I have the feeling that the current design of queries is really not there yet.
First, you only get to chose whether a query will collect objects by object type or property on the moment when you create the query. But apparently this cannot be modified afterwards. If I wanted to change that, I’d have to delete the query and create a new one.
Next, I wish it could be possible to create more elaborate queries. My use case :
I got a “people” object type that includes various kind of people, among which academic and book authors, but also general business acquaintances.
I got a “books” type where I reference books, and this type has a “author” property that refers to the “people” type.
=> How can I create an “authors” query that would be a list of “people” objects, but applying a filter so as to only display the people that show up in the “author” property at least once ?
Or am I missing something?
Thanks for your help.
OS
Windows 11
Anytype Version
0.49.2
Network Mode
Anysync
Technical Information
OS version: win32 x64 10.0.26100
App version: 0.49.2 .
Build number: build on 2025-08-19 10:36:34 +0000 UTC at #f6a52252cfb9373a9191f92745bd70587934ea24
Library version: v0.43.0-rc02
Anytype Identity: AAksXkzM9vH1pStctLzmStBAwS1ZtQ8WdPbmG7ZrjS8wXHcg
Analytics ID: MdhMeyFy5gZASCcCfocPEDRCbZDuuCgCSP2dVSV8jczVY3LZ
Device ID: 12D3KooWQLNdikshQWtzvCDejGV7xtD8i2sZUgaz6kTcqhDHWHde
Ethereum Address: 0xbDa997EBcb339A80E4D5fC55a514469861eD9b64
The interface design choices suggest that you have to filter by type or property and that you cannot change this.
I don’t understand this choice, which misleads a lot of people, because that’s not actually the case.
You can create a query with ALL your objects : there is no “all” option, but filtering on a property that all objects have also works. Filter on property = Creation date and you will get everything.
You can change your query when you want, without delete it. Simply go again where you have choose your query filtrer and click the cross :
Create a query with Select query “Property = Author” and filter by “Backlinks is not empty”
It works only if you links people onlyt to books.
Actually, we need this FR to do something more efficient : Automatic Bi-directional linking + Rollups
Or you can add a tag to each “People” with “Author”, “Actor”, Family" or what you want.
I like the “backlinks is not empty” idea, but this isn’t really working the way I want because as you said, i’d need to link people to books only. So for example, if in my “people” list there is a guy who is mentioned in a meeting minutes note, then there will be a backlink between this page and that guy, and so that guy will show up in my query even though he isn’t an author…
By the way, the option to change the query isn’t available on my screen… look (nothing shows up after the “Query dot” thing :
Is it the default Query (not a custom type)?
What is your version?
Can you check how your propery are configured?
→ Info icon at the top right → “Edit Type” on the top right of the side bar → what do you have in your header section ? Object Type and “Set of”?
Sorry for the delay in my answer. I checked, and the “set of” property doesn’t exist at all in my app, neither in the type nor I check the list of all my properties
