Link Preview

Kiln shows a live preview tooltip when you hover over internal links, letting readers peek at the linked page's content without navigating away. The feature is fully automatic — it activates on every page with no opt-in or configuration needed.

How it works

When a reader hovers over an internal link on a desktop device, Kiln follows this flow:

1. Wait 300 milliseconds to avoid triggering previews on casual mouse movement
2. Fetch the target page's full HTML in the background
3. Extract the main content area from the fetched page
4. Render it inside a floating tooltip positioned near the link

Fetched pages are stored in an in-memory cache that persists for the browser session. Once a page has been fetched, hovering over any link that points to it shows the preview instantly without a second network request.

The tooltip is positioned below the link by default. If there isn't enough space below (near the bottom of the viewport), it flips above the link instead. Horizontal position is constrained so the tooltip never overflows the viewport edges.

Compatibility

Link Preview requires all three of the following conditions:

• Desktop viewport — screen width of 1024 pixels or more
• Hover-capable device — a pointer that supports hover (mouse or trackpad, not touch-only)
• JavaScript enabled — the feature is implemented entirely in client-side JavaScript

What triggers a preview

Previews appear only on internal wikilinks — the links Kiln's markdown renderer outputs with the internal-link class. These are the links you write in your notes using Wikilinks syntax.

The following links are excluded and will not trigger a preview:

• External links — links pointing outside your site
• Hash-only links (#section) — anchors within the current page
• Current page links — links whose resolved path matches the page you are already on
• Links with target="_blank" — links configured to open in a new tab

Visual behavior

• Short delay — the tooltip appears after a 300-millisecond hover to prevent accidental triggers
• Compact size — maximum 400 pixels wide and 300 pixels tall; content scrolls if it overflows
• Consistent styling — the tooltip inherits your page's .content styles, so text, headings, code blocks, and tables look the same as they do on the actual page
• Theme-aware — follows Light-Dark Mode automatically via CSS variables
• Dismissal — the tooltip closes when you move the mouse away, scroll the page, press Escape, click outside the tooltip, or navigate to another page via Client Side Navigation

Limitations

• Desktop only — the feature is entirely disabled on mobile and touch devices
• No keyboard navigation or screen reader support — the tooltip is mouse-driven and not reachable via keyboard focus
• Full page fetch — Kiln downloads the complete HTML of the target page and extracts the content area client-side; there is no dedicated lightweight preview endpoint
• Unbounded session cache — every fetched page is kept in memory for the duration of the browser session with no eviction strategy
• No loading indicator — there is no visual feedback while the target page is being fetched
• No error feedback — if a fetch fails (network error, 404), the tooltip simply does not appear