Previous River

Previous River is an Obsidian plugin that adds sequential relationships to your notes.

By setting a link to the previous note in the previous frontmatter property, you can connect notes into a continuous sequence. This enables smooth navigation along the flow and visualization of the entire network structure.

Installation

Open Settings in Obsidian, click on Browse under Community plugins, and search for previous river.

Alternatively, install it directly from https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/previous-river.

Features

Previous River uses the previous property to connect notes, allowing you to build two primary structures: Sequential and Hierarchical.

Two Ways to Structure Your Notes

1. Sequential Notes (Classic)

Connect notes in a continuous sequence by linking each note to its predecessor. This is ideal for journals, step-by-step guides, or a chain of thought.

flowchart RL
    B[Note 2] -- previous --> A[Note 1]
    C[Note 3] -- previous --> B[Note 2]
    D[Note 4] -- previous --> C[Note 3]

2. Hierarchical Notes (New in 1.4)

Create a parent-child structure by having multiple child notes point to a single parent note via the previous property. You can then use the Insert base to collect next notes command in the parent note to display a dynamically updated list of all its children.

flowchart BT
    Parent["Parent Note<br>(Contains base block to list children)"]
    Child1[Child Note 1]
    Child2[Child Note 2]
    Child3[Child Note 3]

    Child1 -- previous --> Parent
    Child2 -- previous --> Parent
    Child3 -- previous --> Parent

Other Core Features

1. Integration with the Properties view

Easily navigate to previous and next notes directly from the Obsidian Properties view.

A next button automatically appears on the right edge of the previous property row in the current note. Click it to intuitively advance to the next note.

To return to the previous note, click the link set in the previous property.

2. Export networks to Canvas

You can export connected notes to an Obsidian Canvas as a visual tree structure.

• The tree of all "next notes" branching from the current note
• All rivers (sequences) across the entire Vault
• Specifically filtered rivers

This provides an easy overview on the Canvas. It also automatically detects loop structures and adds a 🔄 icon to the origin note, helping you verify network integrity.

Commands

Navigation

• Go to previous note: Navigate to the note linked in the current note's previous property.
• Go to next note: Navigate to a note that backlinks to the current note and has its previous property pointing to it. If multiple candidates exist, a selection modal appears.
• Go to first note: Follow the previous property chain to reach the first (source) note in the sequence.
• Go to last note: Follow the next notes to reach the last note in the sequence. If multiple candidates exist, a selection modal appears.

Note operations

• Insert note: Insert the selected note into the current continuous sequence.
• Insert note to first: Insert the selected note at the beginning of the current sequence.
• Insert note to last: Insert the selected note at the end of the current sequence.
• Duplicate next note: Duplicate the currently active note and automatically link it by setting the new note's previous property to the original note. (Note: To insert a note between existing notes, use the "Insert note" command instead.)
• Detach note: Detach the current note from the sequence by setting its previous property to ROOT.
• Set ROOT to previous property: Quickly set the previous property of the active note to ROOT.
• Set note to previous property: Set an existing note to the current note's previous property.
• Create next note: Create a new empty note and automatically set its previous property to the current note. (Note: To insert a note between existing notes, use the "Insert note" command instead.)
• Insert base to collect next notes: Insert a code block to dynamically list all notes that point to the current note via the previous property.

Export and sharing

• Copy next notes list: Copy the sequence of "next notes" following the current note to the clipboard. Branches are automatically formatted as a text-based tree list.
• Export next notes to canvas: Export the entire tree structure of "next notes" branching from the current note to an Obsidian Canvas.
• Export all rivers to canvas: Analyze previous property connections across the entire Vault and export the whole network as a Canvas file.
• Export filtered rivers to canvas: Export a subset of the note network filtered by specific conditions to a Canvas.

Recommended Hotkeys

Setting hotkeys for navigating sequences back and forth significantly improves usability.

• Go to previous note: Alt+,
• Go to next note: Alt+.
• Go to first note: Alt+Shift+,
• Go to last note: Alt+Shift+.

Contributing

Feel free to submit bug reports and feature requests via Issues. Contributions through pull requests are also highly appreciated!