We live in a world of powerful apps. Our Macs can manage email, notes, documents, tasks, and web research with ease. And yet, somehow, these tools still struggle to talk to each other in meaningful ways. You might have a note that refers to an email, which relates to a file, which connects to a calendar event — but there’s no smooth way to move between them. That kind of contextual navigation, sadly, still feels like science fiction.
It shouldn’t. We already have the hardware. What we’re missing is a concept — and a tool — that brings it all together.
That’s where omni-links come in, heralding a link-friendly platform.
What’s an Omni-Link?
An omni-link is a link that can point to anything — not just web pages or documents, but emails, notes, calendar entries, reminders, tasks, and more. And not just within one app, but across all the apps you use on your Mac.
Imagine being able to link from a note to a file in Finder, or from a calendar event to the email it refers to. Imagine opening a project note and clicking right into a DEVONthink document, a PDF, or a web page you researched earlier. That’s the promise of omni-links: they bring your information together, no matter where it lives.
More technically, omni-links are URLs that can refer to any identifiable digital objects. Not just web pages, but any app. You can copy them, paste them anywhere, and invoke them from anywhere.
Here are some example of omni-link protocols:
- `https://`: web links (also https:// and other protocols served by web browsers)
x-devonthink-item://DEVONthink links.omnifocus:///OmniFocus task and project links.hook://file/: for linking to macOS files (in Finder, etc.)hook://email/: for linking to emails in an email-client agnostic way (based on RFC email ID) — those links can be shared with anyone who has access to the linked email.hook://notes/for Using Hookmark with Apple Notes.hook://addressbook: For Apple’s macOS Contacts app.hook://ical/: linking to macOS Calendar entries.-
hook://search/: triggers a Spotlight search. hook://slack/: links to slack channels.hook://spotify/: guess?hook://tbx/(for accessing Tinderbox items).
Any app that has its own app links is defining an omni-link.
Why This Matters for Contextual Computing
As David Sparks has eloquently explained, contextual computing is about using technology to stay anchored in your current project, task, or train of thought — rather than jumping through hoops just to reorient yourself. It’s about staying in flow.
Most apps today offer some form of internal linking — you can link between notes in Obsidian or pages in Notion. But these are intra-app links. They work well until you need to connect something in Notion to something in Apple Mail or Reminders. At that point, you’re out of luck — unless you resort to vague references, screenshots, or redundant text.
The problem is bigger than convenience. When you can’t move easily between related pieces of information, you lose context. And when you lose context, you waste time, make mistakes, and miss opportunities to think more deeply.
This is what I’ve called the meta-access problem — the frustrating gap between knowing you’ve captured something and being able to access it in the right context, at the right time. I describe it in detail in Cognitive Productivity: Using Knowledge to Become Profoundly Effective. It’s the digital equivalent of “I know it’s around here somewhere…”
Omni-links are designed to solve that problem. They allow you to bring related content together, even when it lives in different silos. They enable hyper-relevant contextual information retrieval (HR-CIR) — the ability to summon just the right thing, just when you need it.
Why Hookmark?
Right now, Hookmark is the only app on the market that provides true omni-linking for macOS. (And due to the protection of our IP, it will stay that way.) It’s built specifically to enable fluid, contextual computing across the apps and content you use every day.
Hookmark doesn’t just let you copy links to files — it does so robustly: move the files and the links still work (unlike file:// links). Moreover, this is not just about linking to files. Hookmark lets you link to any information in link-friendly apps: emails, notes, calendar items, web pages, PDFs, tasks — even photos. If an app has its own protocol (and it meets our standards), like x-devonthink-item, Hookmark’s will utilize that protocol. Otherwise, its Copy Link function generates hook:// URLs. Either way, paste links copied by Hookmark into your notes, drop them into a task manager, or stash them in a project dashboard — they’ll still work.
Hookmark is also designed to work across apps — but with one important caveat. The best experience happens when the apps you’re using are link-friendly. That means they expose their content to automation, provide a way to get persistent identifiers (such as URLs or stable references). Hookmark is engineered to make the most of such capabilities — and when an app meets those basic criteria, it becomes part of a much richer, more navigable digital environment. You can learn more about what makes an app link-friendly here.
When apps cooperate, Hookmark shines. When they don’t, Hookmark often finds workarounds anyway — succeeding where no other tool can. For instance, Hookmark falls back on UI-scripting when an app lacks an API (automation) for linking.
The Bigger Picture
The Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking lays out a vision for a more connected computing future — one where links aren’t an afterthought, but a core part of how we interact with information. On day 1 it was signed by 24 Mac developers, CEO’s, professors and other visionaries. Signatories have flowed since then. The future specified by the manifesto isn’t theoretical. It’s already possible. And Hookmark is delivering it today.
As knowledge workers, creators, students, and thinkers, we rely on context. We need to see how our information fits together. Hookmark makes that possible. It doesn’t try to replace your favorite apps — it respects them. It just gives you the missing thread that ties them all together.
If you’ve ever felt like your Mac is smarter than your workflow, omni-links might be the concept you didn’t know you were missing. And Hookmark is how you make it real.
You can support this vision by joining numerous other visionaries who have signed. Sign it here.