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Tools & ideas

Connected notes in Jekyll

Stable cards, explained links, and derived backlinks

One file, one stable address

A card is a Markdown document in a Jekyll collection. Its front matter records its title, group and links. Cards appear alphabetically by title, while each explicit permalink keeps the public address stable even if I change the title. This is a practical use of Jekyll collections.

For example, the SalesCandy card can connect to AWS with an explanation of why that technology belongs in the account of that role. The relationship is written once, on the source card.

Notes are the material; the connectome is the map

“Connected notes” and “connectome” describe two levels of the same system. A connected note is one card: a focused unit with its own stable address, prose, metadata, and local links. The connectome is the collection-level view produced from all of those notes and relationships. It lets a reader see and traverse the wider pattern as a network or grouped directory.

The distinction is useful when maintaining the site. I author notes and their reasons locally; Jekyll derives the larger map, incoming links, and network data globally. Changing one note can therefore change the connectome without requiring me to redraw it by hand.

Three kinds of connection

Follow a connection shows the relationships I have explicitly written, with a reason for each one.

Linked from shows the cards that point into the current card. It is generated from those same relationships, preserving their explanations. I do not have to maintain a second list by hand.

Mentioned in shows ordinary links found in another card’s introduction or body. These are useful for discovery, but an unexplained mention should not be mistaken for evidence of a project or qualification. If a card both mentions and explicitly connects to another card, only its explained backlink is shown.

The build checks for missing targets and fragments. It also excludes menus, citations and generated relationship lists from mention discovery, so navigation does not manufacture more relationships.

This follows the interest behind my shared-brain article: small notes that can be linked and recombined. Cloudflare Workers is the publishing destination for the configured workflow; the note structure belongs to the Jekyll source and survives independently of the host.

Browse the connectome Jekyll collections documentation

Immediate connections

Explore the cards directly connected to this one.

Connected cards

Follow links in either direction, or find cards that mention this one.

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