Smart Connections FAQs

Smart Connections Core is free for Obsidian. You can install Smart Connections for free, while optional Connections Pro features are included in Pro plugins.

No by default. Indexing and retrieval run locally on your device, and if you enable a cloud model for an optional workflow, only the context you intentionally send is shared. Review Smart Environment settings and the Privacy Policy.

Your notes typically remain in your vault by default. The website and subscription service may collect limited operational data as described in the Privacy Policy. If you enable a cloud provider, the content you send is handled under that provider terms.

Not for Smart Connections Core. You can install the plugin and start discovering related notes without any API key; keys only matter if you opt into certain cloud providers. See Getting Started.

Yes. After your vault is indexed, Connections and Lookup work offline using local embeddings. Internet is only needed if you choose cloud providers in Smart Environment settings.

Yes. Smart Connections works in Obsidian on iOS and Android. Footer connections are included in Core and are especially useful on mobile. See Smart Plugins on mobile.

Initial embedding can be resource-heavy for large vaults. After indexing, day-to-day retrieval is designed to stay lightweight, and you can tune limits and exclusions in Connections settings and Smart Environment settings.

Install Smart Connections from Obsidian Community Plugins, enable it, open the Connections view, then start writing while indexing completes. See Getting Started.

Connections is the live, note-first sidebar for related notes while you write. Smart Lookup is on-demand semantic search for targeted questions.

Smart Connections uses local AI embeddings to surface notes by meaning, not just matching words. Use Connections for in-flow discovery and Smart Lookup for targeted semantic search.

No. Use Connections when the current note is the anchor, Lookup when a question is the anchor, and Obsidian search when the exact word, file, heading, tag, or regex matters. See the Connections view.

No. Smart Connections is useful before your vault is perfectly linked, tagged, or foldered. Start with one working note, scan ranked suggestions, and turn the best matches into links or context. See Exploring the Connections view.

No. Smart Connections complements backlinks by finding semantically related notes even when there are no links, then helps you turn relevance into links with in-flow actions. See Exploring the Connections view.

Not necessarily. Related notes can be useful neighbors. Use Smart Dedupe when you need to review likely repeated blocks or near-duplicates before changing notes.

Connections Pro adds in-flow surfaces like Inline connections, graph/list exploration, Bases integration, deeper ranking controls, and large-vault performance. Core stays free.

Embeddings and index data are stored locally in your vault under .smart-env/. Review storage and provider settings in Smart Environment settings.

If you use Syncthing or similar third-party sync, add .smart-env/ to ignore patterns to reduce conflicts. See Smart Environment settings.

Use Smart Environment exclusions to skip folders, and in some workflows specific files, so private archives, exports, and backups are not embedded or returned. Start with Smart Environment settings.

Open the Connections view, switch to a note with enough text, and wait for indexing to finish. If results are still empty, confirm exclusions and readiness in Smart Environment settings.

Sources return whole notes for broader, faster context. Blocks return smaller sections for more precision but can cost more compute and storage. Configure this in Connections settings.

Use limits and filters by folders or metadata, adjust Sources vs Blocks, and use custom algorithms only after fixing scope. See Connections settings and custom algorithms.

Use Refresh in the Connections workflow for the current note. For model swaps or vault-wide changes, reset and rebuild in Smart Environment settings.

Changing embedding models usually requires Reset data so your vault is re-indexed with the new vectors. Review Smart Environment settings.

Smart Connections Core defaults to a local embedding model and lets you switch models in Smart Environment settings. After switching, rebuild for consistent results.

Smart Chat is a separate Obsidian plugin. Smart Connections focuses on local connections and Lookup, while Smart Chat handles chat workflows and provider routing.

Yes. You can run Smart Connections alongside Obsidian Copilot. If features overlap, adjust hotkeys and keep the workflows you prefer. See the Obsidian Copilot alternative comparison.

The code is source available under the Smart Plugins License. It is not OSI open source because the license restricts direct general-purpose competition while still allowing auditing and modification.