Block-Embed Dashboards
Dashboards built from real blocks — live, not from copies
- You embed a block via an embed and recognise that it is the same block. ·· Success criterion: You change the block in the embed and show the change at its home.
- You build a dashboard from at least one embed and one query. ·· Success criterion: Your dashboard shows a fixed block plus a live-computed list.
- You explain the difference between embed and copy and the visibility risk. ·· Success criterion: You give one example each of safe and of risky embedding.
Block references give every claim an address. An embed goes one step further: it shows the block itself in a second place — the same block, not a likeness. That is how you build a dashboard from real content that never drifts apart, because it copies nothing.
An embed is not a copy
Copy a block and you have two truths that start drifting from the very next edit. Embed it and there stays one truth, visible in two places. Change the block in the dashboard and it changes at its home too — and the other way around. That is transclusion: one piece of content, many windows.
{{embed ((6c1b9a2e-7d84-4f12-a3b9-0e5c1d7f2a48))}}
;; zeigt denselben Block — eine Quelle, hier nur ein weiteres Fenster5 rules for block-embed dashboards
- An embed is the block itself, not a snapshot — there is no second version that goes stale.
- Edits synchronise both ways: the dashboard and the home are one and the same.
- Mix embeds with queries — fixed blocks for what matters, rules for what keeps changing.
- An embed also shows the block's children; choose the granularity deliberately.
- Never delete the source block to remove an embed — remove only the embed, the block stays at home.
A dashboard from embeds and a query
## Sprint-Dashboard
{{embed ((a8e2d710-4f3b-4c1a-9e2d-5b7c8a1f0e63))}} ;; Sprint-Ziel, lebt im Planungs-Doc
{{query (and (property "type" "task")
(property "sprint" "aktuell"))}} ;; offene Aufgaben, liveBefore/after — copy dashboard vs embed dashboard
| Property | Copy dashboard | Embed dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Copies | the same blocks |
| Freshness | ages from the moment of pasting | always live |
| Edit | local only, drifts | in sync, both ways |
| Source of truth | unclear (two states) | the block itself |
| Upkeep | pull through by hand | none |
An honest question
How many of your dashboards show copied states that were already stale at the moment of pasting? The answer decides whether a dashboard shows you the truth or merely a photograph of yesterday.
- Build a small sprint dashboard from exactly one embed and one query. Embed a fixed block that lives elsewhere — a sprint goal, say — and add a query for what keeps changing, such as the open tasks. Then change the embedded block in the dashboard and check at its home that the change stands there too.⏱ 5 min
💡 Address the source block via its block reference and copy the ((id)) first — then you only paste {{embed ((id))}} in the dashboard, instead of retyping the content.
Model answer: The dashboard carries a {{embed ((id))}} of the sprint goal at the top, with a query for the open tasks of the current sprint below. Change the goal in the dashboard and the same change stands in the planning doc, because it is the same block and not a copy. Before sharing, check that no embedded block is confidential — an embed shares visibility.
What happens when you change an embedded block in the dashboard?
One block, right everywhere.
Build your dashboard from real blocks, not from copies — your second brain keeps every view current, because it never duplicates a thing. A companion that tends one truth, not still photographs.
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