org-brain implements a variant of concept mapping in Emacs, using org-mode. It
is heavily inspired by a piece of software called The Brain, and you can view an
introduction to that program here. They also provide a blog with great ideas of
how you can think when organizing your Brain.
You can think of org-brain as a combination of a wiki and a mind map, where
each wiki page / mind map node is an org-mode file which resides in your
org-brain-path, or a headline with an ID property in one of those files. These
are called entries. Entries can be linked together, and you can then
view the network of links as a mind map, using M-x org-brain-visualize. Here’s a video introducing =org-brain=.
PINNED: Index
+-Python Game development-+-Game design
+-Programming books |
Programming-+-Emacs |
| |
+-----------------+-----------------+
|
V
Game programming <-> Computer games
Game Maker Unity
--- Resources ---------------------------------
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_programming
- Passing Through Ghosts in Pac-Man
- In-House Engine Development: Technical Tips
--- Text --------------------------------------
Game programming is the art of programming computer games...
When visualizing an entry, you will see the entry’s relationship to other
entries. There are four different types of relationships in org-brain:
- Parents
- Entries above the visualized entry. If the visualized entry is a
headline, then the parent headline in the
org-modefile will be one of the parents. In the case of top level headlines, the file itself will be considered a parent. Additional parents can be added manually. In the example above, Programming and Game development are parents of the visualized Game programming entry. - Children
- Entries below the visualized entry. This will by default be subheadings of the visualized entry (or level one headlines, if the visualized entry is a file). You can add other children, residing elsewhere, manually. In the example above, Game Maker and Unity are the children of Game programming.
- Siblings
- These appear to the right of the parent entries. Siblings are the other children of the visualized entry’s parents.
- Friends
- These appear to the right of the visualized entry. Friends provide a way of adding a hierarchy independent two-way relationship between two entries. Friends must be added manually. In the example above, Computer games and Game programming are friends.
Here’s an article describing how you can use the different relationships (The
Brain’s jump thoughts are the equivalent of friends in org-brain).
Apart from the visualized entry’s relationships, org-brain-visualize also show
pinned entries, which are shown independently of the visualized entry; Index
is a pinned entry in the example above. org-brain-visualize also show a list
of the entry’s resources (links and attachments), and the text in the entry. The
example above have three resources, and a short text. The resources and text is
gathered from org-mode automatically.
There’s also the option to visualize the entry as a tree, or similar to a mind map, where you can zoom in order to show grandparents and grandchildren.
The relationship entries, pinned entries and resources are all links; they can be pressed/clicked to visualize other entries, visit resources etc.
You can also annotate the connection between the visualized entry and one of the other entries. You can think of it as annotating the edge between two nodes in a graph. Annotations will show up in the mini-buffer when hovering over an annotated connection.
The easiest way is to get org-brain from MELPA. If you do not want to do that,
clone this git repository or download org-brain.el and add it to your load-path.
The example below is using use-package and assumes that you’re using MELPA, but
you could use (require 'org-brain) or add a :load-path to use-package instead.
Most of the configuration below isn’t necessary, but showcases some options.
