Block-embed dashboards
What if your dashboard were not a collection of copies that age the moment they are pasted, but a window onto the real blocks — live, in sync both ways, fed by what your team is writing anyway? Block embeds turn scattered truths into one, visible in every place.
- An embed shares visibility — exposing something confidential by accident in a shared dashboard is the main risk.
- Deep embed chains (an embed inside an embed) can cost you overview and pace.
- Delete the source block and you empty every embed — source discipline stays a precondition.
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 an image of it. 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 diverge from the next edit on. Embed it and there is still one truth, visible in two places. Change the block in the dashboard and it changes at its home too — and the other way round. 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 to go stale.
- Edits sync 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 shows the block's children too; 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 and after — copy dashboard vs embed dashboard
| Property | Copy dashboard | Embed dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| Content | copies | the same blocks |
| Freshness | ages from the moment you paste | always live |
| Editing | local only, drifts | in sync, both ways |
| Source of truth | unclear (two states) | the block itself |
| Upkeep | chase it by hand | none |
An honest question
How many of your dashboards show copied states that were already stale the moment they were pasted? The answer decides whether a dashboard shows you the truth or just a photo of yesterday.