Advanced Rename and Delete Handler

Obsidian updates the links pointing at a note when you rename it, and stops there. The images you pasted into that note stay behind under the old name. Deleting the note leaves them behind entirely, referenced by nothing, in a folder named after something that no longer exists.

This plugin takes over renaming and deleting for the whole vault: links follow the note, the files it owns travel with it, and what a deletion leaves behind is cleaned up on terms you choose.

It is the single owner of that behavior in a vault, and stands aside, saying why, while an older plugin that still carries its own copy is enabled. See Living with other plugins.

More screenshots

Demo vault

The documentation is a demo vault. Every feature has a note that explains what it does and why you would want it, with buttons that perform the rename or the deletion and then print the vault as a tree, so you see the effect rather than read a description of it.

Start reading here — it is plain markdown, so it works on GitHub with nothing installed.

A copy of the vault ships with every release. You can access it via any of the following:

1. Running the Advanced Rename and Delete Handler: Open demo vault command.
2. Downloading advanced-rename-and-delete-handler-demo-vault.zip from the Releases. It unzips into a single advanced-rename-and-delete-handler-demo-vault-<version> folder.
3. Browsing its source in demo-vault/ in this repository.

What it does

• Nothing, until you turn it on, and a fresh install says so once. 01 Renaming a note
• Links follow a renamed or moved note, display text included, unless somebody gave the link their own words. 01 Renaming a note
• Attachments travel with the note that owns them, folder and all. 01 Renaming a note
• Paths Obsidian never updates are looked after too: HTML src and href paths are rewritten, and a path left in another plugin's settings is named in a notice. 01 Renaming a note
• Deleting a note can clean up after it: its own attachments and the folders left empty, plus a Delete empty folders command. 02 Deleting a note
• An attachment two notes share is never deleted with one of them, and can move to the note that still uses it. 03 Shared attachments
• An Excalidraw drawing counts as an attachment, not a note, as does any ending or property: match you add. 04 What counts as a note
• The plugin can be confined to part of the vault with include and exclude path lists. 05 Limiting the scope
• It lists the plugins that depend on it, and stands aside for one that still owns its own handler. Living with other plugins

See also

My other Obsidian resources

Plugin	Features	How Advanced Rename and Delete Handler differs
Attachment Manager	Per-note attachment folder; rename/delete; pasted-image naming; visibility; overrides core settings	Same lifecycle goal; arbitrary existing layouts; shared attachments; include/exclude paths
Consistent Attachments	Moves/copies attachments on note moves; shared-file choices; orphan/placement scans	Broader lifecycle scope: deletions too
Delete Note and Attachments	Unlisted; explicit note-plus-embeds deletion; shared-use confirmation	Broader trigger: ordinary note deletion too
File Bundles (my plugin)	Declared locked bundles; move, rename, duplicate and delete together	Alternative grouping: derives attachments from links and configured folders
Media Archive	Archives deleted/unused media; shared-use protection; two fixed folders	Different scope: each note's attachments and their lifecycle
Move Files	Command gathers linked files into a note-specific folder and updates links	Different trigger: follows renames automatically
Note Folder Autorename	Folder-note convention; folder follows note moves/renames	Different grouping: linked attachments rather than one companion folder
Remove Empty Assets	Periodic/startup/deletion cleanup of empty attachment folders	Broader cleanup: attachment files as well as folders
Remove Empty Folders	Explorer action removes empty folders one level per run	Broader sweep: whole vault, deepest first, in one command
Strip Images	Command removes image embeds and trashes unshared images; note stays	Different trigger: cleans attachments after deleting a note
Unlink on Delete	Turns incoming links into plain text when a file is deleted	Complementary cleanup: files left by a deletion rather than incoming links

Last searched for similar plugins on 2026-10-26.

For plugin developers

Plugins that used to handle renames and deletions themselves hand their settings over through this plugin's API, read them back, and can declare this plugin as a dependency. Any plugin can also move many files at once through it, with each linking note rewritten once and a promise that resolves when the links are final. Diagnostic consumers can subscribe to bulk start and end notifications, including failures, through contract 1.4.0. The types are in api.d.ts and the contract in api-contract.ts, both copyable as they are; Plugin API walks through them.

Installation

The plugin is available in the official Community Plugins repository.

Beta versions

To install the latest beta release of this plugin (regardless if it is available in the official Community Plugins repository or not), follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have the BRAT plugin installed and enabled.
2. Click Install via BRAT.
3. An Obsidian pop-up window should appear. In the window, click the Add plugin button once and wait a few seconds for the plugin to install.

Debugging

By default, debug messages for this plugin (id: advanced-rename-and-delete-handler) are hidden.

If you need to enable them refer to the documentation.

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in the CHANGELOG.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING to get set up.

Support

Filing an issue (for AI agents and humans)

Open issues through the issue forms, not as blank issues.

To report a bug from inside Obsidian, run the Advanced Rename and Delete Handler: Report a bug command. It opens the bug form with the plugin version, the Obsidian version and your operating system already filled in.

Filing from the CLI or the API (gh issue create --body, or an AI agent filing for you) skips the form, and gh issue create --template cannot load an issue form. In that case, open the matching form in .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/, copy every field as a ### <label> heading in the form's order, and fill in each one. Always state the plugin version, the Obsidian version and your operating system.

License

© Michael Naumov