# ABC - Accurate 🖇️ Bi-directional 🖱️ Cursor-level linking system

**URL:** <https://community.silverbullet.md/t/abc-accurate-bi-directional-cursor-level-linking-system/3536>\
**Category:** Plugs and Libraries\
**Created:** [November 13, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://community.silverbullet.md/t/abc-accurate-bi-directional-cursor-level-linking-system/3536 "2025-11-13T18:13:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 16

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ChenZhu-Xie](https://community.silverbullet.md/user_avatar/community.silverbullet.md/chenzhu-xie/32/1476_2.png) [@ChenZhu-Xie](https://community.silverbullet.md/u/ChenZhu-Xie)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://community.silverbullet.md/t/abc-accurate-bi-directional-cursor-level-linking-system/3536/16 "2025-11-21T18:10:38Z")

</div>

A discovery while experimenting with **AnyType**  
revealed a conceptual equivalence to **SilverBullet** :

promoting `a plain paragraph` in **AnyType** to `a named object` mirrors  
converting `an ordinary text` in **SilverBullet** ’s editor into `an [[aspiring-page]]`.

Opening that `created object` in **AT** (or `[[aspiring-page]]` in **SB** ) shows _backlinks_  
— _one of which_ (back)links to _the originating article_ at line level (at least),  
while _others_ point to _other pages_ at line level (as well).

From a higher-level perspective,  
this pattern constitutes a **cursor–page–cursor** bidirectional link:  
the **page** functions as an intermediary that permits **cursor-to-cursor** connections.

**Conclusion:** a single `[[aspiring-page]]` suffices to establish **cursor–cursor** links;

nevertheless, the earlier code pattern required _n+1_ distinct `[[aspiring-pages]]` for _1 forward_ + _n_ _inverse_ labels.

Inspired by this, I refactored `the final code snippet` above to **minimize anchors/labels** , thereby **reducing SB’s indexing overhead** and better reflecting some essence of graph theory.

