In Graph View, orphans appear as isolated nodes with no connections — notes that have neither incoming nor outgoing links.
However, the CLI orphans command returns notes with no incoming links only, which includes MOCs and hub notes that have many outgoing links but no backlinks. This returns unexpected results for users familiar with Graph View’s orphan concept.
Suggested fix (any of these):
- Add an
isolatedcommand for truly isolated notes (no inlinks + no
outlinks) - Add a flag (e.g.,
strict) toorphansto filter for complete isolation
Current workaround:
comm -12 <(obsidian orphans vault=X | sort) <(obsidian deadends vault=X |
sort)