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Notes and knowledge bases

Notes in LosOS Cloud opens a folder of Markdown files the way Obsidian opens a vault: the notes on the left, the open note in the middle, and beside it the notes that link to it. An Obsidian vault synced into LosOS Cloud opens as it is, with its links, embeds, tags and canvases. While the box shares and is in a mesh, a folder of notes can also be published as a knowledge base: a site that people read in a browser.

Open your notes​

  • Notes in the sidebar opens the folder Notes in your files. It is made the first time you open it.
  • Right-click any folder in Files and choose Open as notes.
  • Click a .md file in Files. It opens in its vault: the nearest folder above it with an .obsidian folder inside, as Obsidian finds a vault, or else the folder the file is in.

Reading a note​

A note is drawn from its Markdown. Both kinds people write are understood:

  • GitHub's: tables, task lists, strikethrough, footnotes, links that start with https://, and alerts such as > [!NOTE].
  • Obsidian's: [[links]] to other notes, also [[Note|shown text]], [[Note#Heading]] and [[Note#^block]]; ![[embeds]] of a note, a part of one, or a picture; callouts, including ones that fold (> [!tip]-); #tags and #nested/tags; ==highlights==; %%comments%%, which are not shown; maths between $ and $$; and the properties at the top of a note.

Code blocks are coloured by language. Mermaid diagrams stay code: drawing them needs styles the box's pages do not allow.

A link to a note that does not exist yet is drawn fainter. Click it to make the note. Tick a task box and the note is saved with the box ticked.

Beside a note​

  • Local graph: the note and the notes it links to or from, one to three links away. Click a dot to open that note.
  • Linked here: the notes that link to this one.
  • Links to and Not written yet: what this note links.
  • Outline: its headings. Click one to jump to it.

Edit, mind map and graph​

  • Edit opens the note in the editor people type in together (see Sharing and editing together), with the note drawn beside the text on a wide screen. Type [[ to pick a note to link. Select words, in the editor or while reading, for a bar of actions above them.
  • Mind map draws the note's headings and the lists under them as branches. Click a heading's branch to read that part.
  • Graph of all notes, above the notes, shows every note in the folder and every link between them. Switches add tags, attachments, links to notes not written yet, and notes nothing links to. The field filters by name.

The search field above the notes finds words in names and in the text. Tags lists every tag; click one to see its notes.

Publish a folder as a knowledge base​

Knowledge bases need the box to share and to be in a mesh, as chat and mail do. Without both, the menu item is not there and the sites are off.

  1. In Files, right-click the folder and choose Publish as knowledge base.
  2. Give it a title, and choose who can read it:
    • Anyone with the link reads without signing in, wherever the box can be reached: on its network, and through its edge when it has one.
    • People on this box sign in with LosOS Login first.
  3. Press Publish. The window shows the site's address, for example https://<name>.local/kb/kitchen-garden/.

The site follows the folder: a note you change or add shows there at once. Each note gets its own address, such as /kb/kitchen-garden/Tomatoes. Readers get the same links, embeds, search, graph and mind map, and nothing to change the notes with.

Left out of the site:

  • notes whose properties say publish: false or private: true;
  • folders whose names start with a dot, .obsidian among them;
  • anything outside the folder.

To change the title or who can read it, right-click the folder again and choose Knowledge base. Stop publishing takes the site down; the notes stay in your files.

If the box stops sharing or leaves the mesh, every site stops answering. They come back as they were when the box is sharing in a mesh again.