Type [[Note Title]] in any note to link to it. Every linked-to note shows the references coming in, automatically. The connection map you'd build by hand — built for you.
Inside any note's body, type [[ and a picker pops up showing your existing notes by title. Pick one, hit Enter, and the link is in. The reference renders as a clickable teal link in the note body.
[[New Note Title]] for a note that doesn't exist yet. The picker offers "Create '...'" and you can keep writing in the original note; the new note gets created when you commit.Every note has a Referenced by section at the bottom that lists every other note that wikilinks to it. You don't have to maintain it. The list populates automatically as notes link to each other.
Open your "Q2 OKRs review" note and the Referenced by section shows the launch kickoff note, the customer discovery synthesis, and the daily page where you talked about KR3. Click any of them to jump.
The mental model: linking is a one-way action. Backlinks are the automatic mirror. You write [[OKRs]] in your launch note, and your OKRs note now knows the launch note exists.
Wikilinks match by title. If you rename a note that's linked from elsewhere, the existing wikilinks "dangle" — they render in a different style (amber / warning color) until either the title matches again or you rename the wikilink to follow.
That's a tradeoff. The benefit: the markdown stays portable — you can export your notes and the [[Title]] syntax works in Obsidian, Roam, LogSeq, and any other tool that uses the same convention. The cost: rename a note, and links to it break until you fix them. We auto-detect dangling links so you can run a quick cleanup whenever you do a rename.
Three places wikilinks earn their keep:
[[Q2 launch kickoff meeting]], which links to [[Customer discovery synthesis]], which feeds the launch narrative. One thread, three notes.[[Kitchen remodel running plan]] when you talked to the contractor; opening the kitchen plan a week later, the daily page shows up in Referenced by.@mentionsBoth link, but to different things:
[[Title]] — links to a note. Resolves by title match. Renders as a teal link in the note body.@ mentions — link to a task, project, or person. Pickers fire as you type. Resolves by ID, so renames don't break the link.
Use [[]] when you mean another note. Use @ when you mean a task, a project, or a person. Both render as clickable chips, both flow into the right "Referenced in" surface on the linked-to thing.
A way to reference another note by its title. Type [[Note Title]] in any note body and it renders as a clickable link to that note. Click the link to open the referenced note. If no note with that exact title exists yet, Mind Like Water creates a blank one and opens it.
Wikilinks match by title, so a renamed target leaves the existing wikilinks dangling — they show as a different style until the title matches again. Either rename them to follow, or create a new note with the original title. We also auto-detect dangling links during weekly review to nudge you.
The reverse direction: every note has a "Referenced by" section listing every other note that wikilinks to it. You don't have to maintain it; the section populates automatically as other notes link in.
The syntax is. Obsidian, Roam, LogSeq, and most second-brain tools use [[Title]] for wikilinks. If you import notes from Obsidian, your existing wikilinks come along and resolve to MLW notes by title match.
14 days free, no credit card. Type [[ and start linking.