(use-package org-brain :ensure t
:init
(setq org-brain-path "directory/path/where-i-want-org-brain")
;; For Evil users
(with-eval-after-load 'evil
(evil-set-initial-state 'org-brain-visualize-mode 'emacs))
:config
(bind-key "C-c b" 'org-brain-prefix-map org-mode-map)
(setq org-id-track-globally t)
(setq org-id-locations-file "~/.emacs.d/.org-id-locations")
(add-hook 'before-save-hook #'org-brain-ensure-ids-in-buffer)
(push '("b" "Brain" plain (function org-brain-goto-end)
"* %i%?" :empty-lines 1)
org-capture-templates)
(setq org-brain-visualize-default-choices 'all)
(setq org-brain-title-max-length 12)
(setq org-brain-include-file-entries nil
org-brain-file-entries-use-title nil))
;; Allows you to edit entries directly from org-brain-visualize
(use-package polymode
:config
(add-hook 'org-brain-visualize-mode-hook #'org-brain-polymode))org-brainrequires Emacs 25 and org-mode 9. These need to be part of your Emacs.- Configure
org-brain-path(defaults to/brainin yourorg-directory) to a directory where you want to put yourorg-brainfiles (which could be the location where you already keep your org files if you wish to transform your existing org files intoorg-brainfiles). You can set this with the example config presented above or throughM-x customize-group RET org-brain. - If you’re an evil user, you’ll want to add
(evil-set-initial-state 'org-brain-visualize-mode 'emacs)to yourorg-brainconfiguration. org-brainuseorg-idin order to speed things up. Because of this, the variableorg-id-track-globallyshould bet(which it already is by default). You may want to modifyorg-id-locations-filetoo. If you add entries toorg-braindirectly fromorg-modeyou must assign headliens an ID. A comfortable way to do this is with the commandorg-brain-ensure-ids-in-buffer. Even more comfortable is to add that tobefore-save-hook, so that it runs when saving.org-brain-prefix-mapcan be bound to a key to makeorg-braincommands more accessable if you edit entries fromorg-mode. See Editing from org-mode under Usage below.- You might want to add information at the end of an entry, without visiting the file. A way to do this is to use a capture template, such as the one presented above.
- If you have a lot of entries, it might take some time to gather information
about all entries when using
org-brain-visualize. You could change the value oforg-brain-visualize-default-choices(which is'allby default) to only include files, or even just files in the direct root oforg-brain-path. - If you feel that
org-brain-visualizeis too cluttered, you may want to setorg-brain-show-resourcesand/ororg-brain-show-texttonil. - If you have very long entry names,
org-brain-visualizemay take a lot of horizontal space. You can cap the shown length of entry titles, by settingorg-brain-title-max-length. - Some users find it confusing having both headline entries and file entries
(see below). It may be preferable to only use headline entries, by setting
org-brain-include-file-entriestonil. If doing this, you should probably also setorg-brain-file-entries-use-titletonil. Another possibility is if you’re only using file entries, in which case you can setorg-brain-scan-for-header-entriestonil. polymodeis a package (available on MELPA) which allows for several major-modes in the same buffer. If you have required the package you can useM-x org-brain-polymodeinsideorg-brain-visualize, or (as in the example above) addorg-brain-polymodetoorg-brain-visualize-mode-hook.
org-brain supports showing icons for your entries, depending on their category. Use the variable org-agenda-category-icon-alist to specify icons for categories.
See example of using all-the-icons for this below under Other useful packages.
When visualizing you might want to see additional information about the entries. This can be done by customizing the following variables:
org-brain-vis-title-prepend-functionsorg-brain-vis-title-append-functionsorg-brain-vis-current-title-prepend-functionsorg-brain-vis-current-title-append-functions
Each of these variables should be a list of functions, which all takes an entry as the single parameter and returns a string. This string is the prepended or appended to the entry’s title, according to the name of the function. The variables with the name current in them only applies the functions on the currently visualized entry (the focused one).
Suitable functions to add to these lists might be:
org-brain-entry-icon(included inorg-brain-vis-title-prepend-functionsby default)org-brain-entry-todo-stateorg-brain-entry-tags-string
There are two types of entries in org-brain: headline entries and file
entries. For the most part these are used the same way, and the main difference
between them is how their content is stored inside your org-brain directory.
All .org-files inside the org-brain-path are considered as file entries (the
content typically being the text before the first headline in the file) and all
headlines with an ID property inside these files are considered as headline
entries.
By default subdirectories inside org-brain-path are scanned recursively for
files, so all subdirectories and their files are considered part of the brain.
You can choose to only have the root of org-brain-path be scanned for files, by
setting org-brain-scan-directories-recursively to nil.
If you have a headline entry, which you want to convert to a file entry, use M-x
org-brain-headline-to-file. Unfortunately there is currently no function to
convert a file entry into a headline entry.
Most of org-mode is tailored towards working with headlines, and because of this
org-brain has some limitations regarding what’s possible with file entries. The
concept of both headline and file entries is confusing to some users.
