diff --git a/docs/changelog.d/v1-prototype.feature.md b/docs/changelog.d/v1-prototype.feature.md
index 5730820..46c7ab4 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.d/v1-prototype.feature.md
+++ b/docs/changelog.d/v1-prototype.feature.md
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Begin the v1 prototype (Phase 1, tech-spec §11.1), built in TDD slices:
 - `heph-tui` task-list visuals (§8.1): each row now leads with an attention **flag** (`⚑`, colored red/orange/blue; blank for white) and a **project-colored bullet** — the bullet's color is derived stably from the project id (so it survives projects being added/removed), letting you scan a mixed list by project at a glance. The list also grows a **scrollbar** and keeps the selected task scrolled into view when there are more tasks than fit.
 - `heph-tui` sort toggle (§8.1): **`s`** flips the task list between two orders — **default** (attention → most-overdue → project → creation) and **by-project** (grouped under dimmed `──── Project ────` separators, then the same sub-order). The view's filter still applies first. (To free `s`, **skip** moved to **`S`**.)
 - `heph.nvim` task-view rows (§8): `:Heph next`/`:Heph list` rows now show a compact **do/late date chip** (and a recurrence `↻`), so you can see scheduling at a glance; `<CR>` still jumps to a task's context doc.
-- Wiki-links by node id (§8.4): node resolution is now **id-first** (`[[NODEID]]` resolves to its node ahead of any name match, so links can't be shadowed by a like-named node), and heph.nvim grows a **`[[` picker** — type `[[` (or `:Heph link`) to search your nodes and insert a canonical `[[NODEID]]` link, with a "+ Create new doc" entry that mints one on the spot. Following such a link (`<CR>`) jumps straight by id. Those id links are kept **readable**: on read a bare `[[NODEID]]` is expanded to `[[NODEID|Current Name]]` (so it follows renames, in both the nvim buffer and the TUI preview), and on save it collapses back to the canonical bare id — a custom `|label` you write is preserved as an override. (Legacy `[[Name]]` links still resolve until a one-time migration rewrites them; in-editor conceal of the id is next.)
+- Wiki-links by node id (§8.4): node resolution is now **id-first** (`[[NODEID]]` resolves to its node ahead of any name match, so links can't be shadowed by a like-named node), and heph.nvim grows a **`[[` picker** — type `[[` (or `:Heph link`) to search your nodes and insert a canonical `[[NODEID]]` link, with a "+ Create new doc" entry that mints one on the spot. Following such a link (`<CR>`) jumps straight by id. Those id links are kept **readable**: on read a bare `[[NODEID]]` is expanded to `[[NODEID|Current Name]]` (so it follows renames, in both the nvim buffer and the TUI preview), and on save it collapses back to the canonical bare id — a custom `|label` you write is preserved as an override. In the editor the id is **concealed** — a link renders as just its name, styled like a hyperlink, with the raw `[[id|Name]]` revealed on the line your cursor is on. (Legacy `[[Name]]` links still resolve until a one-time migration rewrites them.)
 - Frontmatter editing in heph.nvim (§8.3): opening a node now shows an editable **YAML frontmatter** block on top of the body (`id`/`kind`/`title`/`tags`, and for a task or its context doc the task's `state`/`attention`/`do_date`/`late_on`/`recurrence`/`project`). On save, the plugin diffs the block and issues the right RPC per changed field — rename, set-attention, reschedule (dates as `YYYY-MM-DD`), move-to-project (by name), and tag add/remove — then saves the body; the store strips the block so it never persists. A mistyped `state` surfaces a validation error; a buffer with no block changes no metadata (so deleting the block can't wipe your tags). Inline **`#hashtags`** typed in the body are also added as tags on save (a `# heading` doesn't count) and are rendered in **italics** so they stand out. Link-follow and promotion are unaffected (they're content-relative, not line-absolute).
