Wikilink Integrity

Obsidian resolves [[Target]] by looking for a note whose basename is Target.md anywhere in the vault. Links break silently when a note is renamed, moved, or was never created. Ambiguity arises when two notes share a basename.

Link Syntax

[[Note Name]]                      # basename resolution
[[Note Name|Alias]]                # custom display text
[[Note Name#Section heading]]      # deep link to heading
[[folder/Note Name]]               # path-qualified (usually unnecessary)
![[Image.png]]                     # embed (image, note, PDF)

Resolution Rules

Unqualified target ([[Docker]]) resolves to any note with basename Docker.md. If two exist (e.g. Zettelkasten/Docker.md and FVH/z/Docker.md), Obsidian picks one non-deterministically — ambiguous.
Path-qualified target ([[Kanban/Main]]) resolves to Kanban/Main.md exactly — no basename fallback.
Embeds (![[X]]) follow the same resolution. Image embeds typically target files under Files/.

Common Breakage Patterns

Pattern	Fix
`[[AnsibleFVH]]` × many → note doesn't exist	Rewrite to `[[Ansible]]` (the actual note)
`[[Development MOC]]` → note was renamed	Rewrite to `[[Development Workflows and Tools MOC]]`
`[[Kanban/X]]` → works but path-qualified is brittle	Rewrite to `[[X]]` when basename is unique
`[[code]]`, `[[project]]` → never were real notes	These were inline-tag syntax errors; delete the link and leave plain text
`[[Gen AI Some Idea]]` (double space)	Fix the extra whitespace in the link

Cross-Namespace Ambiguity

When two notes share a basename (e.g. Docker.md in both Zettelkasten/ and FVH/z/), every [[Docker]] in the vault becomes ambiguous. Options:

Rename one so they stop colliding (FVH/z/Docker.md → keep as redirect stub; content lives in Zettelkasten/Docker.md).
Path-qualify the links that should resolve to the non-canonical copy: [[FVH/z/Docker]].
Never use bare [[Docker]] going forward; always path-qualify.

The preferred pattern is #1: keep canonical content in Zettelkasten/, make FVH/z/ a tiny redirect stub.

Detection

# Build a set of note basenames
fd -e md -x basename {} .md

# Find all wikilinks
rg -o '\[\[([^\]|#]+)' --no-filename --glob '*.md'

# Broken links: pipe the above through comm(1) against the basename set

A more accurate scan uses the links.analyze_links analyzer in vault-agent, which handles aliases, sections, and embeds correctly.

Rewriting Strategy

For a known-broken target with many references, rewrite in one commit:

fix(links): rewrite 44 × [[AnsibleFVH]] → [[Ansible]]

Use Edit with replace_all=True for the target string within each note. Don't use shell sed — it doesn't handle the frontmatter / codeblock boundary correctly, and Edit's per-file atomicity makes the commit review straightforward.

For small-count broken targets (1–2 references each), report them and let the user decide whether to delete the link, create the note, or redirect.

Ambiguous-Target Handling

Never auto-rewrite an ambiguous link. Report the ambiguity with both candidates and ask the user which resolution they want:

[[Docker]] in Zettelkasten/Kubernetes.md → candidates:
  a) Zettelkasten/Docker.md
  b) FVH/z/Docker.md (redirect stub)

Safety

Never rewrite links inside code blocks or YAML frontmatter.
Never auto-create missing target notes — that's a content decision, not a maintenance one.
Preserve the alias form: [[Ansible|my ansible]] → [[Ansible|my ansible]], not [[Ansible]].

Related Skills

vault-orphans — notes with no links at all
vault-mocs — structured outgoing-link hubs
search-discovery — runtime link traversal via Obsidian CLI

vault-wikilinks