If you prefer to only use headline entries, you can set the variable
org-brain-include-file-entries to nil. It then also makes sense to set
org-brain-file-entries-use-title to nil.
You may choose to exclude the file part of entry names when choosing among
entries. org-brain passes two objects, the file and the headline, to the emacs
format function. By setting org-brain-headline-entry-name-format-string to
"%2$s", org-brain will only show the headline title.
Here’s an example which may be suitable for a setup without file entries:
(setq org-brain-include-file-entries nil)
(setq org-brain-file-entries-use-title nil)
(setq org-brain-headline-entry-name-format-string "%2$s")
(setq my/default-org-brain-file "brain")
(setq org-brain-default-file-parent my/default-org-brain-file)If you instead prefer to work with file entries, you can set
org-brain-scan-for-header-entries to nil. It will still be possible to add
headline entries, but they will be excluded from most searches when choosing
among entries.
You can create new entries by M-x org-brain-visualize and then
typing the name of a non-existing entry. You can go back to the
*org-brain* buffer by M-x org-brain-visualize-dwim. It will switch
to the *org-brain* buffer. If there’s no such buffer, or if already
there, run org-brain-visualize. You could also use M-x
org-brain-add-entry if you do not want to visualize the new entry.
Also commands which add children, parents and friends, or links to
entries, can create new entries in the same way. Se General
information below.
If you find that org-brain is missing entries, or list entries which doesn’t
exist, try using M-x org-brain-update-id-locations, which syncs the
org-brain entries with the org-id caching system.
The primary usage of org-brain is through M-x org-brain-visualize (which you
might want to bind to a key). From there you can browse entries, add/remove
relationships, open entries for editing etc. The following keybindings are
available in org-brain-visualize:
| Key | Command | Description |
|---|---|---|
| m | org-brain-visualize-mind-map | Toggle between normal and mind-map visualization. |
| j or TAB | forward-button | Goto next link |
| k or S-TAB | backward-button | Goto previous link |
| b | org-brain-visualize-back | Like the back button in a web browser. |
| h or * | org-brain-add-child-headline * | Add a new child headline to entry |
| c | org-brain-add-child * | Add an existing entry, or a new file, as a child |
| C | org-brain-remove-child * | Remove one the entry’s child relations |
| e | org-brain-annotate-edge | Annotate the connection between the visualized entry and the entry link at point. |
| p | org-brain-add-parent * | Add an existing entry, or a new file, as a parent |
| P | org-brain-remove-parent * | Remove one of the entry’s parent relations |
| f | org-brain-add-friendship * | Add an existing entry, or a new file, as a friend |
| F | org-brain-remove-friendship * | Remove one of the entry’s friend relations |
| n | org-brain-pin * | Toggle if the entry is pinned or not |
| N | org-brain-add-nickname | Add a nickname for the entry (you can have several names for the same entry) |
| s | org-brain-select-dwim | Select an entry for batch processing. |
| S | org-brain-select-map | Prefix key to do batch processing with selected entries. |
| t | org-brain-set-title | Change the title of the entry. |
| T | org-brain-set-tags | Change the tags of the entry. |
| d | org-brain-delete-entry | Choose an entry to delete. |
| l | org-brain-visualize-add-resource | Add a new resource link in entry |
| r | org-brain-open-resource | Choose and open a resource from the entry. |
| C-y | org-brain-visualize-paste-resource | Add a new resource link from clipboard |
| a | org-brain-visualize-attach | Run org-attach on entry (headline entries only) |
| A | org-brain-archive | Archive the entry (headline entries only) |
| o | org-brain-goto-current | Open current entry for editing |
| O | org-brain-goto | Choose and edit one of your org-brain entries |
| v | org-brain-visualize | Choose and visualize a different entry |
| V | org-brain-visualize-follow | Similar to org-agenda-follow-mode; view visualized entry in another window. |
| w | org-brain-visualize-random | Visualize one of your entries at random. |
| W | org-brain-visualize-wander | Visualize at random, in a set interval. W again to cancel. |
| C-c C-x C-v | org-toggle-inline-images | Display org-mode images in the entry text. |
| M | Move prefix | Move (refile) the current entry. |
| M r | org-brain-refile | Move current entry to another entry (change local parent). |
| M p | org-brain-change-local-parent | Choose among the entry’s parents and make another of them the local parent. |
The commands above marked with * can be run with the universal argument C-u in
order to operate on the entry link at point instead of the visualized entry.
