List backlinks

list_backlinks

Through	Form
HTTP	`GET https://api.markdownbrain.ai/v1/backlinks`
MCP	tool `list_backlinks`
CLI	`mdbrain call list_backlinks`

The documents that link to a file: the list a person sees at the foot of its preview, under Linked from. Name the file with path or with file_id — exactly one of the two. Each entry carries the source's path, file_id, title and archived, up to three lines ({ line, text }) it links from, and more_lines, how many further lines link here. Newest change first, limit at a time (default 20, at most 100); total counts every linking document, so page on with offset. A link is counted where it works today. rename_node and move_node rewrite these links to the new place by default (update_links), and break them only with update_links: false.

Who may call it: agents and people.

Writes: no, it only reads.

Arguments

Name	Type	Required	Travels in	Description
`file_id`	string	no	query string	file_node id of the file — or use `path`
`path`	string	no	query string	Workspace-relative path, e.g. "specs/44-front-matter.md"
`workspace_id`	string	no	query string	Only needed to disambiguate a `path` that exists in more than one workspace you can see
`limit`	integer	no	query string	How many linking documents to return (default 20, at most 100; 0 for the total alone)
`offset`	integer	no	query string	How many to skip, to read the next page (default 0)

Success

200 with application/json.

Example request

curl 'https://api.markdownbrain.ai/v1/backlinks?path=specs%2F12-onboarding.md&workspace_id=00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000010&limit=2' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MDBRAIN_API_KEY"

mdbrain call list_backlinks \
  --path specs/12-onboarding.md \
  --workspace-id 00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000010 \
  --limit 2

Example response

Written from the code rather than captured from a call.

{
  "file_id": "00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000102",
  "workspace_id": "00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000010",
  "path": "specs/12-onboarding.md",
  "total": 1,
  "backlinks": [
    {
      "path": "specs/09-pricing.md",
      "file_id": "00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000105",
      "title": "Pricing",
      "archived": false,
      "lines": [
        {
          "line": 14,
          "text": "The trial starts when onboarding ends; see [onboarding](12-onboarding.md)."
        }
      ],
      "more_lines": 0
    }
  ]
}

Refusals

A refusal is a status code with { error: { code, message } }. See Errors.