Logseq Style Alias
Make [[alias]] links open the page that has the alias, the way Logseq does, instead of creating an empty page.
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Write the alias, land on the page.
An Obsidian plugin that makes [[alias]] links open the page that has the alias, the way Logseq does — instead of leaving them unresolved, or worse, creating an empty page.
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The problem
Give a page called Retrieval-Augmented Generation the alias RAG:
---
aliases:
- RAG
---
Obsidian uses aliases for link suggestions only. If you type [[RAG]] yourself instead of picking the suggestion, the link is unresolved. Click it and Obsidian creates an empty RAG.md — and from then on every [[RAG]] points at that empty page instead of the real one. Over time a vault collects dozens of these.
In Logseq an alias and the page name are the same thing. This plugin brings that behaviour to Obsidian.
What it does
| You write | There is… | The link opens |
|---|---|---|
[[RAG]] |
no file called RAG |
the page with alias RAG |
[[RAG]] |
an empty RAG.md (only whitespace) |
the page with alias RAG |
[[RAG]] |
a RAG.md with content |
RAG.md — a real file always wins |
[[RAG]] |
two pages that both claim RAG |
resolved the way Obsidian normally does; the plugin does not guess |
Everything that asks Obsidian where a link points follows the alias: clicking, hover preview, embeds, the backlinks pane, outgoing links, the graph, unresolved-link styling, and other plugins that use the same API (Dataview, backlink plugins).
Your notes are never modified. Turn the plugin off and links resolve exactly as before.
Details
- Case. Aliases match case-insensitively, like file names do. Set a property (default
case-sensitive, configurable) totrueon a page to make its aliases match only the exact spelling. - Paths. Only bare links are redirected.
[[folder/RAG]]names a specific file and is left alone. - Pages with only properties are not empty. A page that has only frontmatter is treated as a real page.
- Renaming. Obsidian updates links on rename through a different lookup, so renaming the aliased page never rewrites your
[[RAG]]into the new file name.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Delete empty pages named after an alias | Moves every empty page whose name is an alias of exactly one other page to the trash (following your Deleted files setting). Links to them keep working through the alias. |
| List alias conflicts | Shows names that point to more than one page with content: an alias claimed by two pages, or an alias that is also another page's file name. |
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Empty pages give way to aliases | On | When [[alias]] matches an empty page, open the aliased page instead |
| Case-sensitivity property | case-sensitive |
Pages with this property set to true only match links that use the exact case |
Installing
Copy main.js and manifest.json into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/logseq-style-alias/, reload Obsidian, and enable Logseq Style Alias in Settings → Community plugins. Or add it through BRAT from MatsuriMW/logseq-style-alias.
Limits
- The redirection lives inside Obsidian. Tools that read the Markdown files directly — scripts, static-site exporters, other editors — still see
[[RAG]]as a link to a file namedRAG. - Install it on every device you use, including mobile, or
[[alias]]will be unresolved there. - It works by wrapping
metadataCache.getFirstLinkpathDest. The wrapper is removed when the plugin is disabled; if another plugin wrapped the same function afterwards, ours stays in place but passes everything through untouched.