You may use org-store-link inside of org-brain-visualize in order to store a
link to the currently visualized org-brain entry.
If the universal argument C-u is used when running org-brain-visualize-random or
org-brain-visualize-wander, the randomized targets are restricted to descendants
(children, grandchildren, grand-grandchildren etc) of the currently visualized
entry. Use for instance C-u W to wander among the descendants.
The universal argument C-u can also be used with org-brain-open-resource. This
lets you choose not only resource from the visualized entry, but also from
descendants (children, grand-children, etc) of that entry.
If the universal argument C-u is used when calling org-brain-annotate-edge then
the annotation will be “one-way”. The default behaviour is otherwise to annotate
the connection in both directions.
When using the mind map visualization (toggle by pressing m), you can use the
following keybindings in order to show or hide successive levels of hierarchy
relative to the current entry.
| Key | Command | Description |
|---|---|---|
| + | org-brain-show-descendant-level | Show one more level of entries to the right (children of children, etc.) |
| - | org-brain-hide-descendant-level | Hide rightmost level of descendant entries |
| z | org-brain-show-ancestor-level | Show one more level of entries to the left (parents of parents, etc.) |
| Z | org-brain-hide-ancestor-level | Hide leftmost level of ancestor entries |
If you want to select several entries and then remove/add them as
children/parents/friends you can use the s key (org-brain-select-dwim) to select
an entry. If the point is over a button link to an entry, that entry will be
selected, otherwise it will select the currently visualized entry. If the entry
is already selected, it will be unselected instead.
Once you have selected all the entries you wish to use, you can use the S prefix
key to do batch processing on the selected entries. The keybindings in this
prefix keymap is identical to those in org-brain-visualize. You could for
instance use S c to add all selected entries as children to the visualized
entry, or S P to remove the parent relationship of the selected entries. When
you’re done and wish to clear the selection use org-brain-clear-selected, which
is bound to S s.
If you have the polymode package installed you can edit your entries directly from org-brain-visualize-mode. Run M-x org-brain-polymode or add org-brain-polymode to org-brain-visualize-mode-hook. After editing you can use C-x C-s (bound to org-brain-polymode-save) to save your changes.
You can edit org-brain entries directly from org-mode. You can use the default
org-mode outline structure to define parent/children relationships, but keep in
mind that only entries with an ID property will be considered as entries to
org-brain; use M-x org-brain-get-id to create an ID property to the current
org-mode headline. Another alternative is to use M-x org-brain-refile which will
create the ids for you. You can also create IDs for all headlines in the buffer
with M-x org-brain-ensure-ids-in-buffer, and you might find it useful to add
this to before-save-hook.
Most of the commands available in org-brain-visualize can also be used in
org-mode directly, in which case they will operate on the “entry at point”. In
other words you can use M-x org-brain-add-child directly from org-mode in
order to add a child to the org-brain entry at point. You may also want to use
the commands org-brain-goto-<relationsship> to navigate between entries.
Most of the commands available in org-brain-visualize-mode is also bound to the
prefix keymap org-brain-prefix-map. You can bind this to a key in org-mode, for
instance C-c b, and you could then type C-c b p to add a parent to the current
entry. Example config: (define-key org-mode-map (kbd "C-c b")
'org-brain-prefix-map).
