This is a plugin for Obsidian that maintains backlink cache to speed up undocumented app.metadataCache.getBacklinksForFile function.

It's mostly useful for users with the large vaults. On smaller vaults the difference might be unnoticeable.

It speeds up Backlinks Pane performance and plugins that deal with the backlinks.

This plugin the most likely will be useful for other plugin developers that deal with the backlinks.

Its idea came from the forum.

The provided version is faster than the built-in version. Also the overload to accept path was added.

const backlinks1 = app.metadataCache.getBacklinksForFile(file);
const backlinks2 = app.metadataCache.getBacklinksForFile(path);

If you want to ensure the all recent file changes are processed and the backlinks are 100% accurate.

const backlinks1 = await app.metadataCache.getBacklinksForFile.safe(file);
const backlinks2 = await app.metadataCache.getBacklinksForFile.safe(path);

You can access the original built-in version:

const backlinks = app.metadataCache.getBacklinksForFile.originalFn(file);

If you want to use the updated functions from your plugin, you can copy types.d.ts into your code.

• Backlink Cache is available in the official Community Plugins repository.
• Beta releases can be installed through BRAT.

© Michael Naumov