Create a Second Brain in VSCode with Foam
In this lesson, we will use the foambubble template to get started building a second brain in VSCode. The template includes a number of extensions. The primary extention is foam itself which generates links between notes that you write similar to the popular personal knowledge management service Roam Research.
Note: foam is in alpha so the api is likely to change quite a bit. They project that they have implemented 10% of the features currently roadmapped.
Zac Jones: [0:00] Here, I'm on the foam-template GitHub repository. You'll notice that there's this Use this template button which I'll click. Here, it brings up an interface for you to create your own template based on that foam-template. I've already done so and cloned it locally in my-brain -- is what I call the project.
[0:26] The first thing you'll notice is that there's already a readme, an inbox, a todo, and foam-tips. You'll see that there's that double bracket syntax in the actual file.
[0:41] You're supposed to be able to Command-click, but that doesn't work because you need to have the recommended extensions, which you can see because there are extensions recommended in this VS Code folder, this pop up shows, so I can hit Show Recommendations and the recommendations will show here.
[1:10] I can click Install on all of them and navigate back to my readme. Here, it's still not working because we need to Command-Shift-P and reload the window. We can now Command-click and the linked reference will take me to the file that was linked.
[1:32] Here in the BACKLINKS, you can see that in readme, this foam-tips was linked too, and I can then navigate back to readme through the BACKLINKS menu over here. You'll notice that there is autogenerated links here that you won't want to edit yourself.
[1:55] Here in my inbox, I have a big idea. I'm going to create My Big Idea, which will then, when I Command-click, generate a page that I can write My Big Idea down in. You'll notice that that backlink is now available.
[2:19] Now that we've created My Big Idea, we'll want to see the graph for My Big Idea. To do so, hit Command-Shift-P. You'll notice the Show Graph command is up and the graph for our brain has been started with My Big Idea here and it being linked in our Inbox. We can now navigate through the graph in VS Code.