You may want to create a link to an org-brain entry in an org-mode file (not
necessarily an org-brain file itself). org-brain provides several link types
for this purpose. You can use org-insert-link (bound to C-c C-l in
org-mode by default) to insert one of these links. They all have in common
that they, when clicked, will open the org-brain entry for editing. When
inserting a link like this, org-brain will run completion upon all your
entries.
brain:- The default kind of link. Just let’s you visit another
org-brainentry when clicked. If the variableorg-brain-backlinkista brain-link will also be created as a resource in the link target, linking back to where the link was created. Iforg-brain-backlinkis set to a string, that string will be added as a prefix to the title of the backlink. Example: You setorg-brain-backlinkto"<-- "and create abrain:link inRabbitslinking toCarrots. Now a resource with the description<-- Rabbitswill be created inCarrots. brain-child:- When inserted using
org-insert-linkthis will make the linked entry a child to the currentorg-brainentry, upon completion. Keep in mind that this doesn’t work if you type the link manually; only by completion throughorg-insert-link. brain-parent:- Like
brain-child:but makes the linked entry a parent of the current entry. brain-friend:- Like
brain-child:but adds the linked entry as a friend. brainswitch- If you have multiple brains you may want a link which switches to a specific brain and one of its entries. The
brainswitchlink allows for this.
The names of the relationship inserting links (brain-child, brain-parent and brain-friend) can be customized with the variables org-brain-child-link-name, org-brain-parent-link-name, and org-brain-friend-link-name. This customization should be done before loading org-brain. If you’re using use-package, put the customization in the :init block.
If you’re browsing a file and want to add the file – or the current line in the file – as a resource to an entry, you can use M-x org-brain-add-file-as-resource or M-x org-brain-add-file-line-as-resource. If any of these are run with universal argument C-u then add the resources to current/last visualized entry.
If you try to add a child/parent/friend to an entry which doesn’t exist, that
entry will be created. The same is true for many other commands prompting for an
entry, like org-brain-visualize. The name of a new entry can be written like
this: file::headline. The headline will be created as a level one headline in
file. If you create a new entry without the headline part, it will by default be
created as a file entry. It is possible to change that though by setting the
variable org-brain-default-file-parent to a default file. Let’s say you set the
variable to "brain" and then add the entry Bananas (a non-existent entry). That
would be the same thing as writing brain::Bananas.
When adding children, parents, or friends, multiple entries can be added at once
by separating their titles with org-brain-entry-separator (which is ; by
default). For instance M-x org-brain-add-parent RET music;artists would add
both music and artists as parents.
Another available command is M-x org-brain-agenda, which can be used to run
org-agenda on your org-brain files.
When giving a file entry a title, the title can not contain slashes (/) if
org-brain-file-entries-use-title is t.
Headline entries use org-id to identify themselves, so the headlines can be
manually renamed without worries. File entries, on the other hand, uses the
filename as the identifier. This will cause problems if you try to manually
rename files inside of org-brain.
In order to rename a file, use M-x org-brain-rename-file.
org-archive has a problem in org-brain: relationships are maintained, even
though the entry should really be removed from the brain. Because of this,
please use org-brain-archive instead. This command removes relationships to
the entry in the brain, before archiving it. The command also inserts handy
links to the archived entry’s relationships.
You might have a headline which you do not really want as an entry in
org-brain. The most basic way to exclude such a headline is simply to not add
an ID property to it. However, org-brain also provide two tags, which you
can use to tag the headline:
:nobrain:- This tag excludes the headline, and its subheadings, from your
org-brainentries. You can change the tag name by modifyingorg-brain-exclude-tree-tag. :childless:- This tag does not exclude the headline, but it excludes the
subheadings. You can change the tag name by modifying
org-brain-exclude-children-tag. Works on file entries.
The following tags modifies the kind of information that is shown when an entry is visualized:
:notext:- Do not show the entry’s text in
org-brain-visualize. You can change the tag name by modifyingorg-brain-exclude-text-tag. :resourceless:- Do not show the entry’s resources in
org-brain-visualize. You can change the tag name by modifyingorg-brain-exclude-resources-tag. :showchildren:- By default local child entries aren’t shown as text. By
setting this tag the entry get the entire subtree as text. You can change
the tag name by modifying
org-brain-show-children-tag. Works on file entries. :nosiblings:- You may have an entry with lots of children, and when you visualize one of these children you might not want to see the siblings from this parent. A good example would be if you have an
indexentry or similar. By tagging the parent withnosiblingsthe parent’s children will not show siblings from that parent. You can change the tag name by modifyingorg-brain-exclude-siblings-tag. - :nolocalparent:
- This is similar to
:nosiblings:but the tagged parent will not be shown at all when one of its local children are visualized.
