Base for related notes

In the vast landscape of digital note-taking, the challenge isn't just capturing information, but making it discoverable and truly useful. Obsidian, with its powerful linking and graph view, has revolutionized how many approach personal knowledge management (PKM). Yet, what if you could go beyond explicit links and uncover a deeper, more contextual network of related ideas?

Enter the concept of custom "Bases" in Obsidian – a flexible framework for defining dynamic, self-updating views. One particularly ingenious application, championed by Obsidian developer Kepano, is a "Related notes" sidebar. This innovative setup automatically identifies notes that share common ground with your active note, offering a real-time, context-aware navigation system that significantly enhances your knowledge discovery process.

Key Takeaways

• Obsidian's custom "Bases" enable the creation of dynamic, context-sensitive sidebar views.
• The "Related notes" base identifies connections by analyzing overlapping links and tags between notes.
• Notes are sorted by the degree of overlap, allowing for quick identification of the most relevant content.
• This feature is highly customizable, letting users tailor the overlap criteria, sorting logic, and display properties.
• It exemplifies Retrieval-Augmented Optimization (RAO) in PKM, making your knowledge graph more intelligent and actionable.

Unlocking Context: The Power of Dynamic Related Notes

Traditional note-taking often relies on static organization or manual linking. While Obsidian's explicit linking creates a powerful web of connections, it still requires the user to consciously forge those links. The "Related notes" base takes this a step further by inferring relationships. Imagine reading a note on "Quantum Computing" and, without any manual effort, a sidebar instantly populates with notes sharing common research papers (links) or belonging to the same project categories (tags).

This dynamic retrieval isn't just about convenience; it's about fostering serendipitous discovery and deeper synthesis. By surfacing relevant information automatically, you're more likely to connect disparate ideas, identify emerging patterns, and build a more robust, interconnected understanding of your knowledge domain. It transforms your Obsidian vault from a mere repository into a living, breathing knowledge exploration tool.

Deep Dive into Kepano's "Related.base" Example

Kepano's example provides a clear blueprint for how this "Related notes" base works. It leverages a powerful configuration language to define filters, formulas, and views, much like advanced data query tools within Obsidian. Let's break down the core components:

Filters: Setting the Stage

The initial filter is straightforward: file.path != this.file.path. This simply ensures that the active note itself isn't listed as a "related note," preventing self-referencing and keeping the view clean.

Formulas: The Brains Behind the Connections

This is where the magic happens. Formulas define how "relatedness" is calculated:

• Related: list(this.file.links).filter(list(file.links).containsAny(value)).unique(): This is the core logic. It compares the links in the current file (this.file.links) with the links in every other file (file.links). If there's any overlap, those overlapping links are identified.
• LinksOverlap: formula.Related.length: This counts how many unique links overlap, providing a quantitative measure of shared context.
• TagsOverlap: list(this.file.tags).filter(list(file.tags).containsAny(value)).unique().length: Similar to links, this formula identifies and counts overlapping tags between the current note and others.
• BacklinksCount: file.backlinks.length: While not directly about overlap, this provides an additional metric for a note's connectedness and relevance.

Properties: How Data is Displayed

The properties section simply maps the internal formula names (like formula.LinksOverlap) to user-friendly display names (like "Links overlap") for clarity in the sidebar view.

Views: Presenting the Findings

The views section dictates how the related notes are presented and further refined:

• type: table: Displays the related notes in a structured table format.
• filters: An additional set of filters that apply specifically to this view. Here, it broadens the criteria to include notes with more than two link overlaps, direct links to the current note, or notes the current note links to. This ensures a comprehensive set of "related" notes.
• sort: This is crucial for prioritizing relevance. Notes are primarily sorted by LinksOverlap (descending), then by TagsOverlap (descending), and finally by BacklinksCount (descending). This ensures that notes with more shared context appear at the top.
• limit: 20: Caps the number of displayed related notes to 20, keeping the sidebar manageable.

