Relations¶

Relations are the foundation of Trail. Each relation type represents a specific kind of connection between notes—like parent, child, references, or any semantic link that makes sense for your content.

Creating a Relation¶

Open Settings → Trail
In the Relations section, click Add relation
Configure the relation settings

Relation Settings¶

Name¶

The unique identifier for this relation type.

Requirements:

Lowercase letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores only
No spaces
Must be unique across all relations

Examples: up, parent, cites, related-to, step_1

Names are permanent

Once you start using a relation name in your notes, changing it requires updating all those notes. Choose meaningful names from the start.

Visual Direction¶

Controls how related notes are displayed in the Trail pane.

Direction	Description	Use Case
Descending	Children appear below, indented	Parent → child hierarchies
Ascending	Ancestors appear above, with deepest first	Child → parent lookups
Sequential	Flat list, sorted	Next/prev sequences

Example: With up set to Ascending, the Trail pane shows:

▼ Ancestors
  up  Grandparent
    up  Parent

The deepest ancestor appears at the root, with closer ancestors nested below.

With down set to Descending:

▼ Children
  down  Child A
    down  Grandchild A1
  down  Child B

Direct children appear at the root, their children nested below.

Aliases¶

Aliases map frontmatter properties to this relation. Trail supports three alias types:

Property Alias¶

Direct frontmatter property:

---
up: "[[Parent]]"
---

Configuration: Type = Property, Key = up

Dot Property Alias¶

Namespaced under relations.:

---
relations.up: "[[Parent]]"
---

Configuration: Type = Dot property, Key = relations.up

Relations Map Alias¶

Key within a relations object:

---
relations:
  up: "[[Parent]]"
---

Configuration: Type = Map, Key = up

Adding Multiple Aliases¶

One relation can have many aliases. This lets you use different property names:

Relation: parent

Aliases:

Property: parent
Property: up
Dot property: relations.parent
Map: parent

Now all of these create parent relations:

---
parent: "[[Mom]]"
up: "[[Dad]]"
relations.parent: "[[Guardian]]"
relations:
  parent: "[[Stepparent]]"
---

Managing Relations¶

Reordering¶

Use the arrow buttons in each relation's header to change order. Order affects:

Display order in the filter menu
Default order when relation names are equal

Deleting¶

Expand the relation section
Click Delete relation

Cascading effects

Deleting a relation also removes:

All implied relations targeting this relation
All group members using this relation

Default Relations¶

Trail ships with four relations preconfigured:

Name	Visual Direction	Implied	Purpose
`up`	Ascending	→ `down` (reverse)	Links to parent/container
`down`	Descending	→ `up` (reverse)	Links to children/contents
`next`	Sequential	→ `prev` (reverse)	Links to next in sequence
`prev`	Sequential	→ `next` (reverse)	Links to previous in sequence

Each includes all three alias types by default.

Examples¶

Hierarchy Relations¶

parent (ascending)
  └── Alias: parent, up, relations.parent

child (descending)
  └── Alias: child, down, contains

Citation Relations¶

cites (descending)
  └── Alias: cites, references, sources
  └── Implied: cited-by (reverse)

cited-by (descending)
  └── Alias: cited-by

Project Relations¶

project (ascending)
  └── Alias: project, belongs-to
  └── Implied: task (reverse)

task (descending)
  └── Alias: task, contains

Best Practices¶

Use Semantic Names¶

Choose names that describe the relationship:

Generic	Semantic
`link1`	`parent`
`ref`	`cites`
`rel`	`precedes`

Plan Your Schema¶

Before creating relations, sketch out:

What types of notes do you have?
How do they relate to each other?
Which relationships should be bidirectional?

Keep It Minimal¶

Start with few relations. Add more only when you have a clear need. Too many relation types create confusion.