Clean Empty Lines

An Obsidian plugin that tidies up blank lines and separators in your Markdown notes:

• Collapse duplicate empty lines: Replaces multiple consecutive blank lines with a single blank line.
• Ensure blank lines around headings: Guarantees clean spacing before and after headings (# Header).
• Tighten list items: Removes blank lines between list items (-, *, +, 1., - [ ], sublists, etc.).
• Remove horizontal lines (---): Cleans up thematic break lines in note body while preserving YAML frontmatter.
• Protected blocks: Code blocks (```), math formulas ($$), and frontmatter are completely safe and untouched.
• Multilingual support: English (default), Russian, German, French, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese.

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins

1. In Obsidian, go to Settings -> Community plugins.
2. Turn off Restricted mode and click Browse.
3. Search for Clean Empty Lines and click Install, then Enable.

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release.
2. Inside your Obsidian vault, navigate to .obsidian/plugins/.
3. Create a directory named clean-empty-lines.
4. Copy manifest.json and main.js into that directory.
5. In Obsidian, go to Settings -> Community plugins, reload, and enable Clean Empty Lines.

Usage

1. Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P):
   • Clean empty lines in active note — Formats the entire active document.
   • Clean empty lines in selection — Formats only the selected text.
2. Ribbon Icon:
   • Click the check-list icon on the left ribbon to clean the current note with a single click.

Settings

Customize which formatting rules to run:

• Remove duplicate empty lines (default: On)
• Empty line before headings (default: On)
• Empty line after headings (default: On)
• Empty line between consecutive headings (default: On)
• Remove empty lines between list items (default: On)
• Remove horizontal lines (---) (default: On)
• Trim leading empty lines (default: On)
• Trim trailing empty lines (default: On)

Supported Languages (i18n)

The plugin automatically adapts to Obsidian's active interface language:

• English (en) — Default
• Russian (ru)
• German (de)
• French (fr)
• Spanish (es)
• Simplified Chinese (zh / zh-cn)
• Japanese (ja)
• Korean (ko)
• Portuguese (pt / pt-br)

Development & Testing

npm install     # Install dependencies
npm test        # Run unit tests (37 tests)
npm run build   # Production bundle (main.js)

License

MIT © Mikhail Yatsenko