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Smart Connections

Exploring the Connections view

The Connections list is the core Smart Connections experience: a ranked list of notes (or blocks) that are related to what you are viewing right now.

If your vault has ever felt like "I know I wrote something about this, but where is it?", the Connections list is the answer. It resurfaces the most relevant context automatically so you can keep writing instead of organizing.

New to Smart Connections?

Start with Getting Started with Smart Connections for setup and the fastest first win.

The Connections loop (scan -> confirm -> act)
  1. Open any note and scan the top results.
  2. Preview 1-2 results (Cmd/Ctrl hover) to confirm relevance.
  3. Act immediately:
    • drag 1-3 results into your note to create links, or
    • copy a link list, or
    • send results to Smart Context.
  4. Use Pause when you want one note's connections to stay visible while you browse.
  5. Hide noisy items and pin the few that matter most.

What the list is for (PKM problems it solves)

Use the list to:

If you want "search by meaning" (query-first), use Smart Lookup.
If you want "what is related to what I am looking at right now?" (note-first), you are in the right place.

Pick your first workflow (fast self-selection)

Choose the path that matches what you do most often:

A) Writing: ground a draft in your existing notes

Use when: you are drafting and want citations, prior thinking, or related sections.

B) Research: build a meaning-ranked reading trail

Use when: you have many notes and want "what to read next" without organizing folders.

C) AI work: assemble grounded context fast

Use when: you want AI help but you want it grounded in your vault.

Learn more: Smart Context Clipboard and Smart Context Builder

Quick start (60 seconds)

  1. Open the Connections view.
  2. Open any note and scan the top results.
  3. Preview 1-2 results to confirm relevance (Cmd/Ctrl hover).
  4. Drag 1-3 results into your current note to create links.
  5. Use Pause when you want a stable set of connections while you switch notes.

Core interactions (the everyday moves)

1) Create links (fastest path from "relevant" to "connected")

Drag to add a link

Drag any result into an open note to create an Obsidian link.

This is the fastest way to grow a web of notes without "linking sessions".

Copy as list of links

Create links from all connections in one click.

Find the copy icon in:

Use this when you want a clean references section without previews:

2) Preview before you commit (confirm relevance without losing flow)

Hold Cmd/Ctrl while hovering a result to open Obsidian's native Hover Preview.

Use this to confirm relevance without leaving your current note.

Understanding the Connections list (mental model + UI cues)

Connections results update automatically when you change notes (unless you pause).

Connection score (yellow underlined)

The score algorithm uses cosine similarity by default. Pro users can choose additional scoring and ranking options.

Practical guidance:

  1. Compare scores within the same list (same note), not across different notes.
  2. Score ranges vary by embedding model.
  3. If results feel too broad or noisy, tune Sources vs Blocks, limits, and filters in Connections settings.

Show/hide content (Expand/collapse)

Each result can be expanded or collapsed to show more or less content.

Play/Pause updates (Play/Pause)

Play/Pause controls whether the list updates as you change notes.

Use Pause when:

Tip

A simple pattern:
Pause = "hold this anchor steady"
Copy links = "turn results into an index"
Send to context = "turn results into AI-ready grounding"

List controls (menu actions that unlock workflows)

The menu contains the controls that turn scanning into action.

Refresh

Refresh recomputes results for the current note.

Use it when:

Send to Smart Context

Send results to Smart Context is the fastest way to turn your Connections list into high-quality AI context grounded in your own vault.

A practical workflow:

  1. Pause the list on the note you are working on.
  2. Send results to Smart Context.
  3. Remove anything noisy and reorder what matters.
  4. Copy the final context to your AI tool.

Learn more:

Copy as a list of links

Copies the results as a simple list of Obsidian links.

Use it to:

Managing noise: Hide and Pin

As your vault grows, some connections will be technically related but not useful right now. The list includes fast feedback controls so you can stay focused.

Hide results

Right-click a result to hide it from the list.

Use hide when:

Unhide results

Right-click any result and choose Unhide All to bring hidden items back.

Use unhide when:

Pin results

If you see Pin in the right-click menu, use it to keep an item visible while you work.

Pinning is useful when:

Note

In Connections Pro, hidden and pinned signals can also be used by some algorithms to improve future ordering.
See Connections settings for scoring options.

When results are wrong (fast fixes)

If the list feels off, do the minimum fix that matches the symptom:

If you suspect indexing/embeddings are stale, check Smart Environment settings.

Connections displays (same loop, different surfaces)

The default Connections list lives in the sidebar. Pro adds additional surfaces that keep the same scan -> confirm -> act loop, but move it closer to where you work.

Graph view (Pro)

If you think spatially, enable the graph view to explore clusters of related notes.

Use the graph to:

To enable it, set Connections List Component in Connections settings to "Graph + List".

Footer connections (Pro)

Footer connections place a Connections panel at the bottom of your note so relevant links are always available while you write.

This is especially useful when:

Enable in Connections settings.

Inline connections (Pro)

See Connections appear alongside content while you write, right inside the editor.

Learn more: Inline connections

Related pages