Foam/Q/Does Foam have an alias feature like Obsidian does?

• Does Foam have an alias feature like Obsidian does?

  • AI Answer

    • AI/Response
      • Short answer: Partially — Foam supports a frontmatter alias: key that surfaces aliases in autocomplete, but unlike Obsidian, bare [[alias]] wikilinks do not resolve to the target note; they create a new note instead.

      • Frontmatter alias: (since v0.18.5, June 2022)

        • Declare alternative names in YAML frontmatter using alias: (singular — Foam differs from Obsidian's aliases:):
          • yaml

            ---
            alias: JavaScript, JS
            ---

        • Aliases appear in wikilink autocomplete; selecting one inserts [[filename|alias]] (display alias, underlying filename preserved).
        • Since v0.28.0 aliases are also indexed for VS Code's "Go To Symbol in Workspace" search.

      • Inline display alias

        • [[note-filename|Display Text]] renders as display text in preview (since v0.13.8).
        • Purely cosmetic — does not enable [[Display Text]] to resolve from elsewhere.

      • Critical limitation vs Obsidian

        • In Obsidian, declaring aliases: [JS] makes [[JS]] resolve to that note anywhere in the vault.
        • In Foam, writing [[JS]] when JS is a declared alias creates a new note instead of navigating to the aliased note. Confirmed in issue #1066, closed as "not planned" — the maintainer cited Markdown compatibility concerns.

      • Workarounds

        • Use the pipe syntax every time: [[high-cycle-fatigue|HCF]] — autocomplete helps insert this form.
        • Use Markdown reference definitions within a single file: [HCF]: high-cycle-fatigue (works only within that file).
        • Name the file with the short form (e.g. hcf.md) and put the long title in a heading.
      • Sources: PR #1014 · Issue #1066 · note-properties.md