Emacs Text Editor for Obsidian

Emacs and readline keybindings in the editor and in every text input.

A community plugin for Obsidian that brings emacs-style keybindings throughout the app: in the markdown editor, in every plain <input> / <textarea> / [contenteditable] element, and as workspace-level commands. Includes a shared kill ring, mark/region selection, and multi-chord prefix maps (C-x ...) handled by an in-house dispatcher with optional integration with several other community plugins.

If you have ever instinctively typed C-a in a search bar, frontmatter editor, or rename dialog and watched the cursor go nowhere useful, this plugin is for you. The same readline-style keys that macOS exposes by default in every text field work across all of Obsidian when this plugin is enabled — plus the M- (Alt) bindings macOS doesn't provide.

Status

This project began as a fork of Klojer/obsidian-emacs-text-editor and has since grown substantially in scope. It is now maintained independently.

Features

• In-editor bindings (Layer 1). Emacs movement, killing, yanking, and paragraph-navigation commands in the markdown editor.
• In-input bindings (Layer 2). The same keys work in plain <input>, <textarea>, and [contenteditable] elements: search bars, quick switcher, command palette, file rename dialog, inline title editor, breadcrumb path editor, plugin settings panels, frontmatter property editor, and modal text inputs from other plugins.
• Workspace bindings (Layer 3). Single-chord global aliases (M-x, C-s, C-r, M-%, C-g) and multi-chord prefix maps (C-x C-s, C-x C-f, C-x b, C-x o, C-x 5 0, etc.) via an in-house prefix dispatcher.
• Shared kill ring (default size 120, matching emacs). One kill ring across all three layers; killing in the editor and yanking into a search bar works as expected. Repeated C-k / M-d / M-Backspace extends the previous kill.
• Mark and region. C-Space sets the mark; movement extends the region; C-w / M-w cut/copy; C-g cancels.
• No third-party multi-chord dependency. The in-house dispatcher handles C-x prefix sequences directly. Coexists cleanly with leader-hotkeys, Sequence Hotkeys, or any other multi-chord plugin.

Install

Manual install

export OBSIDIAN_PLUGINS_DIR=/path/to/your/vault/.obsidian/plugins
make install

This builds the plugin and copies main.js and manifest.json into $OBSIDIAN_PLUGINS_DIR/emacs-text-editor/. Reload Obsidian or toggle the plugin in Settings → Community plugins.

Uninstall

export OBSIDIAN_PLUGINS_DIR=/path/to/your/vault/.obsidian/plugins
make uninstall

Community directory

Not yet listed. Submission to the Obsidian community plugin directory is planned after a stabilization period.

Optional plugins

Some bindings deliver a richer experience when paired with another plugin. The plugin detects each one at load and falls back to a native Obsidian command when the preferred plugin is not installed. No reload required when toggling these plugins.

Plugin	Bindings affected	Fallback when absent
Quick Switcher++	M-x, C-x C-f, C-x b	Native command-palette:open / switcher:open
Cycle through panes	C-x o	Native workspace:next-tab (cycles tabs, not panes)

Keybinding reference

Editor + input bindings (Layers 1 & 2)

Hotkey	Command	Description
C-f	Forward char	Move cursor one character forward
C-b	Backward char	Move cursor one character backward
C-n	Next line	Move cursor to next line
C-p	Previous line	Move cursor to previous line
C-a	Beginning of line	Move cursor to beginning of line (visual line on wrapped text)
C-e	End of line	Move cursor to end of line (visual line on wrapped text)
M-f	Forward word	Move cursor one word forward
M-b	Backward word	Move cursor one word backward
M-S-]	Forward paragraph	Move cursor one paragraph forward (editor only)
M-S-[	Backward paragraph	Move cursor one paragraph backward (editor only)
M-S-,	Beginning of buffer	Move to start of buffer (editor only)
M-S-.	End of buffer	Move to end of buffer (editor only)
C-d	Delete char	Delete character forward
M-d	Kill word	Kill word forward (extends kill on repeat)
M-Backspace	Backward kill word	Kill word backward (extends kill on repeat)
C-k	Kill line	Kill to end of line (extends kill on repeat)
C-w	Kill region	Cut selection
M-w	Kill ring save	Copy selection
C-y	Yank	Paste from kill ring
M-y	Yank pop	Cycle through previous kills (after C-y)
C-Space	Set mark	Begin a selection
C-g	Keyboard quit	Cancel selection / abort prefix
C-l	Recenter	Scroll current line to center (editor only)
C-/ or C-_	Undo	Undo (editor only)
C-S-/ or C-M-_	Redo	Redo (editor only)
C-t	Transpose chars	Swap two characters around cursor (editor only)

