Punctilious

Normalize Markdown punctuation: convert Chinese punctuation to English punctuation, add spaces between Chinese and English/digits, and leave URLs inside links untouched.

English | 中文

Features

• Spaces around numbers: 共100元 → 共 100 元
• Spaces between Chinese and English: 使用TypeScript开发 → 使用 TypeScript 开发
• Chinese punctuation to English: 你好，世界。 → 你好, 世界.
• Automatic spacing after converted punctuation
• Ideographic comma to comma: 苹果、香蕉 → 苹果, 香蕉
• Dashes and book title marks are preserved: ——, 《》
• URLs in links are exempt: addresses inside Markdown links, images, Wiki links and bare URLs are never modified
• Safe zones are protected: code blocks, inline code, math, HTML tags and comments, YAML frontmatter
• Two scopes: format the whole note, or just the selected text

Installation

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a punctilious folder inside your vault's .obsidian/plugins/
3. Copy the downloaded files into that folder
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Usage

1. Open a Markdown note
2. Press Ctrl/Cmd + P to open the command palette
3. Run one of the following commands:

Formatting rules

1. Spaces around numbers

No leading space is added when the number sits at the beginning of a paragraph or a line.

2. Spaces between Chinese and English

No leading space is added when the English text sits at the beginning of a paragraph or a line. No space is inserted between English and digits (iPhone15, v1.2.3 stay as they are).

Existing spaces are never duplicated: 使用 TypeScript 开发 stays unchanged, and runs of multiple spaces collapse into one. When only one side has a space, just the missing side is filled in (for example 共 100元 → 共 100 元).

3. Chinese punctuation to English punctuation

A space is added after the converted punctuation. Opening brackets and quotes get the space before them instead, and any redundant space before a closing mark is removed.

Full conversion table:

4. URLs in links are exempt

URLs are never modified and never get extra spaces:

参见[链接](https://example.com/docs?a=1&b=2#中文)与[[笔记/2026计划|我的计划]]。

becomes:

参见[链接](https://example.com/docs?a=1&b=2#中文)与[[笔记/2026计划|我的计划]].

Exempt content also includes image URLs, reference-style link definitions, <https://...> autolinks, bare URLs and Wiki link targets.

5. Zones preserved as-is

• YAML frontmatter
• Fenced code blocks (``` / ~~~) and inline code (`)
• Math ($$...$$ / $...$)
• HTML tags and HTML comments
• Obsidian comments (%%...%%)
• Markdown block markers (indentation, blockquotes, headings, lists, task lists, footnote definitions) and hard line breaks (two trailing spaces)

Settings

Open Settings → Punctilious to tune the rules.

Requirements

• Obsidian v1.6.6 or later
• Works on desktop and mobile

Security & privacy

• Fully offline: no network requests at all
• Only reads and writes the note you are working on; never scans or uploads vault content
• No telemetry and no user data collection
• All settings are stored locally in data.json

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build in watch mode
npm run dev

# Production build
npm run build

# Lint
npm run lint

Continuous integration

The project ships with two GitHub Actions workflows:

Releasing a new version

npm version runs version-bump.mjs, which keeps manifest.json and versions.json in sync:

npm version patch   # or minor / major
git push --follow-tags

Pushing the tag triggers the release workflow. The tag must match the version in manifest.json exactly (no leading v).

License

MIT