Backlinks
Write Once, Both Sides Have It
Write [[some concept]] in note A and two things happen at once:
- A clickable link appears in A's body
- A backlink appears on that node — A is listed among the notes referencing it
The second needs nothing from you. You only ever write one direction; the other is indexed, not maintained. That is what separates a backlink from an ordinary hyperlink: a link on the web is one-way, and the far end never knows about it.
Writing links and their autocomplete (the cursor-following popover on macOS, the bar above the keyboard on iOS, hover previews) are covered in Insert Links. This page is about the structure those links form.
The Three Tabs of a Node
Open any node from the node list and the main area splits into three tabs:
| Tab | Holds |
|---|---|
| Content | The node's own body, editable like any note |
| Backlinks | Every note referencing it, sortable and filterable |
| Relations (iOS) / Co-occurrence (macOS) | Which nodes it keeps appearing with, plus predictions and AI suggestions |
That Content tab is where Jotaid parts ways with plain backlink tools: a concept is not just an intersection, it is a note you can keep writing.
The Node List
In Node view the left pane lists the current project's nodes, each row carrying:
- A reference count — how many notes cite it
- Its type badge — Core / Bridge / Emerging
- Sorting by reference count or name from the funnel menu, plus filters by tag and theme
The list tracks your links live: write a new [[ ]] and that node's count goes up immediately; delete the link and it goes down. There is no "rebuild index" step.
A node whose count drops to zero stays in the list — it still has a body, it just has no notes citing it right now. The graph's network insight calls these out as isolated nodes and suggests connecting them.
The Ones Not Yet Connected
You will not have wrapped every occurrence of a concept in [[ ]]. Those plain-text mentions are not links yet: absent from backlinks, absent from the graph.
Jotaid finds them so you can backfill in one click — see "Backfilling Mentions Into Links" in Managing Nodes, and Semantic Relations.
Next Steps
- Knowledge Graph — These links as a network
- Unlinked Mentions — Connections not yet made
- Co-occurrence Matrix — Another reading of relationship strength