The following tags modify the way how information is shown when an entry is visualized.
:ownline:- Make each child of the tagged entry appear on its own
line when the tagged entry is visualized. This
only affects the tagged entry. It works akin to
temporarily setting
org-brain-child-fill-column-sexpto0. :nosort:- Display each child of the tagged node in the order the
children are listed in the file, rather than in the
sorted order determined by
org-brain-visualize-sort-function. This affects the order of the node’s children in both the child list (when the tagged node is being visited) and in the sibling list (when one of the tagged node’s children is being visited).
You can have multiple brains simply by having more than one brain folder. In this way, each folder becomes a separate brain. You can switch between these using M-x org-brain-switch-brain. You can also use brainswitch: links in org-mode to switch brains.
If you run org-brain-visualize from inside an org-file in the root of an org-brain directory, org-brain will automatically switch to this brain.
org-brain creates and uses several headline properties in the PROPERTIES
drawer of org-mode headlines:
BRAIN_PARENTSBRAIN_CHILDRENBRAIN_FRIENDSBRAIN_EDGE_$IDENTIFIERIDNICKNAMES
These properties are also mirrored as file keywords at the top of file entries,
for instance #+BRAIN_CHILDREN: 00c0f06c-9bd4-4c31-aed0-15bb3361d9a2.
These properties/keywords are not meant to be manipulated directly! If you want
to remove these properties, use the corresponding command instead
(org-brain-remove-child or similar). There’s currently command to remove
NICKNAMES though, so at the moment that has to be done manually.
You might also see that org-brain inserts a RESOURCES drawer. It is okay to
modify this drawer manually.
The names of the parents/children/friends properties, the prefix for edge
properties and the RESOURCES drawer can customized by setting the variables
org-brain-parents-property-name, org-brain-children-property-name,
org-brain-friends-property-name, org-brain-edge-property-prefix-name and
org-brain-resources-drawer-name, respectively. Of course, after doing any
customization, the property/drawer names of existing brain files have to be
adjusted manually.
If you feel that org-brain is slow while indexing your entries (for instance when running M-x org-brain-visualize) you can customize org-brain-file-entries-use-title, and set it to nil. This will display file names when indexing, instead of the file entry’s title, which is faster.
Should only the first call of org-brain-visualize be slow, an option may be to try persistent caching of the variable org-brain-headline-cache. Choose a session management solution that works for you (an option for helm users). A simple and built-in method is to use the savehist package. To do so, you may add the following configuration:
(savehist-mode 1)
(setq savehist-additional-variables '(org-brain-headline-cache))You are probably using the version of org-mode that came with your Emacs install, which has a lower version than 9.2. Check the version of org you have installed with M-x org-version. See Github issue #278.
org-brain has no built-in functionality for exporting to other formats. I’ve
started experimenting with another package named org-brain-export which might be
merged into org-brain in the future. org-brain-export is in VERY early stages of
development.
If you use Helm or Ivy you can use the commands helm-brain or counsel-brain respectively. These allow for visualizing entries, and adding parents/children/friends to the entry at point. They also allow selecting multiple entries.
These commands do not have any keybindings by default.
As of version 0.7 entry descriptions are deprecated. They made visualization slow, and it was quite a hassle to actually write them. The “help echo” text is now used for edge annotations instead.
This is only relevant if you’ve been using org-brain before version 0.4
As of version 0.4 (June 2017) org-brain has been rewritten, in order to
increase performance and add more options. Because of this, older setups are
considered obsolete. Prior to 0.4 only files were considered entries, but now
also headlines with an ID property are included as entries. Prior to 0.4
org-brain was using the brain: link and #+BRAIN_PINNED: file keyword to
connect files, which was slow due to the need of searching all files for links.
In version 0.4 org-brain uses a combination of headline properties, file
keywords, org-id, and a data file (org-brain-data-file).
