feat(notes): link notes to each other with markdown links - #1973
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feat(notes): link notes to each other with markdown links#1973karlitschek wants to merge 1 commit into
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There was no way to link one note to another. Now there is, using ordinary
markdown links whose target is the note's route:
[Shopping list](/index.php/apps/notes/note/42)
No custom syntax, so every editor renders them — the rich editor, the
markdown preview, and anything else that reads the file. This is the same URL
NoteReferenceProvider already matches, so a link pasted into Talk or a Text
document still resolves to a rich preview.
The target is the file id rather than the title, so renaming a note cannot
break a link to it. Only the visible label goes stale.
* "Copy link to note" in the note's action menu puts the markdown on the
clipboard, label included, so linking is a paste rather than hand-writing a
URL. It sits in the note list row menu, which is present in every editor
mode.
* Clicking a note link routes inside the app instead of reloading the page. In
rich mode that goes through Text's openLinkHandler hook; note that providing
a handler replaces Text's default, so the fallback for every other link —
open in a new tab — is reimplemented rather than lost. In preview mode the
click is delegated from the preview container, because the rendered HTML is
replaced wholesale on every edit.
* Modified clicks (ctrl, meta, shift, alt, middle button) are left alone so
"open in new tab" keeps working, and links to another origin are never
treated as note links.
Stale labels are refreshed on rename (NoteLinkService), with two limits,
because this edits notes the user is not looking at:
* Only labels that still match the old title are rewritten. A link written as
[my weekly shop](…/note/42) is the author's wording, not a stale copy of the
title, and is left alone.
* Only explicit renames trigger it. Titles also change through autotitle,
which fires while a new note is being typed, and sweeping the whole
collection on each of those would be wasteful and surprising. The two are
separate controller paths, so only updateProperty('title') is hooked.
A rename therefore costs one pass over the notes folder. That is the same
O(n) content read as search, acceptable for an explicit, infrequent action.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
karlitschek
requested review from
joshtrichards and
silverkszlo
and
a lite review from Copilot
and removed request for
enjeck,
joshtrichards and
silverkszlo
August 6, 2026 18:20
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enjeck
reviewed
Aug 6, 2026
enjeck
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enjeck
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Thanks, it would be nice to have this as it's a popular feature request!
Some questions:
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| $pattern = $this->linkPattern($noteId, $oldTitle); | ||
| // ${1} is the target, ${2} any trailing slashes it was written with | ||
| $replacement = '[' . $this->escapeReplacement($newTitle) . '](${1}${2})'; |
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I'm worried about this replacement. What if I edit a note to a title with containing ]?
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escapeReplacement only escapes the preg_replace specials $ and \. It does not escape ]
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maybe adding something like the replace [ in noteLinkMarkdown helps
| array_values(array_unique($targets)), | ||
| ); | ||
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| return '/\[' . preg_quote($oldTitle, '/') . '\]\(\s*(' . implode('|', $targets) . ')(\/*)\s*\)/u'; |
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same here. What if i have a note titled Test]
Comment on lines
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| * Never throws: a rename must not fail because a link could not be tidied | ||
| * up. Notes that cannot be read or written are skipped. |
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Not sure about this. getAll(...) and linkPattern(...) sit outside the per note try/catch, and they could throw
| if ($updated === null || $updated === $content) { | ||
| continue; | ||
| } | ||
| $note->setContent($updated); |
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do we need to lock while doing this or nah? why or why not?
| } | ||
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| /** | ||
| * A markdown link to a note, ready to paste into another note. |
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Is it really ready to past into another note? Cuz this gives a relative link that is likely not immediately useful 🤔
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There was no way to link one note to another. Now there is, using ordinary markdown links whose target is the note's route:
No custom syntax, so every editor renders them — the rich editor, the markdown preview, and anything else that reads the file. This is the same URL NoteReferenceProvider already matches, so a link pasted into Talk or a Text document still resolves to a rich preview.
The target is the file id rather than the title, so renaming a note cannot break a link to it. Only the visible label goes stale.
Stale labels are refreshed on rename (NoteLinkService), with two limits, because this edits notes the user is not looking at:
A rename therefore costs one pass over the notes folder. That is the same O(n) content read as search, acceptable for an explicit, infrequent action.
🤖 AI (if applicable)