---
title: "Knowledge graph and links"
description: "Wiki-links, backlinks, ghost nodes, and the link graph — how Notarium turns a pile of notes into a network."
---

# Knowledge graph and links

Notes in Notarium are linked by hand — through `[[wiki-links]]`. From those links the engine builds a knowledge graph: a network that shows what points to what and what leads back to the current note. The graph is derived knowledge: it is fully computed from the contents of your files and restored by a rebuild, so the source of truth holds nothing but the `.md` files themselves.

## Wiki-links

A link to another note is just `[[Note title]]` written inline. You can also add a label: `[[Note title|how to show it]]`. In reading mode, the link is clickable:

```md
See also [[Access model]] and [[Hybrid search|how search works]].
```

- a click takes you to the note inside the app;
- a click with a modifier opens it in a new tab;
- if no note with that title exists, Notarium offers to create it.

Links are resolved by a stable name rather than by a path in the tree, so moving or renaming the target note doesn't break the `[[links]]` that lead to it.

## Backlinks

A backlink is an incoming connection: another note that links to the current one. Notarium computes them automatically — nothing to mark up by hand. The side panel of an open note gathers its immediate surroundings: the local graph around it, the list of outgoing and incoming links, metadata, and the edit history. That way a note is read not in isolation but in the context of everything connected to it.

## Ghost nodes

You can point a link at a note that doesn't exist yet — that's a normal top-down way to work: sketch the connections first, fill them in later. These links to not-yet-created notes show up in the graph as hollow "ghost" nodes.

> [!tip] A ghost node is a growth point
> Clicking a ghost node creates a note with that title, and every link leading to it immediately goes "live." The graph shows you which notes you're missing.

## The link graph

The full graph of a space is an interactive map with a force-directed layout. Node color is set by folder or by link cluster, node size by the number of links and words. The graph panel offers grouping, density control, filters (by links, by "dead" links, by tags), and search that focuses on a selected node. See [Navigation](/docs/guides/navigation/) for more on navigating the graph.

![A space's graph: node colour by folder, node size by the number of links](/media/app-graph-light.webp)

## The graph as a search signal

Links aren't only for navigation. Notarium uses the wiki-link graph as an extra ranking signal in [hybrid search](/docs/concepts/search/): for the notes it finds, it pulls in their nearest neighbors. This is a separate, third search channel.

> [!note] Graph boost in search is off by default
> The graph ranking channel is turned on with the `GRAPH_BOOST` flag and is disabled by default; it has no effect if semantic search is off. This doesn't affect link and graph navigation itself — that always works.

The graph is built within a single space: each space keeps its own isolated index and graph. No links form between notes in different spaces.

Related topics: [File-first](/docs/concepts/file-first/) — why the graph is recoverable from files, [Spaces and projects](/docs/concepts/spaces-and-projects/) — the boundaries of the graph, [Hybrid search](/docs/concepts/search/) — how links factor into ranking.