No data in old configurations should be lost, but you’ll have to update the
connections between entries. This can be done by using M-x
org-brain-create-relationships-from-links, but please backup your org-brain
directory first.
It is still possible to add children to an entry by using the brain-child: link, but
only if the link is inserted with org-insert-link (bound to C-c C-l in
org-mode by default). Linking to specific headlines in a file, via
brain:filename::*Headline is deprecated and will no longer work, instead you
can convert the headline to an entry and link directly to that.
There’s some missing functionality in org-brain, which you may find useful.
However there are other packages which might improve your org-brain
experience. Below are some suggestions (feel free to create an issue or send a
pull request if you have more examples), all of them should be available on
MELPA.
org-brain doesn’t add any information on when entries are created, so it is hard
get a list of your entries in chronological order. I’ve managed to use
org-expiry (part of org-plus-contrib) to add a CREATED property to all org-brain
headline entries. Then we can use org-agenda to show the entries in
chronological order.
;; Setup org-expiry and define a org-agenda function to compare timestamps
(require 'org-expiry)
(setq org-expiry-inactive-timestamps t)
(defun org-expiry-created-comp (a b)
"Compare `org-expiry-created-property-name' properties of A and B."
(let ((ta (ignore-errors
(org-time-string-to-seconds
(org-entry-get (get-text-property 0 'org-marker a)
org-expiry-created-property-name))))
(tb (ignore-errors
(org-time-string-to-seconds
(org-entry-get (get-text-property 0 'org-marker b)
org-expiry-created-property-name)))))
(cond ((if ta (and tb (< ta tb)) tb) -1)
((if tb (and ta (< tb ta)) ta) +1))))
;; Add CREATED property when adding a new org-brain headline entry
(add-hook 'org-brain-new-entry-hook #'org-expiry-insert-created)
;; Finally add a function which lets us watch the entries chronologically
(defun org-brain-timeline ()
"List all org-brain headlines in chronological order."
(interactive)
(let ((org-agenda-files (org-brain-files))
(org-agenda-cmp-user-defined #'org-expiry-created-comp)
(org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(user-defined-down)))
(org-tags-view nil (format "+%s>\"\"" org-expiry-created-property-name))))Now we can use org-brain-timeline to view entries in chronological order (newest
first).
A simple command that takes a URL from the clipboard and inserts an org-mode link with a title of a page found by the URL into the current buffer.
Here’s a command which uses org-cliplink to add a link from the clipboard as an org-brain resource. It guesses the description from the URL title. Here I’ve bound it to L in org-brain-visualize.
(defun org-brain-cliplink-resource ()
"Add a URL from the clipboard as an org-brain resource.
Suggest the URL title as a description for resource."
(interactive)
(let ((url (org-cliplink-clipboard-content)))
(org-brain-add-resource
url
(org-cliplink-retrieve-title-synchronously url)
t)))
(define-key org-brain-visualize-mode-map (kbd "L") #'org-brain-cliplink-resource)link-hint.el is inspired by the link hinting functionality in vim-like browsers and browser plugins such as pentadactyl. It provides commands for using avy to open or copy “links.”
After installing link-hint you could bind link-hint-open-link to a key, and
use it in org-brain-visualize-mode. If you only want to use link-hint in
org-brain-visualize-mode, you could add the following to your init-file:
(define-key org-brain-visualize-mode-map (kbd "C-l") #'link-hint-open-link)Converts simple ASCII art line drawings in the region of the current buffer to Unicode.
ascii-art-to-unicode is useful if you want org-brain-visualize-mode to look
a bit nicer. After installing, add the following to your init-file:
(defface aa2u-face '((t . nil))
"Face for aa2u box drawing characters")
(advice-add #'aa2u-1c :filter-return
(lambda (str) (propertize str 'face 'aa2u-face)))
(defun aa2u-org-brain-buffer ()
(let ((inhibit-read-only t))
(make-local-variable 'face-remapping-alist)
(add-to-list 'face-remapping-alist
'(aa2u-face . org-brain-wires))
(ignore-errors (aa2u (point-min) (point-max)))))
(with-eval-after-load 'org-brain
(add-hook 'org-brain-after-visualize-hook #'aa2u-org-brain-buffer))A utility package to collect various Icon Fonts and propertize them within Emacs.