 ![image](https://community.silverbullet.md/uploads/default/original/2X/7/78ae72d9f7fb9cb0ffee87e23b9f767c73f7f6d6.png)

```auto
function getSelectedText()
  local sel = editor.getSelection()
  if not sel or sel.from == sel.to then return nil end
  local text = editor.getText()
  return text:sub(sel.from + 1, sel.to)
end

function setSelectedText(newText)
  local sel = editor.getSelection()
  if not sel or sel.from == sel.to then return nil end
  editor.replaceRange(sel.from, sel.to, newText)
end

function usrPrompt(hinText, iniText)
  local iniText = iniText or ""
  local input = editor.prompt(hinText, iniText)
  if not input then
    editor.flashNotification("Cancelled", "warn")
  end
  return input
end

local anchorSymbol = "⚓"
local suffixFlabel = "➡️"
local suffixBlabel = "🔙"
local siblings = "🧑‍🤝‍🧑"

-- =========== Forth Anchor + Back Refs ==================

local function tableBack(Flabel)
  local aspiringPage = Flabel .. anchorSymbol
  return query[[
    from index.tag "link"
    where toPage == aspiringPage and alias:find(suffixFlabel, 1, true)
    order by _.thBlabel
    select {ref=_.ref, thBlabel=_.thBlabel}
  ]]
end

function backRefs(Flabel)
  local str = template.each(tableBack(Flabel), template.new[==[​[[${_.ref}|${_.thBlabel}]]​]==])
  if #str == 0 then return "No BackRef" end
  return str
end

command.define {
  name = "Insert: ForthAnchor + BackRefs",
  key = "Ctrl-,",
  run = function()
    local iniText = getSelectedText()
    -- local Flabel = usrPrompt('Enter: label (to be Referred)', iniText)
    local Flabel
    if iniText and iniText ~= "" then
      Flabel = iniText
    else
      Flabel = usrPrompt('Enter: label (to be Referred)', '')
    end
    if not Flabel then return end
    local aspiringPage = Flabel .. anchorSymbol
    local forthAnchor = "[[" .. aspiringPage .. "||^|" .. suffixBlabel .. "]]"
    local backRefs = '${backRefs("' .. Flabel .. '")}'
    local fullText = forthAnchor .. backRefs
    if iniText and iniText ~= "" then
      setSelectedText("") -- Delete selected iniText
    end
    editor.insertAtPos(fullText, editor.getCursor(), true)
    editor.copyToClipboard(Flabel)
  end
}

-- =========== Back Anchor + Forth Ref ==================

local function tableBack_noSelf(Flabel, thBlabelNum)
  local aspiringPage = Flabel .. anchorSymbol
  return query[[
    from index.tag "link"
    where toPage == aspiringPage and alias:find(suffixFlabel, 1, true) and thBlabelNum ~= _.thBlabel
    order by _.thBlabel
    select {ref=_.ref, thBlabel=_.thBlabel}
  ]]
end

function backRefs_noSelf(Flabel, thBlabelNum)
  local str = template.each(tableBack_noSelf(Flabel, thBlabelNum), template.new[==[​[[${_.ref}|${_.thBlabel}]]​]==])
  if #str == 0 then return "No Sibling" end
  return str
end

local function tableForth(Flabel)
  local aspiringPage = Flabel .. anchorSymbol
  return query[[
    from index.tag "link"
    where toPage == aspiringPage and alias:find(suffixBlabel, 1, true)
    select {ref=_.ref}
  ]]
end

function forthRef(Flabel)
  local str = template.each(tableForth(Flabel), template.new("[[${_.ref}|​" .. siblings .. "​]]"))
  if #str == 0 then return "No such Anchor" end
  return str
end

command.define {
  name = "Insert: BackAnchor + ForthRef",
  key = "Ctrl-.",
  run = function()
    local alias = getSelectedText()
    local iniText = js.window.navigator.clipboard.readText()
    -- local Flabel = usrPrompt('Jump to: label', iniText)
    local Flabel
    if iniText and iniText ~= "" then
      Flabel = iniText
    else
      Flabel = usrPrompt('Jump to: label', '')
    end
    if not Flabel then return end
    local thBlabelNum = #tableBack(Flabel) + 1
    local aspiringPage = Flabel .. anchorSymbol
    local backAnchor = "[[" .. aspiringPage .. "||^|" .. suffixFlabel .. thBlabelNum .. "]]"
    local forthRef = '${forthRef("' .. Flabel .. '")}'
    local backRefs_noSelf = '${backRefs_noSelf("' .. Flabel .. '",' .. thBlabelNum .. ')}'
    local fullText = backAnchor .. forthRef .. backRefs_noSelf
    if alias and alias ~= "" then
      setSelectedText("") -- Delete selected alias
    else
      alias = ''
    end
    editor.insertAtPos(fullText, editor.getCursor(), true)
    editor.insertAtCursor(alias, false) -- scrollIntoView?
  end
}

index.defineTag {
  name = "link",
  metatable = {
    __index = function(self, attr)
      if attr == "thBlabel" then
        return tonumber(string.match(self.alias, suffixFlabel .. "([0-9]+)"))
      end
    end
  }
}

```

Now the forward jump is be triggered through the siblings emoji 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 (previously numbers ahead of 🧑‍🤝‍🧑) — an undeniably odd interaction — but the trade-off is a likely improvement in indexing performance.

* * *

While experimenting with these apps, I drafted a comparison table that is neither rigorous\[1\] nor entirely fair\[2\]:

| App | Core RAM | Tech |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SilverBullet | ~ 24 MB | Go + TS + Lua |
| RoamEdit | ~ 44 MB | Custom Web Stack ? |
| Workflowy | ~ 73 MB ? | Custom Web Stack ? |
| RoamResearch | -\[3\] | Electron + … |
| RemNote | -\[4\] | Electron + … |
| Tana | ~ 233 MB | Electron ? + … |
| SiYuan | ~ 231 MB | Electron + Go + TS |
| AnyType | 170 ~ 330 MB | Electron + TS |
| LogSeq | ~ 230 MB | Electron + Clojure + TS |
| Orca | ~ 200 MB | Electron + … |
| Obsidian | ~ 160 MB | Electron + TS ? |

My fondness for _Sublime_ and _Zed_ over _VS Code_ has left me slightly biased against _Electron_, which influenced the table above; my apologies if it seems offensive. Note that the above is not a ranking (i.e. an ordered list) but an unordered list.

* * *

1. since I am not a computer specialist 

2. it does not account for the RAM inside browser tabs consumed by SB and RE 

3. not tested 

4. not tested

---

_[View the full topic](https://community.silverbullet.md/t/abc-accurate-bi-directional-cursor-level-linking-system/3536)._