Markdown cheatsheet · Wikilinks
Wikilinks: [[linking notes by name]]
A wikilink points at a note by its name, not its path: [[Meeting Notes]] links to the note called Meeting Notes, no URL, no file extension. Born on wikis, popularized by Roam and Obsidian, and supported natively by maxdown.
The syntax
Type the note's name inside double square brackets. The app resolves the name to the right file, wherever it sits in your folder.
See [[Meeting Notes]] from Tuesday.
See Meeting Notes from Tuesday.
Aliases
To show different words than the note's name, add a pipe and the display text. The link still points at Meeting Notes; only the visible text changes.
Covered in [[Meeting Notes|Tuesday's notes]].
Covered in Tuesday's notes.
Embeds
An exclamation mark in front of a wikilink embeds the target instead of linking to it: ![[diagram.png]] shows the image inline, and ![[Other note]] pulls the whole note's content into the current one (transclusion). This is an extension of an extension: Obsidian supports both forms, plus embedding a single heading or block. Support elsewhere varies, so don't count on embeds outside the app you write in.
Not standard markdown
Wikilinks are not part of CommonMark, and GitHub does not process them in repository markdown files: readers see the brackets as literal text. (GitHub Wikis are the one exception; they accept a double-bracket syntax of their own.)
See [[Meeting Notes]] from Tuesday.
See [[Meeting Notes]] from Tuesday.
If your notes must render on GitHub or any standard markdown site, use relative standard links instead: [Meeting Notes](meeting-notes.md).
| Wikilink | Standard link | |
|---|---|---|
| Syntax | [[Meeting Notes]] | [Meeting Notes](meeting-notes.md) |
| Target | A note's name | A path or URL |
| Portability | Obsidian, Logseq, maxdown, wiki apps | Everywhere markdown renders |
[[Meeting Notes]] to [Meeting Notes](meeting-notes.md) stays a mechanical find and replace.How maxdown handles them
Open a folder in maxdown and it becomes your workspace: wikilinks connect the notes inside it, and they stay clickable in the preview.
Common questions
Do wikilinks work on GitHub?
No. In repository markdown files (READMEs, docs) GitHub shows the double brackets as literal text. GitHub Wikis do support a [[Page]] syntax, but that is a wiki feature, not the markdown renderer.
Should I use wikilinks or [text](file.md)?
Wikilinks for a personal notes folder: faster to type, and because they point at names rather than paths, reorganizing folders doesn't break them. Standard links for anything published: a README, docs, a blog. If you're not sure where the file will end up, standard links are the portable choice.