# Using Foam

Foam is a personal knowledge management system built on [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) and [GitHub](https://github.com/). It helps you organize research, create discoverable notes, and publish your knowledge.

> See also [[frequently-asked-questions]].

## Key Features

- **Wikilinks** - Connect thoughts with `[[double bracket]]` syntax
- **Embeds** - Include content from other notes with `![[note]]` syntax
- **Backlinks** - Automatically discover connections between notes
- **Graph visualization** - See your knowledge network visually
- **Daily notes** - Capture timestamped thoughts
- **Templates** - Standardize note creation
- **Tags** - Organize and filter content

## Why Choose Foam?

- **Free and open source** - No subscriptions or vendor lock-in
- **Own your data** - Notes stored as standard Markdown files
- **VS Code integration** - Leverage powerful editing and extensions
- **Git-based** - Version control and collaboration built-in

Foam is like a bathtub: _What you get out of it depends on what you put into it._

## Getting Started

- [[installation]]
- [[get-started-with-vscode]]
- [[recommended-extensions]]
- [[first-workspace]]
- [[note-taking-in-foam]]
- [[sync-notes]]
- [[keyboard-shortcuts]]

## Features

- [[wikilinks]]
- [[embeds]]
- [[tags]]
- [[backlinking]]
- [[daily-notes]]
- [[embeds]]
- [[spell-checking]]
- [[graph-view]]
- [[note-properties]]
- [[templates]]
- [[paste-images-from-clipboard]]
- [[custom-markdown-preview-styles]]
- [[link-reference-definitions]]
- [[custom-snippets]]

## Recipes

[[recipes]] is a collection of user-contributed patterns that describe different ways you could utilize Foam or integrate it with other tools.

## Publishing

You can publish your Foam notes for consumption in different formats.
Examples: [[publish-to-github-pages]], [[generate-gatsby-site]], [[publish-to-vercel]]

See [[publishing]] for more details.

## Tools

- [[cli]]
- [[workspace-janitor]]
- [[orphans]]
- [[foam-logging-in-vscode]]

[//begin]: # "Autogenerated link references for markdown compatibility"
[frequently-asked-questions]: frequently-asked-questions.md "Frequently Asked Questions"
[installation]: getting-started/installation.md "Installation"
[get-started-with-vscode]: getting-started/get-started-with-vscode.md "Using Foam with VS Code Features"
[recommended-extensions]: getting-started/recommended-extensions.md "Recommended Extensions"
[note-taking-in-foam]: getting-started/note-taking-in-foam.md "Note-Taking in Foam"
[sync-notes]: getting-started/sync-notes.md "Sync notes with source control"
[keyboard-shortcuts]: getting-started/keyboard-shortcuts.md "Keyboard Shortcuts"
[wikilinks]: features/wikilinks.md "Wikilinks"
[tags]: features/tags.md "Tags"
[backlinking]: features/backlinking.md "Backlinks"
[daily-notes]: features/daily-notes.md "Daily Notes"
[embeds]: features/embeds.md "Note Embeds"
[spell-checking]: features/spell-checking.md "Spell Checking"
[graph-view]: features/graph-view.md "Graph Visualization"
[note-properties]: features/note-properties.md "Note Properties"
[templates]: features/templates.md "Note Templates"
[paste-images-from-clipboard]: features/paste-images-from-clipboard.md "Paste Images from Clipboard"
[custom-markdown-preview-styles]: features/custom-markdown-preview-styles.md "Custom Markdown Preview Styles"
[link-reference-definitions]: features/link-reference-definitions.md "Link Reference Definitions"
[custom-snippets]: features/custom-snippets.md "Adding Custom Snippets"
[recipes]: recipes/recipes.md "Recipes"
[publish-to-github-pages]: publishing/publish-to-github-pages.md "GitHub Pages"
[generate-gatsby-site]: publishing/generate-gatsby-site.md "Generate a site using Gatsby"
[publish-to-vercel]: publishing/publish-to-vercel.md "Publish to Vercel"
[publishing]: publishing/publishing.md "Publishing pages"
[cli]: tools/cli.md "Command Line Interface"
[workspace-janitor]: tools/workspace-janitor.md "Janitor"
[orphans]: tools/orphans.md "Orphaned Notes"
[foam-logging-in-vscode]: tools/foam-logging-in-vscode.md "Foam logging in VsCode"
[//end]: # "Autogenerated link references"