After installing all-the-icons you could decorate the resources in org-brain, by using
org-brain-after-resource-button-functions. Here’s a small example:
(defun org-brain-insert-resource-icon (link)
"Insert an icon, based on content of org-mode LINK."
(insert (format "%s "
(cond ((string-prefix-p "brain:" link)
(all-the-icons-fileicon "brain"))
((string-prefix-p "info:" link)
(all-the-icons-octicon "info"))
((string-prefix-p "help:" link)
(all-the-icons-material "help"))
((string-prefix-p "http" link)
(all-the-icons-icon-for-url link))
(t
(all-the-icons-icon-for-file link))))))
(add-hook 'org-brain-after-resource-button-functions #'org-brain-insert-resource-icon)You could also use all-the-icons to add icons to entry categories. For instance if you have two categories named computers and books which you want icons for:
(setq org-agenda-category-icon-alist
`(("computers" ,(list (all-the-icons-material "computer")) nil nil :ascent center)
("books" ,(list (all-the-icons-faicon "book")) nil nil :ascent center)))An Emacs mode for quickly browsing, filtering, and editing directories of plain text notes, inspired by Notational Velocity.
After installing deft, you can add the function below to your init-file.
(defun org-brain-deft ()
"Use `deft' for files in `org-brain-path'."
(interactive)
(let ((deft-directory org-brain-path)
(deft-recursive t)
(deft-extensions '("org")))
(deft)))It searches both headings and contents of entries in Org buffers, and it displays entries that match all search terms, whether the terms appear in the heading, the contents, or both.
After installing helm-org-rifle, you can add the function below to your
init-file.
(defun helm-org-rifle-brain ()
"Rifle files in `org-brain-path'."
(interactive)
(let ((helm-org-rifle-close-unopened-file-buffers nil))
(helm-org-rifle-directories (list org-brain-path))))
(defun helm-org-rifle-open-in-brain (candidate)
(-let (((buffer . pos) candidate))
(with-current-buffer buffer
(goto-char pos)
(org-brain-visualize-entry-at-pt))))
(add-to-list 'helm-org-rifle-actions
(cons "Show entry in org-brain" 'helm-org-rifle-open-in-brain)
t)Org-noter’s purpose is to let you create notes that are kept in sync when you scroll through the [PDF etc] document
Thanks to rosetree for providing this tip! After installing org-noter, add the following to your init-file:
(add-hook 'org-noter-insert-heading-hook #'org-id-get-create)
(defun org-brain-open-org-noter (entry)
"Open `org-noter' on the ENTRY.
If run interactively, get ENTRY from context."
(interactive (list (org-brain-entry-at-pt)))
(org-with-point-at (org-brain-entry-marker entry)
(org-noter)))org-brain-open-org-noter will run org-noter on the current entry. This lets you save your PDF notes in org-brain, so you can link to them from other entries etc. It can be a good idea to add this command to org-brain-visualize, like this:
(define-key org-brain-visualize-mode-map (kbd "\C-c n") 'org-brain-open-org-noter)org-board is a bookmarking and web archival system for Emacs Org mode, building on ideas from Pinboard. It archives your bookmarks so that you can access them even when you’re not online, or when the site hosting them goes down.
The Emacs Wiki has an article about wiki modes in Emacs.
Org-roam is a Roam replica built on top of the all-powerful Org-mode.
Org-roam is a solution for effortless non-hierarchical note-taking with Org-mode. With Org-roam, notes flow naturally, making note-taking fun and easy. Org-roam should also work as a plug-and-play solution for anyone already using Org-mode for their personal wiki.
Org-roam aims to implement the core features of Roam, leveraging the mature ecosystem around Org-mode where possible. Eventually, we hope to further introduce features enabled by the Emacs ecosystem.
An opinionated setup for managing large collections of interlinked org files.
Org-wiki is a org-mode extension that provides tools to manage and build personal wiki or desktop wiki where each wiki page is a org-mode file.