 - Frontmatter projection (§8.3): a node can now be fetched with an editable **YAML frontmatter** block prepended — `node.get {frontmatter: true}` renders `id`/`kind`/`title`/`tags`, and for a task (or its context doc) the owning task's `state`/`attention`/`do_date`/`late_on`/`recurrence`/`project` plus a `task:` ref. Dates are local `YYYY-MM-DD`. On write, the store **strips and ignores** any leading frontmatter (conservatively — a real `---` hrule in prose survives) before the CRDT diff, so frontmatter never persists and an unchanged read→write is a no-op; a naive editor can't corrupt metadata. This is the read/write groundwork for editing a node's metadata as frontmatter in heph.nvim (the diff-into-RPCs layer is next).
 - Tags (§4, §8.3): nodes can now be **tagged**. A tag is a `tag`-kind node whose id is deterministic in `(owner, name)`, so the same name is **one canonical tag** shared across everything it's applied to (and replicas converge — no duplicate tags). Tagging is an OR-set link, so adding/removing is idempotent and merge-safe. Surfaced as `tag.add`/`tag.remove`/`tag.list` RPCs and `heph tag add|rm|list` (list a node's tags, or every tag with no node). Tag names are trimmed; a canonical case/spelling normalization is deferred to the future zk import. This is the groundwork for the `tags:` line of the upcoming frontmatter edit surface.
diff --git a/docs/reference/tech-spec.md b/docs/reference/tech-spec.md
index c3b9fa8..138c608 100644
--- a/docs/reference/tech-spec.md
+++ b/docs/reference/tech-spec.md
@@ -334,10 +334,10 @@ Field rules: `id`/`kind` are **read-only** (display only); `title`, `attention`,
 > **Status: id-addressed links + the `[[` picker are built**; read-expansion/conceal display and the legacy migration are next. Historically bodies stored the human text `[[Title]]` and links materialized by resolving name→id at write time, which is ambiguous (a task and its canonical-context doc share a title — hence the resolution hack in §6/`links::resolve_id`). The fix: **the body stores the canonical node id**, and **no name-addressed link ever enters the DB**.
 
 - ✅ **Resolution is id-first:** `links::resolve_id` checks for an exact live node **id** before alias/title, so `[[NODEID]]` resolves to its node (and a like-named node can't shadow it). Legacy `[[Name]]` links still resolve by name until the migration runs; the canonical-context exclusion hack therefore stays for now (removed once name-resolution is retired).
-- ✅ **`heph.nvim` authoring:** typing `[[` (or `:Heph link`) opens a picker (reuses `picker.lua` / Telescope, **no new dependency**) that searches via the `search` RPC and inserts `[[NODEID]]`; a **"+ Create new doc"** entry mints a `doc` and inserts its id. Follow (`<CR>`) resolves the id directly.
+- ✅ **`heph.nvim` authoring:** typing `[[` (or `:Heph link`) opens a picker (reuses `picker.lua` / Telescope, **no new dependency**) that searches via the `search` RPC and inserts `[[NODEID|Name]]` (labelled → readable + conceal-ready; collapses to bare on save); a **"+ Create new doc"** entry mints a `doc`. Follow (`<CR>`) resolves the id directly.
 - **At rest (target):** `[[NODEID]]`, or `[[NODEID|custom text]]` when the author wrote explicit display text. The id before the `|` is the target.
 - ✅ **Projection (same philosophy as §8.3):** `heph-core::wikilink` (pure, injected id→title) — `node.get` **expands** a bare `[[NODEID]]` → `[[NODEID|Current Name]]` (every read, so the nvim buffer *and* the TUI preview are readable), and `update_node` **collapses** a `|text` equal to the target's current name back to bare before the CRDT diff (a custom label is preserved as an override). Transform order: read = expand links → prepend frontmatter; write = strip frontmatter → collapse links → store. An unchanged read→write round-trips to the canonical bare id. *(`heph export` still emits raw ids — a later polish.)*
-- ⏳ **`heph.nvim` display:** a completed link is **concealed** to its name (or `|text`), rendered as a styled hyperlink (extmark `conceal` + inline virtual text), revealed in raw form when the cursor is on it.
