# Links and backlinks

### Forward links

`settle` can only understand wiki-style links, such as `[[Neurons]]`, or `[[Language learning]]`, which would redirect to a note called `Neurons` or `Language leraning`, respectively. Case-in-point, a wiki-style link is any text between two matching `[[` and `]]`.

Such links may be embedded anywhere inside a note.

### Backlinks

If we're considering some note X, then its forward links are the set of every note that X links to. Meanwhile, its backlinks are the set of every note that links to X.

More concretely, let's say we have two notes, note X that links to note Y. Therefore, X has Y as a forward link, Y has X as a backlink.

Since only the bare minimum of metadata is stored, backlinks aren't actually kept in the database: they can be deduced, or, rather, computed, from forward links. Also note that, of course, backlinks aren't stored anywhere within the notes' contents.