obsidian-markdown: Obsidian Flavored Markdown

Reference this skill when writing any wiki page. Obsidian extends standard Markdown with wikilinks, embeds, callouts, and properties. Getting syntax wrong causes broken links, invisible callouts, or malformed frontmatter.

Cross-reference: If the kepano/obsidian-skills plugin is installed, prefer its canonical obsidian-markdown skill for authoritative Obsidian syntax reference. Otherwise, use the reference below. See also github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills.

Wikilinks

Internal links use double brackets. The filename without extension.

[[Note Name]]

[[Note Name|Display Text]]

[[Note Name#Heading]]

[[Note Name#^block-id]]

Rules:

• Case-sensitive on some systems. Match the exact filename.
• No path needed: Obsidian resolves by filename uniqueness.
• If two files have the same name, use

  [[Folder/Note Name]]

  to disambiguate.

Embeds

Embeds use

!

![[Note Name]]

![[Note Name#Heading]]

![[image.png]]

![[image.png|300]]

![[document.pdf]]

![[audio.mp3]]

Callouts

Callouts are blockquotes with a type keyword. They render as styled alert boxes.

> [!note]
> Default informational callout.

> [!note] Custom Title
> Callout with a custom title.

> [!note]- Collapsible (closed by default)
> Click to expand.

> [!note]+ Collapsible (open by default)
> Click to collapse.

All callout types

note

abstract

summary

tldr

info

todo

tip

hint

important

success

check

done

question

help

faq

warning

caution

attention

failure

fail

missing

danger

error

bug

example

quote

cite

contradiction

Properties (Frontmatter)

Obsidian renders YAML frontmatter as a Properties panel. Rules:

---
type: concept                    # plain string
title: "Note Title"              # quoted if it contains special chars
created: 2026-04-08              # date as YYYY-MM-DD (not ISO datetime)
updated: 2026-04-08
tags:
  - tag-one                      # list items use - format
  - tag-two
status: developing
related:
  - "[[Other Note]]"             # wikilinks must be quoted in YAML
sources:
  - "[[source-page]]"
---

Rules:

• Flat YAML only. Never nest objects.
• Dates as

  YYYY-MM-DD

  , not

  2026-04-08T00:00:00

  .
• Lists as

  - item

  , not inline

  [a, b, c]

  .
• Wikilinks in YAML must be quoted:

  "[[Page]]"

  .

• tags

  field: Obsidian reads this as the tag list, searchable in vault.

Tags

Two valid forms:

#tag-name             : inline tag anywhere in the body
#parent/child-tag     : nested tag (shows hierarchy in tag pane)

In frontmatter:

tags:
  - research
  - ai/obsidian

Do not use

#

Text Formatting

Standard Markdown plus Obsidian extensions:

**bold**

*italic*

~~strikethrough~~

==highlight==

`inline code`

Math

Obsidian uses MathJax/KaTeX:

Inline math:

$E = mc^2$

Block math:

$$
\int_0^\infty e^{-x} dx = 1
$$

Code Blocks

Standard fenced code blocks. Obsidian highlights all common languages:

```python
def hello():
    return "world"
```

Tables

Standard Markdown tables:

| Column A | Column B | Column C |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Value    | Value    | Value    |
| Value    | Value    | Value    |

Obsidian renders tables natively. No plugin needed.

Mermaid Diagrams

Obsidian renders Mermaid natively:

```mermaid
graph TD
    A[Start] --> B{Decision}
    B -->|Yes| C[End]
    B -->|No| D[Loop]
    D --> A
```

Supported:

graph

sequenceDiagram

gantt

classDiagram

pie

flowchart

Footnotes

This sentence has a footnote.[^1]

[^1]: The footnote text goes here.

What NOT to Do

• Do not use

  [link text](path/to/note.md)

  for internal links: use

  [[Note Name]]

  instead.
• Do not use HTML inside callouts: stick to Markdown.
• Do not use

  ##

  inside a callout body: headings don't render inside callouts.
• Do not write

  tags: [a, b, c]

  inline in frontmatter: Obsidian prefers the list format.
• Do not write ISO datetimes in frontmatter (

  2026-04-08T00:00:00Z

  ): use

  2026-04-08

  .