+- ✅ **`heph.nvim` display:** `conceal.lua` hides the `[[id|` prefix and the `]]` suffix with conceal extmarks (refreshed on edit), leaving the label as a styled `HephLink` hyperlink; `conceallevel=2` + empty `concealcursor` reveal the raw link on the cursor's line so it stays editable.
 - ⏳ **Migration:** a **one-time fixup** rewrites existing `[[Title]]` bodies to `[[NODEID]]` (resolve→id; flag the unresolvable), after which name-resolution + the canonical-context hack are removed. No special care is warranted (no critical data yet); a first-class migrations feature stays **deferred**.
 
 ## 9. Testing strategy (TDD, layered)
@@ -470,7 +470,7 @@ See [[design]] §5–§7 for the constraints later phases impose on present choi
    - ✅ **nvim task-navigation polish (§8) — DONE:** `:Heph next`/`list` rows now carry a compact **do/late date chip** (and a recurrence `↻`); `<CR>` already jumps to a row's canonical-context doc (read/navigate, not field-edit).
 3. ✅ **Tags (§4, §8.3) — DONE:** a tag is a `tag`-kind node whose id is **deterministic in `(owner, name)`** (`tag:<owner>:<name>`, like the journal), so a name is one canonical tag and replicas converge — no duplicate tag nodes. Tagging is an **OR-set `tagged` link** (mirroring `in-project`): `Store::add_tag` (get-or-create the tag node, idempotent link), `remove_tag` (tombstone the link), `tags_of` (sorted names); enumerate all tags via `list_nodes(Tag)`. RPCs `tag.add`/`tag.remove`/`tag.list` (+ RemoteStore forward); CLI `heph tag add|rm|list`. Names are trimmed, case preserved (canonical normalization deferred to the zk import). Unblocks the `tags:` line of the frontmatter surface (§8.3) and the eventual zk import; inline `#hashtags` remain a heph.nvim concern (§8.3).
 4. ✅ **YAML frontmatter as an edit surface (§8.3) — DONE:** the projection — `heph-core::frontmatter::strip` (conservative, runs in `update_node` before the CRDT diff) + `hephd::frontmatter::render` (local-tz dates via `datespec::fmt_iso`) behind `node.get {frontmatter: true}`; a task's context-doc surfaces the owning task's scalars + a `task:` ref; round-trip is a no-op and inbound frontmatter is always stripped (safe vs any client). And the `heph.nvim` smart client (`frontmatter.lua`): the buffer opens with the editable block, and `BufWriteCmd` diffs it → `title`→rename / `attention`→set_attention / dates→set_schedule / `project`→set_project / `tags`→tag.add·remove (a no-block buffer touches no metadata), and inline `#hashtags` in the body are unioned into the tag set on save.
-5. ◐ **Wiki-links by node id (§8.4) — authoring DONE, display + migration next:** ✅ id-first resolution (`[[NODEID]]` resolves ahead of name; legacy `[[Name]]` still works) + the `heph.nvim` `[[` picker (`search` → insert `[[NODEID]]`, "+ Create" mints a doc) + id-direct follow. ⏳ Remaining: read-expansion/write-collapse projection (`[[ID]]`⟷`[[ID|Name]]`, needs an id→name batch RPC), conceal display, and the one-time `[[Title]]`→`[[ID]]` migration (then retire name-resolution + the canonical-context hack). See §8.4.
+5. ◐ **Wiki-links by node id (§8.4) — authoring + display DONE, migration next:** ✅ id-first resolution; the `heph.nvim` `[[` picker (`search` → insert `[[NODEID|Name]]`, "+ Create" mints a doc) + id-direct follow; the **expand-on-read / collapse-on-write** projection (`heph-core::wikilink`); and **conceal display** (`conceal.lua` hides the id, shows the label as a `HephLink`, reveals on the cursor line). ⏳ Remaining: the one-time `[[Title]]`→`[[NODEID]]` migration (then retire name-resolution + the canonical-context hack). See §8.4.
