Concrete

A reactive variable system, spatial overlay workspace, and structural outliner plugin for Obsidian.

Define custom text wrappers, inline color styles, CSS variables, and structural layouts directly inside your notes using a simple, readable syntax. Create floating sticky notes, copy styled content to external apps, and protect LaTeX from formatting collisions — all from a single :::vars block.

[!WARNING] This plugin is currently in Beta and there may be bugs. If you encounter any issues, please report them on the GitHub Issues page.

Features

Core editor

• Custom text wrappers — Turn (text) red, "text" blue, or ^text^ into a bold header by defining a simple rule.
• Letter wrappers — Use letter pairs like hh text hh for highlighting. Letters must be spaced from the content to avoid false matches.
• Delimiter hiding — Wrapper symbols are hidden in the rendered view. Click into the line to reveal the raw syntax.
• Nested wrappers — Combine multiple styles by nesting wrappers (e.g., _&text&_).
• Combined styles — Define the same wrapper in both ##colors and ##text to stack a color and a text style simultaneously.
• Interactive color palette — Every hex color in the editor gets a clickable swatch. Click to open the system color picker and update inline.
• CSS variable injection — Keys like header_size = 24 become CSS variables (--header_size: 24px) on the document container.
• Named text variables — Define any text style name (e.g., title, body) and link it to a wrapper with text_{name}_size.

Native list interception

• Styled native bullets — Standard - and + list markers are intercepted and replaced with aesthetic bullet characters (•, ◦, ▸, ▹, ⁃, ·) per indent level.
• Guide lines and fading opacity — Deeper indent levels fade visually with guide lines for hierarchy.
• Ghost bullet effect — Bullets appear on inactive lines; click into a line to reveal the raw markers for editing.
• Image-safe — Lines containing image embeds (![[...]] or ![...](...)) are skipped by the outliner.

Color autocomplete

• Context-aware color picker — Typing # on a color property line inside a :::vars block spawns a floating swatch palette with 9 preset colors and a custom color picker button.
• Auto-fill — Selecting a swatch or using the custom picker writes the hex value directly into the document.
• Auto-dismiss — The popup disappears when the cursor leaves the color scope.

Data portability and clipboard

• Variable-stripped copying — Right-click context menu item "Copy content without variables" strips all :::vars blocks and writes clean text to the clipboard.
• Cross-platform style preservation — Copying content writes a dual-flavor clipboard payload:
  • text/plain: Clean, variable-stripped markdown text.
  • text/html: Compiled HTML with inline CSS (<span style="...">) so styles survive when pasted into Google Docs, Word, etc.

Spatial overlay system (Sticky notes)

[!WARNING] The sticky notes function is currently undergoing fixes and is temporarily disabled.

• Floating canvas layer — A non-destructive overlay layer sits above the document text. Right-click to create a sticky note at any position.
• Interactive notes — Notes default to 100×100 pixels and support:
  • Drag anywhere across the overlay.
  • Resize by pulling the corner handle.
  • Rotate freely using the rotation handle.
  • Lock via a toggle button to prevent accidental edits.
  • Rich text content with image support.
  • Delete with a single click.
• #notes scope in :::vars — Configure sticky note defaults programmatically:

  :::vars
  #notes
  text_size = 14
  text_colour = #333333
  note_size = 120 x 80
  note_colour = #fffae6
  :::
  

• Automatic persistence — Notes are serialized back into the :::vars block and saved with the document.

Global configuration defaults

• Global vars block — A text area in the plugin settings serializes directly to data.json. Any variables defined here apply as a universal foundation across all notes in the vault.
• Local override — Inline :::vars blocks automatically inherit, merge with, and override global defaults.

Layout presets

• Pre-made layout dropdowns — Select from bundled preset schemes ("Classic Red & Blue", "Minimalist Mint", "Royal Purple & Gold") via a modal dropdown to instantly format documents.
• Ribbon icon and command — Access presets from the ribbon or with the "Insert layout preset" command.
• Community presets pipeline — The src/templates/ directory is structured to accept community-contributed layout configurations via GitHub Pull Requests.

LaTeX protection

• Parse-exclusion boundaries — Native LaTeX blocks ($...$ and $$...$$) override the variable engine. Any character ranges inside math wrappers are completely masked out, preventing formatting collisions with LaTeX symbols like underscores, carets, or braces.

Other

• Collapsible config block — The :::vars block features an inline fold toggle. Fold it to see a summary like ▶ [VARS: 4 colors, 2 styles].
• Hide pasted images in sidebar — Toggle to hide "Pasted image ..." files from the File Explorer.
• Live Preview & Reading View — All features work in both editor modes.

How to use

1. Create a :::vars block

Place this block anywhere in your note. It defines all your styling rules.

:::vars
##colors
() = #ef4444
"" = #3b82f6
hh = #10b981
&& = #8b5cf6

##text
header_size = 32
paragraph_size = 14

^^ = header
.. = paragraph
__ = underline
&& = bold

# Or use the named syntax:
##text
text_title_size = 32
text_body_size = 14

title = ^^
body = ..
__ = underline
:::

2. Sections

Rules are organized under section headers prefixed with ##:

3. Color wrappers (under ##colors)

Define a wrapper symbol and assign it a color value.

