Backlinks
Kiln scans your vault for Wikilinks and standard Markdown links, then builds a reverse index. For every page, the Backlinks panel in the Right Sidebar lists all other pages that link to it. This helps readers discover related content and navigate your knowledge graph in reverse.
Why it is useful
- In a wiki or digital garden, backlinks reveal hidden relationships between notes.
- They answer "What pages reference this concept?" without manual curation.
- They complement the Local Graph by providing a clickable list of incoming connections.
How it works
During the build process, Kiln constructs a complete reverse-link index for your vault.
- Scan outgoing links: Kiln scans every note for outgoing links—both
[[wikilinks]]and[markdown](links.md)style. - Record reverse references: For each link found, a reverse reference is recorded on the target page.
- Build the list: The result is a list of all pages that point to the current page.
- Exclude self-links: A page cannot appear in its own backlinks.
- Deduplicate: Duplicate links from the same source page are deduplicated, so each source appears only once.
Behavior by Layout
Default Layout
- Backlinks appear in the Right Sidebar, below the Table of Contents and Local Graph.
- Each backlink is a clickable link that navigates to the source page.
- Navigation uses Client Side Navigation (HTMX) for instant page transitions without a full reload.
Simple Layout
- Backlinks are accessed via a floating action button in the header bar.
- Clicking the button opens a panel overlay listing all incoming links.
- The button only appears when the current page has at least one backlink.
Disabling Backlinks
If your site does not need backlinks, you can hide them using the --disable-backlinks flag:
kiln generate --disable-backlinks
Or set it permanently in your kiln.yaml configuration file:
disable-backlinks: true
When disabled, the backlinks panel is hidden from both the default and simple layouts. See Configuration File for all available options.