 6. ⏳ **`heph.nvim` slice 11d (§6/§8) — DEFERRED, post-parity:** daemon **server-push** notification framing (no-`id` lines on the socket; the client read-loop already demuxes them) + the **dirty-buffer reconcile** (the §8 "known-hard" case) + the "update-arrives-while-open" e2e (§9).
 7. ⏳ **Split `heph.nvim` to its own forge repo (§8) — UX polish:** generated from this monorepo (subtree-split in CI) so the lazy spec becomes `{ "eblume/heph.nvim" }` instead of a local-clone `dir` (see [[install-heph]]).
 8. ⏳ **Adoption refinement + multi-tenant (§13) — before v1 done, low priority:** local→authed **adoption** currently rewrites `owner_id` (`adopt_owner`) but not yet the owner-embedded deterministic ids (journal/tag) + their links; and the hub is single-tenant (one owner per store) — owner-per-token storage is a future extension.
diff --git a/heph.nvim/lua/heph/conceal.lua b/heph.nvim/lua/heph/conceal.lua
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d4c14c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/heph.nvim/lua/heph/conceal.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+--- Conceal `[[NODEID|Name]]` links down to a styled "Name" hyperlink in node
+--- buffers (tech-spec §8.4). The node id is structural noise to a reader, so we
+--- hide the `[[id|` prefix and the `]]` suffix with conceal extmarks, leaving
+--- the label visible and highlighted. `conceallevel=2` + an empty
+--- `concealcursor` reveal the raw `[[id|Name]]` on the line the cursor is on, so
+--- it stays directly editable. A bare `[[id]]` (briefly, before save→reload
+--- canonicalises it) just hides its brackets.
+
+local M = {}
+
+local ns = vim.api.nvim_create_namespace("heph_link_conceal")
+
+--- Recompute conceal extmarks for every `[[…]]` span in `buf`.
+function M.refresh(buf)
+  if not vim.api.nvim_buf_is_valid(buf) then
+    return
+  end
+  vim.api.nvim_buf_clear_namespace(buf, ns, 0, -1)
+  local lines = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_lines(buf, 0, -1, false)
+  for lnum, line in ipairs(lines) do
+    local row = lnum - 1
+    local from = 1
+    while true do
+      local s = line:find("[[", from, true) -- 1-based byte of first `[`
+      if not s then
+        break
+      end
+      local e = line:find("]]", s + 2, true) -- 1-based byte of `]]`
+      if not e then
+        break
+      end
+      local inner = line:sub(s + 2, e - 1)
+      local pipe = inner:find("|", 1, true)
+      -- Byte columns are 0-based for extmarks; end_col is exclusive.
+      local open_end -- exclusive end of the hidden prefix (`[[` or `[[id|`)
+      if pipe then
+        open_end = (s + 1 + pipe) -- 0-based col just past the `|`
+      else
+        open_end = s + 1 -- 0-based col just past `[[`
+      end
+      -- Hide the prefix, highlight the visible label, hide the closing `]]`.
+      vim.api.nvim_buf_set_extmark(buf, ns, row, s - 1, { end_col = open_end, conceal = "" })
+      vim.api.nvim_buf_set_extmark(buf, ns, row, open_end, { end_col = e - 1, hl_group = "HephLink" })
+      vim.api.nvim_buf_set_extmark(buf, ns, row, e - 1, { end_col = e + 1, conceal = "" })
+      from = e + 2
+    end
+  end
+end
+
+--- Enable link conceal for the current window + `buf`: define the highlight,
+--- set the window conceal options, refresh now, and refresh on edits.
