inline-includes.md

Inline includes

Summary

{{inline: notebook:path/note.md}} on its own line shows another note's body right there, as if it were part of this note. Add #Heading to include just one section ({{inline: docs:wikilinks.md#Summary}}), or card to show the note's card instead of its text. Several includes plus toc: true make one long, navigable document out of separate notes.

How it works

{{inline: ../shared/header.md}}
{{inline: accts:tutorial/06_credit_card_transactions.md}}
{{inline: docs:wikilinks.md#Summary}}
{{inline: card Takeout:cast/jim_dandy.md}}

The path is relative to the current note (../ steps up a folder), or a full selector with a notebook name (accts:) for another notebook. Frontmatter is left out; only the body renders.

Included content sits in a bordered block (a left rule with a slight tint) so it's clearly not part of the surrounding text. Everything inside stays live: wikilinks, terminal links, inline queries and codeblocks all work.

Includes near the top load straight away, in order; ones further down load as you scroll to them.

One section: #Heading

{{inline: note.md#Heading}} includes only the text under that heading, up to the next heading of the same or higher level. The heading itself is left out, so the section reads as part of the host note. Matching is case-insensitive, as with [[Page#Heading]]. A heading that doesn't exist shows as a dimmed [inline: ...], with the reason in its tooltip.

This is how the features: pages show each topic's Summary without copying it.

Cards: card

{{inline: card path}} shows the target's card (an actor, location, contact, production…) when its type has one, and its plain body otherwise. Only the card is shown, not the note's text below it, and the whole card is a link: click it to open the source note.

Summaries and contents: summary, contents

{{inline: summary features:basics/basics.md}} shows a tour category the way the README does: its title, caption and Summary. {{inline: contents}} lists the pages of the current note's section, generated from its folder's order; see Sections.

Stitched documents

Includes and toc: true together build one navigable document from separate notes:

---
title: The Complete Guide
type: dashboard
toc: true
---

# The Complete Guide

{{inline: accts:guide/setup.md}}

{{inline: accts:guide/daily.md}}

{{inline: accts:guide/review.md}}

Chapters sit under the heading they're included under. Each chapter keeps its own heading levels relative to each other, shifted so its top heading is one level below the nearest heading above the include line: here every chapter's # Setup shows as a level-2 heading under # The Complete Guide, and its ## sections as level 3. A chapter with no heading above it keeps its levels. Headings are only ever moved down, never up, and stop at level 6. The README export does the same.

The table of contents lists the headings of the included chapters, and updates as later chapters load. Each chapter is still a normal note you can open on its own. Use full selectors (accts:guide/setup.md) rather than relative paths, so the hub works from anywhere.

Exporting as HTML captures the page after every include has loaded, so the file is one self-contained document.

Reference

• Use a colon for .lib files: {{inline: .lib:help-nb.md}} works; {{inline: .lib/help-nb.md}} is read as a path relative to the current note and fails. The same goes for wikilinks.
• Two levels deep: an included note's own includes work (so a book's chapter can pull in a section), but includes three levels down are dropped, which also prevents loops.
• Write the .md: docs:wikilinks.md#Summary works; docs:wikilinks#Summary doesn't find the note.
• Not published: Quartz shows {{inline:}} as literal text.

For developers

• Wikilinks internals
• Render pipeline

_resolveInlineInclude, _sliceSection and _hostHeadingLevel/_shiftChapterHeadings in main.js (the export's twin is shift_headings in .tools/readme-export.py); the render pipeline is in wikilinks and nb-web's CLAUDE.md ("Inline queries").