Workspace bindings (Layer 3a)

Hotkey	Command
M-x	Open command palette (Switcher++ commands mode if enabled)
C-s	Open editor search
C-r	Open editor search (no separate reverse-search UI in Obsidian)
M-S-5 (M-%)	Open search-and-replace
C-g	Workspace-level cancel (blurs focused element + dispatches Escape; falls back to Layer 1 keyboard-quit when editor is focused)

Multi-chord prefix bindings (Layer 3b)

Press C-x then the second chord. The dispatcher cancels on C-g, Escape, an unmatched chord, or after a 5-second pause.

Sequence	Command	Native fallback
C-x C-s	Save buffer	editor:save-file
C-x C-f	Find file	Switcher++ file mode or native switcher
C-x d	Reveal active file in explorer	file-explorer:reveal-active-file
C-x b	Switch buffer	Switcher++ editors mode or native switcher
C-x k / C-x 0	Close active pane	workspace:close
C-x 1	Close other panes	workspace:close-others
C-x 2	Split horizontal	workspace:split-horizontal
C-x 3	Split vertical	workspace:split-vertical
C-x o	Other window	Cycle through panes plugin or workspace:next-tab
C-x h	Select all	editor:select-all
C-x u	Undo	editor:undo
C-x 5 2	Open new window	workspace:open-new-window
C-x 5 0	Close window	workspace:close-window
C-x C-c	Quit Obsidian	app:quit

Known hotkey collisions

Hotkey	Conflict	Resolution
C-a	Obsidian default: Select all	emacs wins inside the editor and inputs; rebind editor:select-all to Cmd-A if you want select-all
C-k	Obsidian default: Insert link	emacs wins; insert-link via the command palette
C-w	Obsidian default (Linux/Windows): Close active pane	emacs wins inside editor and inputs; C-x 0 invokes close-pane via emacs
C-y	Obsidian default: Redo	emacs wins; redo via C-S-/ (emacs-style) or Cmd-S-Z
C-x	Obsidian default: Cut	emacs wins as a prefix; native cut via Cmd-X

Known limitations

• macOS Alt-key dead keys. M-x on US-English layouts produces ≈ if the Electron normalization fails. Most users see this work correctly; exotic input methods may eat the keystroke.
• No keyboard macro recording. No Obsidian plugin provides this. C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e are intentionally unbound.
• No native browser undo for contenteditable yanks. When yanking text into a contenteditable element (e.g., the inline title editor), Cmd-Z will not undo the yank — the modifications bypass the browser's undo stack. Users requiring undo should use the host's own undo (e.g., Obsidian's vault rename history) or rebuild the kill via re-yanking. This is the cost of using non-deprecated Range.deleteContents / Range.insertNode instead of the deprecated document.execCommand("insertText", ...).
• Word boundary divergence. Layer 1 (markdown editor) and Layer 2 ContentEditable use the browser's Unicode-aware word boundaries. Layer 2 input/textarea uses a regex-based \w boundary (ASCII only). Non-ASCII identifiers may move slightly differently between layers.
• Mark state shared across element kinds. Setting the mark in an input then focusing a contenteditable leaves the mark in an inconsistent state. Press C-g to reset.

Manual test checklist

For each of the following contexts, verify C-f / C-b / M-f / M-b, C-a / C-e, C-d, C-k, M-d, M-Backspace, C-Space + movement + C-w / M-w, C-y, C-g:

• Markdown editor (Layer 1)
• Search bar (left sidebar)
• Quick switcher (Cmd-O)
• Command palette (Cmd-P)
• File rename dialog
• Inline title editor (above the editor pane)
• Settings text inputs

For multi-chord: C-x C-s saves; C-x C-f opens find-file; C-x b switches buffer; C-x o cycles panes; C-x 5 2 opens new window.

Cross-layer kill-ring smoke test: kill text in the editor with M-d, focus into a search bar, press C-y — the killed text should appear.

Attribution

Originally forked from Klojer/obsidian-emacs-text-editor. Significant additions (in-input bindings, multi-chord prefix maps, shared kill ring, soft-dep integration) by mlwelles.

License

GPL-3.0. See LICENSE.