17 Structuring Knowledge — Zettelkasten and Ontology

Notes just piling up and you've lost your way? ObsiKO's AI Agent weaves your scattered memos into connected knowledge using two proven methods — Zettelkasten and ontology! 🧠✨

← Home: ObsiKO 101

Three Methods, One Vault 🤝

• Zettelkasten = linking notes to each other — "these two are related (+ why)."
• Ontology = giving that connection meaning (a type) — "A is part of B / A causes B."
• PARA = organizing notes by actionability — project · area · resource · archive.
• The AI Agent organizes Zettelkasten and ontology for you. Just type / in the chat window and a list of helpers pops up! → 16 AI Agent

🗂️ Zettelkasten: Turning Thoughts into "Permanent Knowledge"

A four-stage flow that grows fleeting thoughts into solid knowledge of your own. The Agent creates the folders for you automatically.

Zettel Helpers You Can Summon (type / in chat)

• /litnote — turns a book, paper, or article into a sourced literature note
• /permanent — polishes a single idea into a self-contained permanent note
• /atomize — splits a long, lumped-together note into one idea at a time and links them together
• /connect — links the current note to related notes and even writes down why they're connected
• /moc — gathers scattered notes into a topic map (MOC)
• /zettel — the overall conductor that sorts and processes the Inbox through the flow above

💡 If you use the app in English or Japanese, the command names switch to that language too (e.g. /permanent, /永久ノート). It understands you even if you type it in a different language!

🧭 Ontology: Giving Connections a "Type"

If a Zettelkasten [[link]] only gets you as far as "these are related," ontology spells out exactly what kind of relationship it is. All of it is written in the frontmatter at the top of the note.

---
type: Concept                  # what this note "is" (its class)
is-a: "[[Knowledge Management Methodology]]"      # broader category
part-of: "[[PKM]]"             # part of
causes: "[[Knowledge Compounding]]"         # causes
---

Be sure to wrap wiki-links inside frontmatter in quotes, like "[[ ]]" (a YAML rule).

Ontology Helpers You Can Summon (type / in chat)

• /ontology — builds a class hierarchy and relationship-predicate dictionary suited to your domain
• /classify — attaches a class (type) and broader category (is-a) to a note
• /relate — fills in typed relationships between notes (part-of, causes, ...)
• /attribute — organizes properties appropriate to a class (author, year, etc.)
• /ontolint — checks for broken links, undefined classes, and isolated notes

🖱️ No AI Needed — Classify in a Couple of Clicks

You never have to sit down and "do the classification." We made it pile up as a by-product of things you already do!

• Kind suggestion chips — in a vault with a kind dictionary (definition notes), open a note that has no type yet and chips for the kinds that fit this note appear right under the title (picked from its folder, the properties already written, relations pointing at it, and tags — no AI calls). One tap and it's classified (undo with ⌘Z). Press ⋯ for the full list as a dropdown, or ✕ to turn the feature off (re-enable in Settings ▸ Display ▸ Kind suggestion chips).
• Auto property sets — pick one of your dictionary's kinds for type (aliases are recognized too), and the properties listed under that kind's fields: are added as empty keys automatically (inherited from parent kinds too). A toast tells you what was added and why, and a single ⌘Z undoes it.
• Right-click a [[link]] in the body ▸ 'Set as relation ▸' — right-click a link you've already written and ObsiKO suggests fitting predicates (combinations you actually use in your vault rank first). Pick one and the relation is recorded in the frontmatter only — not a single character of your text changes.
• Right-click a folder ▸ 'Assign kind to all…' — classify every untyped note in a folder at once (with a count preview, and undo from the Command Palette). Set a default kind for the folder and every new note created there starts with that kind.
• Relation check — at the bottom of the Connections panel, ObsiKO offers to 'create' missing target notes and 'add to dictionary' for unregistered predicates. In a vault without a relation dictionary it stays completely quiet.

💡 The type value picker (▾) shows 'My kind dictionary' at the top, separated from the built-in values. Values work in any language (e.g. type: 인물) — every feature understands them the same way.

👁️ See It All at a Glance in the Connections Panel

Click the Connections icon (three connected dots) in the right sidebar! Use the tabs at the top to pick a direction.

• Outgoing → Relations — the current note's class, plus the notes it points to under each predicate like is-a/part-of/causes... Click to jump right there (or create it, if it doesn't exist yet!).
• Incoming → Inverse relations — the reverse: which relationship other notes use to point at this one (e.g. things below it, examples of it).

Wiki-link backlinks and typed relations are gathered together, by direction, in this single Connections panel. If a backlink asks "who's calling me?", a relation asks "who's calling me, and in what relationship?" → 09 Backlinks & Outline

🌌 Relationships as "Color" in the Graph

Notes with typed relationships filled in light up in 10 Graph View with a color per predicate and directional arrows! - is-a in blue · part-of in green · causes in red · opposes in magenta ... - Zoom in or hover over a line and the relationship name (label) appears on it, and you can check what each color means in the help ('?').

🗄️ PARA: Organizing Notes by "Actionability"

Where Zettelkasten and ontology connect knowledge, PARA sorts your notes into four buckets by how ready-to-act they are (yes, Tiago Forte's method!). It starts with a single frontmatter property, para.

• Set para to project and — automatically — started and due (both defaulting to today) plus parent_area (the area this project belongs to) tag along. For parent_area, just pick from your vault's area notes with a [[link]].
• Once a project has a start~due span like this, that period shows up as a band on the Calendar and Dashboard, so you can see at a glance what needs doing by when.

PARA board, at a glance 🧮

• Press the sidebar ＋ menu → PARA board (or PARA board in the command palette) and you get a kanban Bases that lays out notes with a para value across four columns — project · area · resource · archive. (To get the project template along with it → Knowledge Packs 📦)
• Drag a card to another column and that note's para value changes — swipe a finished project off to the Archive column!

Dashboard PARA lens cards 🔭

There are three cards on the Dashboard that put PARA in the spotlight (pull them out of the 'Hidden cards' tray in edit mode). - 🎯 Focus Zone — projects with a looming deadline, complete with a D-day badge · progress bar · owning area. - 🌱 Area Health — a traffic light per area: 🟢 active / 🟡 stalled / 🔴 no projects. - 🗄️ Archive Candidates — quietly flags projects long past their deadline and resources left idle for ages (a tidy-up nudge).

PARA that shines in the Graph too 🌌

In the Graph View, para notes are drawn specially. - Their colors invert so they pop, and projects gently shimmer (a living, in-motion feel!). - Areas grow bigger and emit light rings the more influence they carry (more attached projects and links). - Projects cluster near their own area (parent_area) — drag the parent (area) and the children (projects) follow elastically. Hierarchy properties like parent, grand_parent cluster into families the same way.

Where Should You Start? 🚀

1. First, give the AI Agent your material and grow it into notes with /zettel or /permanent.
2. Once you've got a handful of notes, add types with /classify//relate, and browse the relationship web in the Connections panel.
3. Open 10 Graph View and admire your knowledge connected like a colorful constellation! 🌠

← Previous: Writing Helper · Home · Next: Making Presentations →