[cuttlefisch]

This sounds like a rudimentary implementation of a Zettelkasten system. Basically it's a philosophy of taking atomic notes, with no predefined hierarchy/structure where notes reference each other through their unique IDs. Notes are atomic, often using tagging for search & visualization. Over time the atomic, linked notes can generate interesting insights not immediately apparent by the content of the notes themselves; their links can show relationships hidden in the connections, etc. There's much more to it than that, but the core ideas sound similar.

If you're interested, check out Org-roam for its implementation of this stuff. It's emacs-based, but uses the same style of markdown notes connected by tagging & linking, while providing search & visualization features which take minimal effort to configure. I've modified my own fork of it to include some staleness tracking on files, identifying the last time a node was accessed, updated, or linked-to.