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Smart Connections

Smart Connections settings

Smart Connections surfaces related content in two main ways:

Use these settings to control granularity (sources vs blocks), performance (limits and filters), and UI defaults (how results are rendered).

Note

These settings control what is shown in Connections and Lookup. To control what is indexed/embedded, see Smart Environment settings.

Where to find these settings in Obsidian

Open Settings -> Community plugins -> Smart Connections (or Connections Pro)

Many options are marked PRO. If you are not on Pro, you may see fewer controls than the screenshots on this page.

Connections lists

These options change what appears in the main Connections list for the current note.

Connection results type

Choose whether Connections returns:

If you choose Blocks, you will get the best results when Smart Environment is configured to embed blocks (see Smart Environment settings).

Results limit

Controls how many Connections are displayed (default 20). Lower values reduce UI load; higher values show more candidates.

Show full path (PRO)

When enabled, results include the folder path. This helps disambiguate similarly named notes and makes it easier to understand where a match lives in your vault.

Render markdown (PRO)

When enabled, result snippets render markdown.

Turn this off if you:

Display

These settings control how the Connections list is rendered and how list items look.

Connections List Component (PRO)

Select the component used to render the Connections list.

Example: PRO: Graph + List shows both a graph view and a list view.

Connections list item (PRO)

Select the list item renderer (template) used for each result.

This is mainly a UI preference: different item renderers may show different metadata, previews, or controls.

Hide frontmatter blocks in results (PRO)

When using Blocks results, enabling this hides blocks that come from frontmatter (YAML) so the list focuses on note content.

Score algorithm

The score algorithm computes an initial similarity score between the current context and candidates.

Scoring algorithm (PRO)

Select how items are scored against the current context.

Options shown in the UI include:

The feedback-based options incorporate your feedback signals to influence future ordering. If you want a baseline, start with Cosine Similarity.

Cosine Similarity algorithm

Ranks by cosine similarity between the current note and candidates.

Ranking algorithm

Ranking is a second step that can reorder results after the initial scoring step. This is where heavier algorithms (like reranking models) make sense, because they can be applied to a smaller set of top candidates.

Ranking algorithm (PRO)

Enables a reranking strategy that modifies the order of results after initial scoring.

Re-ranking model algorithm (PRO)

Uses a reranking model to adjust the order of connection results.

To use a reranking model, configure the default ranking model in Smart Environment Pro settings (see Smart Environment settings).

Filters

Filters hide items from the Connections results list.

How filters match

Result filters vs ingestion

Connections filters hide results after Smart Environment builds its dataset.

If you want to stop notes from being indexed/embedded at all, adjust Smart Environment include/exclude settings (Environment window or plugin settings). See Smart Environment settings.

Precedence

Entries in the Exclude filter always win when they match, even if the same fragment appears in the Include filter.

Exclude inlinks (backlinks) (PRO)

Exclude notes that already link to the current note from the Connections results.

Use this when you want Connections to surface "unlinked but relevant" notes, not the ones already connected by backlinks.

Exclude outlinks (PRO)

Exclude notes that are already linked from within the current note from appearing in the Connections results.

Use this to avoid re-suggesting notes you have already linked to.

Include filter (PRO)

Comma-separated path fragments that must appear in the note path.

Use this to focus results on specific areas of your vault, like:

Note

This only affects the results list. Smart Environment may still embed matching notes unless they are excluded there.

Exclude filter (PRO)

Comma-separated path fragments to omit from results.

Exclusions run before includes, so any matching fragment removes the note even if it also appears in Include filter.

If you want matching notes to not be embedded at all, use Smart Environment include/exclude settings (see Smart Environment settings).

Inline connections

Inline connections show Connections at the block level inside the current note.

Show inline connections (PRO)

When enabled, Smart Connections shows connections for each block within the note.

Hover the connections icon to see a list of connections for that block.

Inline connections score threshold (PRO)

Minimum score (0 to 1) required before inline connections are displayed.

Skip code blocks (PRO)

When enabled, inline connections are not shown for blocks inside code blocks.

This is useful when:

Footer connections

Footer connections show a Connections section at the bottom of each note.

Show footer connections (PRO)

When enabled, Connections are displayed at the bottom of each note.

This is useful if you want a consistent place to browse related notes without opening the side panel.

Lookup lists

Lookup lists control what is shown in Lookup views (and other lookup-based lists).

Lookup results type

Choose whether Lookup returns sources or blocks.

As with Connections results, block-level results are most useful when Smart Environment is configured to embed blocks (see Smart Environment settings).

Results limit (PRO)

Adjust the number of lookup results displayed (default 20).