The Tool Desk
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What Obsidian’s graph shows
Obsidian’s Graph view visualizes relationships between notes in a vault. Each circle is a note, and each line represents an internal link between notes. That makes the graph a picture of the links you have created—not a judgment about whether two ideas are meaningfully related.
This distinction matters. A line tells you that one note links to another; it does not explain why the link exists or whether it is useful. The graph displays the vault’s structure, while you supply the interpretation.
Global Graph and Local Graph answer different questions
| View | What it includes | Useful for |
|---|---|---|
| Global Graph | Notes across the vault | Getting a broad view of the vault’s link structure |
| Local Graph | Notes connected to the active note | Inspecting the neighborhood around one note |
The global view is the one most likely to become visually crowded as a vault grows. Local Graph changes the scope: instead of asking how everything in the vault connects, it lets you look at the notes around the one you currently have open. Obsidian documents the available views and controls; using the global view for orientation and the local view for focused inspection is a practical way to apply that difference.
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Open Local Graph and adjust its depth
- Open the command palette and run the command to open Local Graph.
- Look at the notes connected to the active note. The initial view is centered on that note rather than the entire vault.
- Adjust Local Graph’s depth to reveal more levels of connections. Each added level includes notes linked to notes revealed at the preceding level.
Depth gives you a way to expand the neighborhood in stages. Start close to the active note, then increase the depth when you want to follow connections farther outward. A wider neighborhood may be useful for exploration, but it can also bring back some of the visual density that made the global graph difficult to interpret.
Reduce visual noise with filters and groups
When a local view still contains more than you need, Graph view offers filters for search terms, tags, attachments, whether a note is an existing file, and whether it is an orphan. Excluded files are omitted from the graph. These controls narrow what is visible; they do not change the links stored in the vault.
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A workable sequence is to focus on the active note, set the depth you need, and then filter the results to a relevant term or tag. Groups can color-code notes that match a search term, which may help distinguish categories in the displayed graph. This is a suggested way to use the documented controls, not a guarantee that every vault will produce a clear picture.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Change the layout without mistaking it for meaning
Display and force controls affect how the graph is drawn. In particular, center force, repel force, link force, and link distance influence arrangement or spacing. Adjusting them can make a view easier to inspect, but it does not create, remove, or reinterpret the underlying note links.
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That is why layout tweaking is secondary to choosing the right scope. If the graph is difficult to use, first ask whether you need a vault-wide view or a note-centered one. Then adjust depth and filters; only after that, try presentation controls to make the visible connections easier to follow.
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