+function M.attach(buf)
+  vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, "HephLink", { link = "Underlined", default = true })
+  vim.wo.conceallevel = 2
+  vim.wo.concealcursor = "" -- reveal the raw link on the cursor's line
+  M.refresh(buf)
+  vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ "TextChanged", "TextChangedI" }, {
+    buffer = buf,
+    callback = function()
+      M.refresh(buf)
+    end,
+    desc = "heph: refresh [[link]] conceal",
+  })
+end
+
+return M
diff --git a/heph.nvim/lua/heph/link.lua b/heph.nvim/lua/heph/link.lua
index bbff461..8bcec36 100644
--- a/heph.nvim/lua/heph/link.lua
+++ b/heph.nvim/lua/heph/link.lua
@@ -94,8 +94,16 @@ function M.insert()
       if not choice then
         return
       end
-      local id = choice.__create and rpc.call("node.create", { kind = "doc", title = choice.title }).id or choice.id
-      vim.api.nvim_put({ "[[" .. id .. "]]" }, "c", true, true)
+      local id, title
+      if choice.__create then
+        local node = rpc.call("node.create", { kind = "doc", title = choice.title })
+        id, title = node.id, node.title
+      else
+        id, title = choice.id, choice.title
+      end
+      -- Insert the labelled form `[[id|Name]]` (readable + conceal-ready); it
+      -- collapses to the canonical bare `[[id]]` on save (§8.4).
+      vim.api.nvim_put({ "[[" .. id .. "|" .. title .. "]]" }, "c", true, true)
     end)
   end)
 end
diff --git a/heph.nvim/lua/heph/node.lua b/heph.nvim/lua/heph/node.lua
index 6bd9f2c..a986a13 100644
--- a/heph.nvim/lua/heph/node.lua
+++ b/heph.nvim/lua/heph/node.lua
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ function M.read(buf, uri)
   vim.bo[buf].fileformat = "unix"
   vim.bo[buf].modified = false
   require("heph.link").attach(buf)
+  require("heph.conceal").attach(buf)
 end
 
 --- `BufWriteCmd` handler: route frontmatter edits to RPCs, then save the body.
diff --git a/heph.nvim/tests/e2e/link_insert_spec.lua b/heph.nvim/tests/e2e/link_insert_spec.lua
index 9a5a8ef..7ad590f 100644
--- a/heph.nvim/tests/e2e/link_insert_spec.lua
+++ b/heph.nvim/tests/e2e/link_insert_spec.lua
@@ -54,6 +54,28 @@ describe("link insert picker", function()
     assert.is_true(linked, "expected a wiki link from src to the picked node")
   end)
 
+  it("conceals a link's id, leaving the name as a styled label", function()
+    local target = h.create_doc("Roofing", "")
+    -- A bare canonical link in the source; node.get expands it to [[id|Roofing]].
+    local src = h.create_doc("Daily", "see [[" .. target.id .. "]]")
+    local buf = h.open(src.id)
+
+    -- The expanded link is visible in the buffer...
+    assert.is_truthy(h.find(buf, "%[%[" .. target.id .. "|Roofing%]%]"), "expanded link missing")
+    -- ...and conceal extmarks hide the `[[id|` prefix + `]]` suffix.
+    local ns = vim.api.nvim_get_namespaces()["heph_link_conceal"]
+    assert.is_truthy(ns, "conceal namespace not registered")
+    local marks = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_extmarks(buf, ns, 0, -1, { details = true })
+    local conceals = 0
+    for _, m in ipairs(marks) do
+      if m[4] and m[4].conceal == "" then
+        conceals = conceals + 1
+      end
+    end
+    assert.is_true(conceals >= 2, "expected prefix+suffix conceal extmarks, got " .. conceals)
+    assert.are.equal(2, vim.wo.conceallevel, "conceallevel not set for the buffer's window")
+  end)
+
   it("creates a new doc when the Create entry is chosen", function()
     local src = h.create_doc("Notes", "")
     local buf = h.open(src.id)