MDX View

Create, edit, and preview .mdx files in Obsidian — Markdown with real, interactive components (charts, callouts, diagrams) rendered right alongside your notes.

What it does

• Edit .mdx files like any other note. They open in Obsidian's normal editor, with the same Live Preview and Reading Mode you already use for Markdown.
• See JSX actually render. Reading Mode shows the raw code for components, so this plugin adds a separate Preview pane that compiles and renders them for real — safely, in an isolated sandbox with no access to your vault.
• Use Obsidian's own syntax. [[wikilinks]], ![[embeds]], and regular Markdown images all work in .mdx files, including image embeds.
• Bring your own components. Point the plugin at a components file and reference custom components like <MyChart data={...} /> directly in your notes — no import statement needed.

Getting started

1. Install the plugin and enable it in Community Plugins.
2. Create or rename a file with the .mdx extension.
3. Click the eye icon in the ribbon (or run the Open MDX preview command) to open the preview pane alongside your editor.
4. The first time you open a preview, you'll be asked to confirm you trust the file — .mdx files can contain real JavaScript, so this is a one-time-per-session safety check, not a bug.

Features

Frontmatter

YAML frontmatter works as usual, and its values are available in the body:

---
title: My Note
---

# {frontmatter.title}

GitHub-flavored Markdown

Tables, strikethrough, and other GFM syntax render as expected.

Syntax-highlighted code

Fenced code blocks are highlighted automatically — no setup required.

Mermaid diagrams

```mermaid
graph TD;
  A[Start] --> B[Finish];
```

renders as an actual diagram, fully offline.

Wikilinks and image embeds

• ![[photo.png]] and standard ![alt](path/to/image.png) both display the image inline.
• [[Some Note]] and [[Some Note|custom label]] render as clickable links that open the target note in Obsidian.
• Linking to a non-image file (![[Some Note]]) shows a clickable reference rather than the note's full content.

Custom components

In Settings → MDX View, point Components bundle at a vault file that provides your components (e.g. _components/bundle.js), then use them directly in any .mdx file:

<MyChart data={[1, 2, 3]} />

Two ways to create that bundle:

• Bring a pre-built one. Build it with any bundler (esbuild, webpack, etc.), keeping React external — the plugin already provides a shared React instance for it to use.
• Build it in-app. Set Components source to a .tsx/.jsx file in your vault with named exports (export function MyChart() {...}), then click Rebuild. The plugin compiles it for you, fully offline — no separate build tooling needed.

Print / Save as PDF

Use the printer icon on an open preview to print it or save it as a PDF. Desktop only.

Settings

Known limitations

• Embedding a non-image note (![[Some Note]]) shows a link, not the note's rendered content — full transclusion isn't supported yet.
• import/export statements aren't supported inside .mdx files, since the preview sandbox has no network access. Use custom components (above) instead of importing them.
• Print/PDF is desktop only.
• Obsidian's native Reading Mode doesn't render JSX — use the plugin's Preview pane for that.

Building from source

npm install
npm run build     # or `npm run dev` to watch

This produces main.js, styles.css, and esbuild.wasm alongside manifest.json. Copy all four into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/mdx-view/, then reload Obsidian and enable the plugin.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.