My first steps implementing Zettalkasten using Obsidian.md, Data View, Excalidraw and ExcaliBrain

Zettelkasten in Obsidian is taking shape around a simple rule: permanent notes become the “cards,” while Excalidraw diagrams act as linked, structured thinking surfaces—connected through tags, inline Dataview fields, and carefully designed transclusions. The payoff is a navigable hierarchy of ideas (not just a web of links), where a reader can move from an overview to a specific permanent node and then into supporting comparisons like double bubble maps.

The system starts with two note types—permanent notes and overview notes—each styled and identified using only tags. Permanent notes are visually marked in Excalibrain via styling rules keyed off a “permanent note” tag, while overview notes get their own tag and styling. In practice, the Excalidraw storyboard contains inserted double bubble maps, and the red styling cues indicate which nodes are permanent. This makes the diagram feel like an index of the knowledge base rather than a free-form sketch.

Permanent note templates are intentionally minimal but structured. Each card includes a tag-based front matter, a “source” section pointing back to a specific element in a book-on-a-page, an “idea” section, a “360 view” section for related context, and an optional “related quotes” section. A key design choice is linking the note title inside the note so that when the idea section is transcluded into Excalidraw, the content reads cleanly and consistently. The “idea” section is treated as the canonical unit for transclusion—so double bubble maps can reliably pull in the important part of a permanent note.

Relationships are encoded with inline Dataview fields embedded directly in text elements. These fields define how nodes relate (for example, “because,” “use,” and “related to”), effectively acting as an ontology for the graph. When a double bubble map is built, the diagram’s text elements include Dataview fields that instruct Excalidraw/Excalibrain how to render the comparison and which permanent-note idea sections to pull in. This approach also supports hierarchy navigation: the author can “walk up” from a diagram to the underlying permanent node, then to the overview note that collects it.

Two double bubble map examples show how comparisons are assembled. One contrasts the “10,000 hour rule” with a revised learning model based on “10,000 feedback cycles,” using transclusion of the permanent notes’ idea sections into the diagram’s compare fields. Another compares a daily-workflow approach to achieving results in small steps, using embedded markdown documents and a workaround for adding Dataview fields when content is dragged into Excalidraw.

Practical navigation details matter too. The author links Excalidraw elements back to Obsidian by copying a markdown link for a selected element; adding an exclamation mark creates a link to a specific text element inside the drawing. A current limitation appears when selecting sticky notes (an error requires selecting a single element type), with a script-based workaround selecting the right element type for successful link creation.

The biggest unresolved dilemma is architectural: whether permanent notes should be markdown cards with drawings attached, or whether drawings themselves should become the Zettelkasten cards. For now, the author favors markdown as the permanent node and treats diagrams as attachments—yet still keeps relationships mirrored in Excalibrain. The hardest part so far is defining entry points and building a meaningful hierarchy of ideas that compound over time, not just linking everything together.