Course outline
AcademyModule 3 · Inspect and classify entities
Sort and filter the entity table
What you'll learn
- You can open the entity table with the titlebar button, ⌘⇧L, or an "Open as table" deep link.
- You can point the table at any set: all entities, one type, "Type unknown", a collection, or a case.
- You can explain what the "Connections" and "Notes" columns each count, and why they differ.
- You can filter and sort the table, then hand the visible rows to the graph with "Show on canvas".
- You can open any entity's 360° page straight from its row.
When a graph contains many entities, a table makes it easier to compare names and counts without clicking each node. Use it, for example, to find the people mentioned most often.
The entity table presents graph entities in rows and columns. Choose a set, sort or filter it, and click a row to open that entity’s 360° page.
Opening the table
The table lives in a tab titled "Entities", and there are several ways in:
- The titlebar has a table-icon button labeled "Entity table", just left of the graph button. It stays highlighted while the table is your active view.
- The keyboard shortcut is ⌘⇧L (Ctrl+Shift+L on Windows/Linux). You can rebind it in Settings ▸ Shortcuts.
- In global search (⌘⇧F), run the navigation action "Entity table".
- "Open as table" deep links turn up in a few spots: every type card in Knowledge graph tuning ▸ "Entity types", each saved collection in the graph canvas's Collections FAB, and a case file's detail view. Each one opens the table already pointed at that set.
- The workspace empty-state launcher also has an "Entity table" card with its shortcut.
One tab, retargeted
There's only ever one "Entities" tab. Reopen it and you just focus the tab already there. "Open as table" deep links retarget that same tab in place, so duplicates never pile up.
The first time you open it, it shows "All entities". Whenever you switch to a different source, the sort, filter, and "show all" state reset.
During the first workspace scan you'll see "Scanning the knowledge graph…". An empty set says "Nothing in this set right now."
Choosing what to look at
The source switcher in the top-left names the set you're looking at. Click it to open a menu and retarget the table. Every entry carries a live count, so the menu doubles as a quick census of your graph.
| Source | What the table shows |
|---|---|
| "All entities" | Everything in the graph, with a running total. |
| A type (under "Types") | Every entity of one kind: Person, Organization, Place, and so on. Only types that actually have members show up, each with its colored dot and count. |
| "Type unknown" | Entities the AI hasn't typed yet. It shows up whenever some entities are still untyped, ready for you to tidy up. |
| A collection (under "Collections") | A saved living set. Its recipe re-runs against the current graph, so the member count is always current. The group hides itself when you have no collections saved. |
| A case | The entities pinned to a case file, opened from the case's "Open as table" button. The table treats them like a hand-picked collection. |
- Entity
- A thing the AI extractor spotted in your notes, like a person, a project, or an idea. It's stored as a node in the knowledge graph. One note can mention many entities, and one entity can turn up in many notes.
- Entity set
- Whatever the table is showing right now: all entities, one type, "Type unknown", a collection, or a case's pinned entities.
- Connections
- How many distinct entities this one shares a drawn graph edge with. These are exactly the lines you'd see on the canvas.
- Notes
- How many notes mention the entity. It's the backlink count, a rough measure of how prominent the entity is.
- Collection
- A living set saved as a recipe of steps. It re-evaluates against the current graph every time it renders.
Four columns, one sorting rule
| Column | What it shows | First click sorts |
|---|---|---|
| "Name" | The entity's display label, in bold. Long names get truncated, with the full name on hover. | A → Z |
| "Type" | A kind chip with the type's fixed color dot. Untyped entities show a dash. | A → Z |
| "Connections" | Distinct entities this one shares a drawn graph edge with. | Highest first |
| "Notes" | How many notes mention this entity. | Highest first |
Two counts, two different questions
"Notes" answers *how much do I write about this?* It counts the notes that mention the entity.
"Connections" answers *how wired-in is it?* It counts the distinct entities sharing a drawn edge: typed relations, synonym links, and broader or related links.
They disagree all the time. A journal topic you mention daily might have almost no connections, while a hub entity can be wired to twenty others from just three notes.
The default sort is Notes, descending, so your most-mentioned entities sit at the top the moment the tab opens. Click any header to sort by it, click again to flip direction. Ties break alphabetically by name, so the order never jitters.
It stays fast at any size: the first 500 rows draw right away, and a "Show all (+N)" bar loads the rest when you want them.
Filter, then hand off to the canvas
The "Filter by name…" box does a case-insensitive substring match on the Name column, and the "{n} entities" caption next to the source switcher ticks down live as the set shrinks. Read that label literally: it matches *names only*, not aliases, types, or note titles.
Once you've narrowed the table down to the rows you care about, "Show on canvas" (top right) projects exactly those visible rows onto the graph canvas as the focused set, then flips you over to the graph tab. That's the table-to-picture hand-off: filter by the data, then go study the shape. The button goes disabled when no rows match.
Sort, filter, and project
- Press ⌘⇧L (Ctrl+Shift+L on Windows/Linux). The "Entities" tab opens on "All entities", sorted by Notes descending, so your most-mentioned things come first.
- Open the source switcher and pick a type under "Types" (the menu only lists types that have members, each with a live count).
- Type a few letters into "Filter by name…" and watch the entity count caption drop.
- Click the "Connections" header. The same rows now rank by how wired-in they are instead of how often you mention them.
- Click "Show on canvas".
The graph view opens focused on exactly the rows you had visible: the same set, redrawn as dots and lines.
From a row to a 360° page
Every row is clickable. The click opens that entity's 360° page as a regular tab: its ranked connections, aliases, and every note that mentions it. You can keep several entity pages open side by side, but reopening the same entity by any of its aliases just focuses the tab already open.
Two faces of one graph
Graph theory has always carried two equivalent ways to write down the same structure: the node-link diagram and the tabular adjacency list. Pictures are best for shape, like clusters, hubs, and bridges. Tables are best for magnitude: exact counts you can sort and compare.
Serious analyst platforms pair a graph explorer with object tables for exactly this reason. Consilience does the same. Because both views read the same knowledge graph, "Show on canvas" and "Open as table" are the same set in a different form. Every column is computed on the spot from the same graph, so switching views costs you nothing.
Two handy shortcuts
Looking for an entity you know by a nickname? The filter box only matches the Name column, so reach for global search (⌘⇧F) and its "Concepts" scope instead. It resolves aliases and drops you on the canonical entity.
If "Type unknown" rows pile up, "Fill in missing types" in the Entity types tab lets the AI classify them; the lesson on kinds and collections walks through it.
That's the table, the census view of your graph. Next up is where every row leads: the entity 360° page, with the source sentence behind every connection.