Internal links - Obsidian Help

Internal links

aliases:
  - How to/Internal link
  - How to/Link to blocks
cssclasses:
  - soft-embed
description: Learn how to link to notes, attachments, and other files from your notes, using internal links.
mobile: true
permalink: links
publish: true

Learn how to link to notes, attachments, and other files from your notes, using internal links. By linking notes, you can create a network of knowledge.

Obsidian can automatically update internal links in your vault when you rename a file. If you want to be prompted instead, you can disable it under:

Settings → Files and links → Automatically update internal links.

Supported formats for internal links

Obsidian supports the following link formats:

The examples above are equivalent, and they appear the same way in the editor and links to the same note.

To link to a note in a folder, include the folder path before the note name. Folder paths start at the vault root and use forward slashes (/), even on Windows: [[Projects/Three laws of motion]] or [Three laws of motion](Projects/Three%20laws%20of%20motion.md).

If the link points to a note that doesn't exist yet, Obsidian creates the note at that folder path instead of using your default location for new notes.

Note When using the Markdown format, make sure to URL encode the link destination. For example, blank spaces become %20.

By default, due to its more compact format, Obsidian generates links using the Wikilink format. If interoperability is important to you, you can disable Wikilinks and use Markdown links instead.

To use the Markdown format:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Under Files and Links, disable Use [[Wikilinks]].

Even if you disable the Wikilink format, you can still autocomplete links by typing two square brackets [[. When you select one of the suggested files, Obsidian instead generates a Markdown link.

Link to a heading in a note

You can link to specific headings in notes, also known as anchor links.

Linking to a heading within the same note

To link to a heading within the same note, type [[# to get a list of headings within the note to link to.

For example, [[#Preview a linked file]] will create a link to Preview a linked file.

Linking to a heading in another note

To link to a heading in another note, add a hash (#) at the end of the link destination, followed by the heading text.

For example, [[About Obsidian#Links are first-class citizens]] will create a link to About Obsidian > Links are first-class citizens.

Linking to subheadings

You can add multiple hash symbols for each subheading.

For example, [[Help and support#Questions and advice#Report bugs and request features]] will create a link to Help and support > Questions and advice > Report bugs and request features.

Link to a block in a note

A block is a unit of text in your note, such as a paragraph, block quote, or list item.

You can link to a block by adding #^ at the end of your link destination, followed by a unique block identifier. For example: [[2023-01-01#^37066d]]. Fortunately, you don't need to manually find the identifier—when you type the caret (^), a list of suggestions will appear, allowing you to select the correct block.

We do not support links to specific parts of quotations, callouts, and tables.

Searching for blocks across the vault

You can also search for blocks to link to from across your vault using the [[^^block]] syntax. However, more items qualify as blocks compared to heading links, so this list will be much longer.

Change the link display text

By default, Obsidian will show the link text as it appears. For example:

You can change how a link is displayed by customizing its link text:

Wikilink format:

Use a vertical bar (|) to change the display text.

Markdown format:

Use [Display text](Link URL) to customize how the link appears.

Tip Use link display text when you want to customize how a link looks in a specific place.

Use aliases when you want to refer to the same note using different names throughout your vault.