Your first 15 minutes

In the next fifteen minutes you’ll go from an empty screen to your first connected pair of notes, and you’ll watch the connection show up on its own in the graph. That last part is the point. You don’t build structure in Undra by filing things into folders up front. You write, you link, and the structure forms underneath you. By the end you’ll have seen that happen once, which is enough to trust it.

Here’s the whole path: open a workspace, write a note, link it to a second note with a wikilink, then open the graph and watch a new node and a backlink appear. Five small steps. Each one earns its keep.

1. Open a workspace

A workspace is just a folder you own. Pick an empty folder to start clean, or point Undra at a folder of Markdown you already have. Either works, and nothing gets converted or locked in: your files stay plain files on disk.

Why this matters: everything else in Undra lives inside this folder, as ordinary files you can back up, sync, or open in any other tool. There’s no database to feed and no import step to regret. If you’re bringing existing notes, see Importing and adopting for what to expect.

2. Write a note

Create a note and start typing. It’s plain Markdown, rendered live as you write, so headings, lists, and tasks take shape inline. Don’t overthink it. Give it a title and write a few lines about anything real you’re working on.

Why this matters: a note is the lowest-friction surface in Undra. Capture first, shape later. The full rundown of what the editor does (headings, tasks, tables, callouts) lives on the Notes page. For now, one note with a real title is all you need.

3. Link it to a second note

Now make the connection. Inside your note, write a wikilink to a second idea by wrapping its name in double brackets: [[like this]]. Use a name for a note that doesn’t exist yet, then follow the link to create that second note and write a line or two in it.

Why this matters: this is the move that turns a folder of files into a workspace. A wikilink isn’t just blue text. It’s a real relationship, and it does three things at once: it links the two notes, it creates a backlink the other way for free, and it draws an edge in the graph. The exact syntax (linking by name, aliases, and embeds) is covered on Wikilinks and backlinks.

4. See the backlink find you

Open your second note and look at its backlinks. The first note is already listed there, pointing back at it, even though you never edited the second note to make that happen. You linked one direction; Undra kept the other direction for you.

Why this matters: backlinks answer the questions you can’t search for, like “where did this come up before?” and “what depends on this?”, and you never have to maintain them by hand. That’s the payoff of every link being two-way. More on what backlinks surface is on Wikilinks and backlinks.

5. Watch it appear in the graph

Now open the graph (Undraverse). Your two notes are nodes, and the wikilink between them is the edge connecting them. That edge wasn’t drawn by hand. It’s the same relationship you wrote in step 3, shown as a map.

Why this matters: this is structure forming from writing. Every wikilink you make from here adds a node and an edge automatically, so the shape of your thinking becomes something you can see, spot clusters in, and navigate by relationship instead of by remembering folder paths. As the map gets busy, groups and presets let you color and save views of it. That’s all on Undraverse: Groups and Presets.

Where to go next

You’ve made one connection and watched it propagate to backlinks and the graph. From here, three directions:

• Notes: everything the editor can do, and when to reach for a note.
• Wikilinks and backlinks: aliases, embeds, and how backlinks gather context for you.
• Getting around: the command palette and panels that make moving through a real workspace fast.