Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/xwmx/nb/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

nb supports [[wiki-style links]] between notes, bookmarks, and other items, turning your notebook into an interconnected knowledge base. Links are written directly in the body of any document using double square brackets, and nb browse renders them as clickable navigation links in both terminal and GUI browsers. This makes nb a capable platform for Zettelkasten, personal wikis, and other link-based note-taking methods. A wiki-style link wraps an item identifier in double square brackets: [[identifier]]. The identifier can be an item’s numeric ID, its title, its filename, or a relative folder path combined with any of those forms.

Linking Within the Same Notebook

# link to the item with id 123 at the root of the current notebook
[[123]]

# link to the item titled "Example Title" in the current notebook
[[Example Title]]

# link to item 456 inside the "Sample Folder" folder
[[Sample Folder/456]]

# link to the item titled "Demo Title" inside "Sample Folder"
[[Sample Folder/Demo Title]]

Linking Across Notebooks

Prefix the identifier with the notebook name and a colon to link to items in other notebooks:
# link to item 123 in the "sample" folder of the "example" notebook
[[example:sample/123]]

# link to the item titled "Example Title" in the "demo" notebook
[[demo:Example Title]]

# link to the file "Example File.md" in the "sample" notebook
[[sample:Example File.md]]
Append a pipe | character followed by the display text to render a link with a label that differs from the identifier:
# renders as [[Example Link Text]] but navigates to item 123 in "example"
[[example:123|Example Link Text]]

A Complete Linking Example

The following shows a small set of notes that reference each other using all three identifier forms:
1

Create the destination notes

nb add --title "Project Overview" "High-level goals and timeline."
nb add --title "API Reference" "Endpoint documentation."
2

Link from a third note

nb add --title "Getting Started" \
  "See [[Project Overview]] for goals and [[API Reference]] for endpoints.

Cross-notebook reference: [[docs:Style Guide]]."
3

Browse to follow links

nb browse
# click any [[link]] to navigate to the target item
nb resolves [[wiki-style links]] by matching the identifier against items in order:

Filename Match

The identifier is first checked against item filenames and relative paths.

ID Match

Numeric identifiers are resolved to the item with that ID in the index.

Title Match

If no filename or ID matches, nb searches item titles for the identifier.
For cross-notebook links ([[notebook:identifier]]), the same resolution order applies within the target notebook.

Browsing Linked Notes

When viewing items with nb browse, every [[wiki-style link]] is rendered as a clickable hyperlink. Selecting a link navigates to the target item, and the browser’s back navigation returns you to the linking document.
# open a note in the browser — links are clickable
nb browse example:sample/42
❯nb · example : sample / 42 · ↓ · edit | +

Example Title

#tag1 #tag2

Example content with link to [[Demo Title]].

More example content:

  • one
  • two
  • three
Links to items in other notebooks navigate seamlessly across notebook boundaries without leaving the browser session.
Use nb browse --gui to open links in your system’s default GUI browser for a richer visual experience, including the optional Ace editor for in-browser editing.

Zettelkasten and Knowledge Mapping

Wiki-style links make nb well-suited for Zettelkasten workflows. Each note can act as an atomic idea that links to related concepts:
# 202401151200 — Attention Mechanisms

Core idea: attention weights allow a model to focus on relevant tokens.

Links:
- [[202401151100 — Transformer Architecture]]
- [[202401151300 — Self-Attention vs Cross-Attention]]

#ml #transformers/attention
Because links are plain text, they are preserved in Git history, work in any text editor, and remain navigable through nb browse in any terminal.

Org-Mode Compatibility

[[wiki-style links]] are designed to cooperate with Org links, which use a similar double-bracket syntax. This makes it practical to maintain a mixed collection of Markdown and Org files that link to each other. When saving bookmarks, use the ## Related section (written by hand or via notes) to track associated links alongside [[wiki-style links]]:
nb browse text:formats/markdown/123
❯nb · text : formats / markdown / 123 · ↓ · edit | +
Daring Fireball: Markdown (daringfireball.net)

https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/

Related

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown

Comments

See also:

  • [[text:formats/org]]
  • [[cli:apps/nb]]

Tags

#markup #plain-text
For a full reference on item selectors used in links, see the Selectors documentation. For information on navigating links in the browser, see the Browsing guide.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love