##colors
() = #ef4444
"" = #3b82f6

Then use them in your note:

(This text will be red!)
"This text will be blue!"

Result: The wrapper symbols are hidden. You only see the styled text.

Simplified Color Names & Letter Codes: Rather than using hex codes, you can also use standard color names or simple letter abbreviations directly in your variables (e.g. () = pr, -- = red, bl = pink):

• hp / black / pure black → #000000
• wt / white → #FFFFFF
• rd / red → #FF0000
• gn / green → #00FF00
• bl / blue → #0000FF
• yl / yellow → #FFFF00
• mg / magenta → #FF00FF
• cy / cyan → #00FFFF
• or / orange → #FFA500
• pl / purple → #800080
• pr / pink → #FFC0CB
• tl / teal → #008080
• br / brown → #A52A2A

These will automatically resolve to their respective HEX color values under the hood.

4. Text wrappers (under ##text)

Define wrappers that apply CSS classes instead of colors.

##text
^^ = header
__ = underline

Usage:

^This becomes a header^
_This becomes underlined_

Named text variables: Name text styles anything you want using the text_{name}_size = {number} convention:

##text
text_title_size = 32
text_body_size = 14

title = ^^
body = ..

Now ^Title text^ uses --text_title_size: 32px and .Body text. uses --text_body_size: 14px.

Built-in styles:

(You can define any other value and style it yourself with a CSS snippet targeting .rv-{value})

5. Nested & combined wrappers

Nesting wrappers:

_&This text is bold and underlined!&_

Combining styles: Define the same wrapper in both sections:

:::vars
##colors
&& = #ff0000

##text
&& = header
header_size = 70
:::

Now, writing &Huge red header!& applies the color and the header size simultaneously.

6. Letter wrappers

Use letter pairs as wrappers. They must be spaced from the content:

##colors
hh = #10b981

Usage:

hh This text will be green hh

Why spaces? To prevent false matches with normal words that happen to start and end with the same letters.

7. CSS variables

Alphanumeric keys with underscores or hyphens become CSS variables:

header_size = 24
paragraph_size = 14

These become --header_size: 24px and --paragraph_size: 14px on the document container. The built-in .rv-header and .rv-paragraph classes reference these variables.

Named convention:

text_title_size = 32
text_body_size = 14

These become --text_title_size: 32px and --text_body_size: 14px. Named text variables (title = ^^) automatically pick up the matching size variable.

8. Wrapper syntax rules

Asymmetric (2 different chars): first char = start, second char = end. Symmetric (2 same chars): that char = both start and end. Letters (2+ letters): the full key is used, must be surrounded by spaces.

9. Interactive color picker

In the editor, every hex color value in your :::vars block gets a small color swatch next to it. Click the swatch to open your system's native color picker — changing the color automatically updates the hex code in your note.

10. Color autocomplete

When typing inside a :::vars block on a color property line, type # to trigger a floating color palette popup. Select from 9 preset swatches or click "🌈 Custom color" for the full system picker. The hex value is written directly into the text.

11. Sticky notes

Right-click in the editor and select Create sticky note to spawn a floating note. Notes support:

• Drag to reposition
• Resize from the corner
• Rotate using the rotation handle
• Lock/unlock with the lock icon toggle
• Delete with the delete button
• Rich text editing

Configure defaults with a #notes section in your :::vars block.

12. Global defaults

Open Settings → Concrete and use the Global layout preset dropdown or the Global configuration defaults text area to define variables that apply to every note. These act as a universal base — local :::vars blocks in each note inherit and can override them.

13. Layout presets

Click the layout icon in the ribbon or use the command Insert layout preset to open the preset selector. Choose from presets like Classic Red & Blue, Minimalist Mint, Cozy Journal, Academic & Research, or Spatial Brainstorming & Mindmap to instantly configure variables and note styling.

The selected scheme's :::vars block is inserted at the top of your note.

Settings

The plugin settings panel is organized into four categories:

Core configuration

• Enable editor features — Adds inline values, tooltips, and completions in the editor.
• Enable preview substitutions — Applies reactive variables in reading view.
• Global layout preset — Allows selecting a pre-configured template variables scheme to apply globally across the vault.
• Global configuration defaults — Text area for vault-wide variable definitions.

Editor behaviors

• Use bullet points — Toggle the native list interception and styling.
• Use colour variables — Enable/disable color wrappers, color CSS variables, and the editor color picker.
• Use text variables — Enable/disable text wrappers and text size variables.

Sticky notes fallback defaults

• Default note size — Fallback note size (e.g. 200x150 or 160).
• Default note color — Fallback background color (hex, e.g. #fffbeb).
• Default note text color — Fallback note text color (hex, e.g. #451a03).
• Default note text size — Fallback text size in note content (e.g. 14px).

Advanced

• Hide pasted images in sidebar — Hide "Pasted image ..." files from the File Explorer.

Installation

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Place them in VaultFolder/.obsidian/plugins/concrete-extension/.
3. Reload Obsidian.
4. Enable Concrete in Settings → Community plugins.

Development

1. Clone this repo into your .obsidian/plugins/ folder.
2. npm install
3. npm run dev — compiles and watches for changes.
4. npm run build — production build.
5. npm run lint — checks for style errors.