Auto Headings

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Automatic heading numbering for Obsidian that keeps up with you. Add, delete or move a section and the numbers fix themselves. Rename a heading and the links to it keep working.

Why Auto Headings

• Can leave your files untouched. By default the numbers are only displayed inside Obsidian and your notes are never changed. When you need the numbers to travel with the file (GitHub, Publish, other editors), switch that folder to "Write to file".
• Numbers that fix themselves. Insert a section in the middle of a long note and everything after it renumbers.
• Links that don't break. Rename a heading and the [[note#heading]] links pointing to it are updated too.
• Any style you like. 1.1.1, 第一章, 一、, ①, I., a), and more. You can give each folder its own style.
• Skips what shouldn't count. "Contents", "Appendix" and "References" stay unnumbered and don't use up a number.
• Works everywhere. Desktop and mobile, with the interface in English or 中文.

Quick start

1. Install Auto Headings from Settings → Community plugins and enable it.
2. Open a note and start typing. Headings from ## down show 1, 1.1, 1.1.1… in front of them, and the file itself stays unchanged.
3. That's it. Open Settings → Auto Headings to change the style, or to write the numbers into your notes.

Features

Display only, or write to file

Each path rule picks its own mode:

• Display only (the default for new installs): numbers appear in Live Preview, Reading view, the Outline pane and PDF export, and the note file is never changed. Source mode shows your text exactly as written.
• Write to file: numbers are written into the note as real text, so they also show up on GitHub, in Obsidian Publish and in other editors.

Both modes use the same templates and produce the same numbers. You can switch at any time; the plugin first tells you how many notes are affected, then removes or writes the numbers as you choose. Vaults upgrading from an earlier version keep "Write to file".

Hands-free numbering

In display-only mode the numbers update live as you type. In write mode, numbering runs quietly after you pause typing, and one Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes it. Either way only the note you're editing is processed, and your heading levels (#, ##, ###) are never changed.

Links follow your headings

## 2 Getting started      →   ## 2 First steps
[[guide#Getting started]]  →   [[guide#First steps]]

Change a heading's text and the links to it across your vault update at the same time. This covers wiki links and Markdown links, including links in note properties, and you can turn it off at any time.

A template for every kind of note

Pick a numeral style, prefix and suffix for each heading level and watch a live preview as you go. Then pick a template for each folder: academic numbering in Papers/, chapter numbering in Book/, none at all in Journal/.

Leave headings out

A built-in list keeps headings like "Contents", "Appendix" and "References" unnumbered, in both English and Chinese. You can add your own entries, or exclude a whole section together with everything under it.

Work right in the note

The fold arrow beside a heading: drag it to move the whole section, right-click it for a menu (skip this heading / the whole section, promote / demote, copy link or embed). The status-bar "this note" label switches the template or auto-numbering for just that note. When you rename a heading, a link's |alias is updated too.

A table of contents with the numbers

Run Insert table of contents (command palette or right-click menu) to drop an ah-toc block into a note. It shows the headings with their numbers, even in display-only mode, and works in reading view, Live Preview and exported PDFs. A slider above it (shown on hover) picks how many levels to expand; select entries and copy to get a numbered outline, or links when pasting into rich-text apps. The numbers also show in Obsidian's Outline and in the Quiet Outline plugin's panel.

Link headings as you type

Turn on "Suggest heading links as you type" in settings. Then type the name of any heading in your vault and it's suggested; press Tab to turn it into a link — no need to remember which note it's in. Enter still starts a new line, so nothing gets linked by accident. Off by default, so normal typing is never interrupted.

Take over existing notes

Notes with hand-typed or imported numbering can be cleaned up with one command, then renumbered automatically from there on.

Commands

FAQ

Will it edit notes I'm not working on? Only in two cases: when you rename a heading that other notes link to (link sync, which you can switch off), or when you confirm a bulk action in settings, such as removing or writing numbers while switching modes.

Does it add anything hidden to my notes? Not in display-only mode. In write mode, one thing: each number carries an invisible marker character, which is how the plugin tells its own numbers apart from your text. It doesn't show up anywhere, and it's removed automatically when you copy text out of Obsidian. The user guide explains what this means for search, Dataview and Pandoc.

Is it heavy on resources? No. The plugin makes no network requests and collects no data. When it starts, it reads the headings in your vault once, locally, for "link to any heading as you type" (you can turn that off in settings); after that, numbering only touches the note you're editing. Memory use is capped: at most 50,000 indexed headings and about 2 MB of clipboard cache.

What does it access? Only your vault, locally. It lists vault files to build the heading index, to update links when a heading is renamed, and for the vault-wide actions in Settings → Maintenance. It touches the clipboard only when you copy or paste in a note (to strip or restore its invisible markers) or use one of its copy commands (outline, section link, section embed), or the copy-path button in settings.

Can I stop using it later? Yes. Display-only mode never changed your files, so you can simply uninstall. If you used write mode, Settings → Maintenance lets you either remove all numbering or keep the numbers as plain text. Both work across the whole vault.

I'm coming from Number Headings. Disable it, enable Auto Headings, then run Clear non-plugin heading numbering in current note on your old notes. Folder exclusion and skipping headings inside comments both work out of the box.

Can I use it together with another auto-numbering plugin? No. Two numbering plugins will fight over the same headings, so enable only one.

Install

• Community plugins (recommended): Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for "Auto Headings", then install and enable it.
• Manual: download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/auto-headings/, then reload Obsidian.

Learn more

• User guide: every setting and edge case, export and Pandoc tips, and a clean-uninstall walkthrough.
• Issues: bug reports and feature requests are welcome.

License

MIT