Wikilink Types

An Obsidian plugin that adds typed relationships to wikilinks. Type @ inside a wikilink alias to trigger an autocomplete dropdown of relationship types. On selection, the plugin syncs the relationship to YAML frontmatter automatically — so Dataview, Graph Link Types, Breadcrumbs, and the rest of the ecosystem can consume it without changes.

How It Works

Type @ inside a wikilink alias to trigger the autocomplete — either after a space or right after the |. You can use one or multiple relationship types in natural display text:

[[Analysis|The new research @supersedes and @contradicts the previous analysis]]

On save, each @type that matches a configured relationship type is synced to YAML frontmatter:

---
supersedes:
  - "[[Analysis]]"
contradicts:
  - "[[Analysis]]"
---

You never touch YAML. The @ syntax is the authoring interface. The YAML is the storage and compatibility layer. The frontmatter is the authoritative source for all programmatic and AI uses.

Rules

• @type must be preceded by a space or appear at the start of the alias (right after |) — john@causes.com is ignored, text @causes and [[Note|@causes]] both match
• Only configured relationship types generate frontmatter — @monkeyballs in display text is just text
• Multiple @types per wikilink are supported — each creates its own frontmatter entry
• @ in display text that doesn't match a configured type is left alone for human readability

Authoring Flow

1. Type [[Note Name|Your display text @ — the autocomplete dropdown appears
2. Select a relationship type (or keep typing to filter)
3. Continue writing display text, or add another @type
4. Close the link with ]]
5. On save, the plugin syncs matched types to YAML frontmatter

Installation

Community Plugins (coming soon)

1. Open Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
2. Search for Wikilink Types
3. Click Install, then Enable

BRAT (pre-listing)

If the plugin isn't in the Community Plugins directory yet, install via BRAT:

1. Install BRAT from Community Plugins
2. Open Command Palette → BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing
3. Paste: penfieldlabs/obsidian-wikilink-types
4. Click Add Plugin, then enable in Settings → Community Plugins

Manual

1. Download plugin.zip from the latest release
2. Unzip and copy the wikilink-types folder into your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
3. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins

Tip: Use Settings → Community Plugins → 📁 (Open plugins folder) to open the plugins directory, then drag the wikilink-types folder in.

Configuration

Relationship types are stored in data.json inside the plugin directory (.obsidian/plugins/wikilink-types/data.json). On first run, the plugin writes a default set of 24 types. Edit the JSON directly to add, remove, rename, or reorder types.

Each entry has three fields:

{
  "key": "supersedes",
  "label": "Supersedes",
  "description": "This replaces an outdated understanding"
}

• key — written to the wikilink and used as the YAML frontmatter field name
• label — displayed in the autocomplete dropdown
• description — shown below the label in the dropdown

Compatibility

Plugin	Works?	How
Dataview	Yes	Reads YAML frontmatter natively
Graph Link Types	Yes	Reads frontmatter via Dataview
Breadcrumbs	Yes	Reads frontmatter
Juggl	Yes	Reads Dataview metadata
Templater	Yes	No conflicts
Excalidraw	Yes	No conflicts

Graceful Degradation

If you uninstall the plugin:

• YAML frontmatter remains — no data loss
• @type text stays visible in wikilink aliases — readable, just not styled
• All Dataview queries continue to work
• Graph Link Types continues to work

AI-Assisted Relationship Discovery

The Vault Linker skill lets AI agents (Claude Code, OpenClaw, etc.) analyze your vault and discover relationships between notes. The agent reads your notes, identifies connections you might have missed, and writes them in the Wikilink Types format — with your approval.

See skill/SKILL.md for the full skill specification.

For autonomous/overnight linking of entire vaults, see prompts/autonomous-vault-linking.md.

License

AGPL-3.0