Links and Markdown

kknow reads standard CommonMark and adds the wiki syntax that Obsidian users know.

What the parser understands

Syntax	Meaning
[[note]]	link to a note
[[note|alias]]	link with a different text
[[note#Heading]]	link to a heading
[[note#^block]]	link to a block
![[note]]	embed a note or an image
[text](note.md)	usual Markdown link
#tag, #nested/tag	tags
--- … --- at the top	YAML frontmatter

The parser skips code and math. `[[this is not a link]]` is not a link, and #include in a code block is not a tag.

How a short link finds a note

A short link follows the usual wiki rules:

1. kknow tries the full path from the vault root.
2. Then it tries the file name.
3. Then it tries a path suffix.

If many notes have the same name, kknow selects the note that is closest in the folder tree.

Backlinks

The note header shows the number of notes that link to the open note. Its menu opens each of them. In the terminal:

kknow backlinks "Project plan"
kknow links "Project plan"     # outgoing links
kknow broken                   # links to notes that do not exist
kknow orphans                  # notes with no incoming links

Rename and move

When you rename or move a note or a folder, kknow updates the links to it in the other notes. The rule is simple: after the move, each link must find the same note.

• A short link that still finds the note stays as it is. Thus most moves change no other file, and git and sync see no noise.
• A link that would break gets the full path.
• The alias, #Heading, #^block and the ! of an embed stay.
• Links in code stay too.

The status bar tells how many notes changed.

Raw HTML

The preview does not show raw HTML from a note. A note can come from another person's vault or from sync. A <script> in it would run with the privileges of the app.

HTML comments stay in the file. kknow uses two kinds of them:

• <!-- @agent «words»: task --> — a comment for an AI agent. See Agents.
• <!-- confluence: 987654321 --> — a parameter for a custom command. See Custom commands.