A minimalist Zettelkasten plugin for Vim
A Zettelkasten is a repository of notes that each elaborate a single point/thought. It should contain notes (zettel) that are made up of content, references, and links to other notes. The idea is to create a network of notes that describe one's understandings of the world and the way those understandings interconnect.
Following Luhmann, Ahrens, and Matuschak, this plugin adheres to the notion of a lean but low-friction note creation and editing process. There are few functions and a flat file structure, the text is plain, and the template minimal and customisable.
In this plugin, zettels are markdown files. Write normally.
Because tags are 'dumb' and largely a-contextual references, I have not included a tagging function and do not use them myself. If I want to find something, I use the content and filename search functions.
Rererences use the syntax @citekey, as in vim-pandoc-syntax.
Links are connections to other notes in the form of [[local-filename.md]]. In the spirit of keeping things simple this plugin assumes you will use Vim's goto file function; called with the gf key combination in normal mode.
NOTE - this syntax is under review and may be changed to normal markdown links with a function to remove hyphens and conceal the filename for the sake of readability.
I use vim-Plug:
Plug 'aarleks/zettel.vim'
From there you need to create a global variable in your init.vim/vimrc pointing to your notes folder/zettelkasten (the final forward slash is important):
let g:zettelkasten = 'path/to/your/notes/folder/'
In your notes folder, create a file called home.md. This file serves as your zettelhome - a landing page for when you want to start thinking inside your notes folder. Populate this file with whatever is helpful for you, perhaps an index of basic rules of use that you develop.
Next, create a basic template markdown file, called template for new notes. This could be as simple as:
# <title>
## Zettel Links
## References
From here, new notes can be created with <Leader>zm. You will be asked to type a name for the file. Here is an example:
:MakeZettel notes should have simple descriptive filenames
This will create a file called notes-should-have-simple-descriptive-filenames.md, and will read template into it and put you at the end of the second line.
Type your note | develop knowledge | gain understanding and insight.
<Leader>zf- Search by filename usingripgrep.<Leader>zs- Search within all files ing:zettelkastenusing riggrep.
https://github.com/Hipomenes/vim-ide - Vim as an "Integrated Research Environment"
https://www.edwinwenink.xyz/posts/42-vim_notetaking/ - Excellent zettelkasten in vanilla Vim
https://vimways.org/2019/personal-notetaking-in-vim/ - Another vanilla Vim Zettelkasten, this time rolled into a plugin of sorts
Sam Wallage's Vimways post on Zettelkasten has a bunch of useful little functions and scripts.
TODO - note history system (jumplist)
TODO - pretty Zettel links??
TODO - auto-populate note title with filename in title case