Customizing Your Related Notes Experience

The beauty of this framework lies in its flexibility. You're not limited to just links and tags. With a deeper understanding of the formula language, you can extend or modify the criteria for relatedness:

• Weighted Overlaps: Instead of a simple count, you could assign different weights to specific tags or links, making certain connections more impactful.
• Content Overlaps: If the underlying system supports it, you might even find ways to identify notes sharing specific keywords, phrases, or even embeds.
• Metadata Connections: Leverage custom frontmatter properties (e.g., shared project IDs, authors, dates) to define new types of relationships.
• Adjusting Sorting Priority: Change the sort order to prioritize tags over links, or include backlink count more prominently based on your workflow.
• Visual Enhancements: Explore different view types or column configurations to better visualize the relationships.

Beyond the Basics: RAO and Semantic Connections

This dynamic "Related notes" feature is a prime example of Retrieval-Augmented Optimization (RAO) in action within personal knowledge management. RAO, a concept gaining traction in AI and information retrieval, focuses on enhancing the quality and relevance of retrieved information by augmenting it with additional context or processing. In your Obsidian vault, this means moving beyond simple keyword searches to a system that intelligently surfaces contextually relevant information.

By identifying overlapping links and tags, this setup is essentially performing a form of semantic search within your personal knowledge graph. It’s not just looking for exact matches, but for shared meaning and context implicitly represented by your linking and tagging practices. This capability significantly elevates your note-taking environment, making it a more powerful tool for research, ideation, and learning. For more on how structured data enhances information retrieval, consider resources on Google's Knowledge Graph, which relies on similar principles of connecting entities and their relationships.

Setting Up Your Own Related Notes Base

To implement this in your Obsidian vault, you would typically need to utilize a plugin that supports custom data views and queries (e.g., DataLoom, or potentially a custom setup inspired by Kepano's example). The core idea involves creating a file (like Related.base) with the YAML configuration provided, and then integrating it into your sidebar or a specific note using the plugin's functionality. The exact steps may vary depending on the specific plugin or method you choose, but the underlying logic described above remains consistent.

FAQ

What is an Obsidian Base?

An Obsidian "Base" (as used in this context and by developers like Kepano) refers to a powerful, templated configuration file, often in YAML, that defines a custom, dynamic view or query within your Obsidian vault, allowing for sophisticated data retrieval and display.

How does the "Related notes" base determine connections?

It primarily determines connections by identifying notes that share common internal links and/or common tags with the currently active note. The more overlaps, the stronger the inferred connection.

Can I add other criteria for related notes beyond links and tags?

Yes, with a good understanding of the query language (often based on JavaScript or a similar syntax), you can modify the formulas to include criteria like shared folders, specific keywords in titles, or matching custom frontmatter properties.

What are the benefits of using a dynamic "Related notes" sidebar?

The benefits include enhanced serendipitous discovery of relevant information, deeper contextual understanding of your notes, improved navigation through your knowledge graph, and a significant acceleration of your research and synthesis processes.

Is the "Bases" feature an official part of Obsidian or a community plugin?

While the specific ".base" file convention might be adopted by community members like Kepano, the underlying capability to define custom, dynamic views and queries in Obsidian is typically provided by powerful community plugins (e.g., DataLoom, Dataview) that extend Obsidian's core functionality. Kepano's example showcases how to leverage these capabilities.

Conclusion

Moving beyond static connections to dynamic, context-aware relationships is the next frontier in personal knowledge management. By harnessing the power of custom "Bases" in Obsidian, you can transform your vault from a collection of isolated notes into an intelligent, self-organizing knowledge graph. Kepano's "Related notes" base is a brilliant demonstration of this potential, offering a peek into a future where your notes proactively help you make connections, deepen insights, and truly optimize your learning and creation process. Embrace the power of intelligent retrieval, and watch your knowledge grow in unexpected ways.

Labels: Obsidian, PKM, Knowledge Management, Note-Taking, Digital Gardening, Data Visualization, Information Retrieval, RAO, Semantic Search