node types to provide a foundation for your scientific argumentation: Question, Claim, Evidence, and Source, as well as complementary relation types that can be used between them.

To see the default settings or begin adding your own node and relation types, open the Discourse Graphs plugin settings menu by navigating to it in Obsidian's settings menu or using the command: "Open Discourse Graphs settings"

Defining node types

To define a new node type for use in your vault navigate to the Node Types menu and click Add Node Type. Doing so will take you to an editing menu where you can choose the details of your new node type including its title, a description, a template to use, a color to represent that type in your vault, and more.

Defining relation types

The Discourse Graphs plugin ships with four default relation types: supports, opposes, informs, and derivedFrom. You can add your own in the Relation Types menu by clicking the Add relation type button and filling out the text fields that define your new type.

Defining relations

With nodes and relation types ready, the last step is to connect them in the Discourse Relations menu. Click Add Relation then choose a source node, relation type, target node, and then click Save Changes. These relations are now ready to use in your notes and canvases.

Usage

In notes

Creating nodes

There are three ways to create nodes in a note:

Turn text into a node with the node type selection menu

1. Highlight the text that you want to turn into a node
2. Use the hotkey ⌘ + \ to open the node type selection menu
3. Choose your node type

Turn text into a node from the right click menu

1. Highlight the text that you want to turn into a node
2. Right-click on the highlighted text and navigate to the menu option "Turn into discourse node"
3. Choose your node type

Create discourse node command

1. Search for and select "Create discourse node" from the command palette
2. In the node creation dialog, choose your node type and the title of your new node then click confirm
3. Your new node is created and a link to it is added to the location of your cursor

Creating relations

To create a relation between nodes:

1. Open the page of the node that you want to create the relation for
2. Run the command "Toggle discourse context" which will open a widget in the right sidebar
3. From there, click Add a new relation, choose the desired relation type and the node to link with, then click Confirm
4. The relation is now created and can be viewed or removed from this Discourse Context panel

On a canvas

The Discourse Graphs plugin uses tldraw to create canvases in Obsidian. To create a new canvas, run the command "Create new Discourse Graph Canvas".

Creating nodes

1. Click on the Discourse Graphs icon-button located in the bottom toolbar of the canvas
2. Drag the desired node type from the menu that appears in the top-right corner of the interface onto the canvas
3. Search for or create a new node with the input field in the node creation modal
4. Click Confirm to add this node to the canvas

Creating relations

1. Click on the Discourse Graphs icon-button located in the bottom toolbar of the canvas to show a menu in the top right of the interface
2. From the menu, select the desired relation type that you would like to draw between nodes
3. With the relation type selected, click and drag from one node card to another to create a relation between those nodes

Commands

Documentation

For more information about Discourse Graphs, check out our website and documentation.

Get involved

1. Join our growing community of academics, researchers, and thinkers on Slack 💬
2. Are you a lab or researcher interested in piloting the plugin with some guidance from the team? Send us an email or DM on Slack!
3. Discourse Graphs is open source and open to contributions. If you have an idea for an improvement or identify a bug open an issue here on the repo to start the conversation.