Better Markdown Links

[[Wikilinks]] are not part of the Markdown spec, so a vault that uses them stops making sense outside Obsidian. Switch to Markdown links and you hit the next problem: Obsidian writes [Title](path%20with%20space/note%20with%20space.md), which is unreadable, and it writes relative paths without a leading ./, which other editors resolve differently than Obsidian does — the same link, two meanings.

This plugin makes Obsidian generate the readable, unambiguous form instead: angle brackets around paths with spaces, an explicit ./ on relative links, and tidy file:// URLs. It can also convert the links you already have, in one note, one folder, or the whole vault.

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 awkward paths already in place to try it against.

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 Better Markdown Links: Open demo vault command.
2. Downloading better-markdown-links-demo-vault.zip from the Releases. It unzips into a single better-markdown-links-demo-vault-<version> folder.
3. Browsing its source in demo-vault/ in this repository.

What it does

• Angle bracket links — [Title](<path with space/note with space.md>) instead of %20 noise. The Markdown spec allows it and Obsidian understands it; Obsidian just never generates it. 01 Angle bracket links
• Explicit relative links — a leading ./, so a relative path cannot be mistaken for an absolute one by anything that reads your vault. 02 Relative links
• Convert what you already have — one note, one folder, or the whole vault; on command, on save, on auto-save, or on every modification, whichever suits how eagerly you want it to work. 03 Convert links
• file:// normalization — [note](file:///C:%5Cnotes%5Cplan.md) becomes [note](file:///C:/notes/plan.md). Other links are left alone. 03 Convert links
• Force Markdown links — write [alias](<path.md>) even in a vault whose own Use [[Wikilinks]] setting says otherwise, either permanently via the Link style setting or for one run via the Convert links to Markdown commands. Replaces Replace all wikilinks with markdown links and its siblings from Consistent Attachments and Links. 03 Convert links
• Demote embeds to links — strip the ! off every embed in a note, a folder, or the vault, optionally leaving the target's file name behind as a sub-bullet. 04 Demote embeds
• Links that do not resolve — convert an alias-only wikilink by looking the alias up across the vault, and optionally create the note when nothing matches. 03 Convert links

Renames

Up to version 4 this plugin updated the links pointing at a note when you renamed or moved it. Since 5.0.0 it does not, and rename and delete handling belongs to Advanced Rename and Delete Handler instead — one plugin owning it for the whole vault, rather than a copy inside each plugin that happened to need it.

This plugin offers to install it, once, and carries your old rename-handling value — along with the include and exclude paths that scoped it — over for you to approve. Declining costs you nothing else: every feature above keeps working, with Obsidian's own link update in charge of renames.

For plugin developers

This plugin adds an additional overload to app.fileManager.generateMarkdownLink(). To use the extended signature from your own plugin, copy generate-markdown-link-extended.d.ts into your code.

Integration with other plugins

Rename and delete handling is not this plugin's any more — see Renames above. Install Advanced Rename and Delete Handler to keep it.

For better performance on a large vault, consider also installing Backlink Cache.

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 are hidden.

To show them, run the following command:

window.DEBUG.enable('better-markdown-links');

For more details, 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

My other Obsidian resources

See my other Obsidian resources.

License

© Michael Naumov