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Smart Connections

Getting Started with Smart Connections

Accessing features

Primary features can be access via the ribbon (left) and command palette (center).

Open the Connections view

Click the Connections view icon (left) or open the command palette to select the "Open: Connection view" command (center).

Open the Lookup view

Click the Lookup view icon (left) or open the command palette to select the "Open: Lookup view" command (center).

Open a random connection

Click the random connection icon (left) or open the command palette to select the "Open: Random note from connections" command (center). Note: The random connection function requires the connections view to be active.

Connections view

Use the Connections view to see relevant content based on the current note.

Using the Connections view

Connections view results update automatically when you change notes. The name of the current note is located in the bottom-left of the Connections view.

Result score (underlined)

The result score is based on the semantic similarity between the result and the current note. The value and range will change depending on the embedding model being used.

Show/hide content (expand or collapse)

Results can be expanded or collapsed within the Connections view. The button in the row at the top can be used to expand/collapse all results.

Updating the results (Play/Pause)

The play/pause buttons in the top-left of the Connections view is used to control whether to update the results as you change notes.

Lookup query (semantic search)

Opens the Lookup pane to make a semantic query.

Interacting with the Connections view

Creating links from the Connections view is as easy as dragging a result into an open note. Holding ⌘/ctrl while hovering the mouse over a result will show the Obsidian native Hover Preview.

Hide connections

Right-click a connection to open the menu and hide it from the results.

Unhide connections

Right-click any connection to open the menu and unhide all previously hidden connections.

Lookup view (semantic search)

Perform semantic lookups using the Lookup view.

Note

Semantic queries do not work like regular search queries. For example, a note containing the exact query may not be returned in the results.

Inline connections (Pro)

Hover the connections icon that appears inline with your content to surface a pop‑over of semantically related blocks from across your vault.
Hold ⌘/Ctrl while hovering over a result (blue highlight) to trigger Obsidian’s Hover Preview (displayed in pink). Click a result to open its note in a new tab.

Tip

Inline Connections is a Pro plugin feature that’s currently available to Smart Connections community supporters.
Enable it from Settings → Smart Connections → Pro Plugins.

Settings

Connections & Lookup views

Results type

Choose to use sources or blocks (more granular) for the results returned by the Connections and Lookup views.

Results limit

Set a cap on how many connection results are shown per note. A smaller number can improve clarity and performance; a higher number surfaces more context.

Smart Environment

Read the Smart Environment settings documentation to learn more.

Connections Pro

Learn more about Connections Pro.

More Smart Plugins

Try these plugins to expand your workflow: