The Definitive Markdown Guide A complete reference for standard Markdown and Obsidian-flavoured extensions. Table of Contents Headings Emphasis & Inline Formatting Paragraphs & Line Breaks Lists Links Images Code Blockquotes Tables Task Lists Horizontal Rules Footnotes Escaping Characters Obsidian-Specific Syntax Frontmatter & Metadata Headings Use # symbols to define heading levels. Always include a space after the #.

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5

Heading 6

[!TIP] Use only one H1 per document. It acts as the page title. Alternate setext style (H1 and H2 only): Title Here

Subtitle

Emphasis & Inline Formatting Syntax Result bold or bold bold italic or _italic* italic bold italic bold italic ~~strikethrough~~ strikethrough highlight highlight inline code inline code H2O H2O x^2^ x^2^ [!WARNING] No spaces between delimiters and text. ** bold ** will not render. Paragraphs & Line Breaks Separate paragraphs with a blank line. This is paragraph one.

This is paragraph two. For a line break within a paragraph, end the line with two spaces or use
: Line one
Line two (soft break above) Lists Unordered Lists Use -, *, or + as bullet markers. Indent with 2–4 spaces to nest.

Apples
Bananas
- Cavendish
- Lady Finger
Cherries Apples Bananas Cavendish Lady Finger Cherries Ordered Lists

First
Second
1. Sub-item A
2. Sub-item B
Third [!NOTE] The actual numbers don’t matter — Markdown auto-increments. You can write 1. 1. 1. and it renders as 1, 2, 3. Definition Lists Some renderers (including Obsidian) support definition lists: Term : The definition of the term.

Another Term : Its definition, which can span multiple lines. Links Inline Links Anthropic Docs Reference-Style Links Visit Anthropic and read the documentation.

Auto Links https://anthropic.com hello@example.com Internal Anchor Links Link to a heading within the same document: Jump to Code section Back to top [!NOTE] Heading anchors are lowercase, spaces become -, and punctuation is stripped. Images Alt text Linked image (click to open URL): Reference-style image:

Code Inline Code Wrap in single backticks: Use the print() function. Fenced Code Blocks Wrap with triple backticks and specify a language identifier for syntax highlighting:

def greet(name: str):
    return f"Hello, {name}!"
 
print(greet("World"))

def greet(name: str): return f”Hello, {name}!”

print(greet(“World”)) Common Language Identifiers python · javascript · typescript · bash · shell · sql json · yaml · toml · html · css · markdown rust · go · java · c · cpp · swift · kotlin Indented Code Blocks Four spaces or one tab also creates a code block (legacy style): const x = 42; console.log(x); Blockquotes Prefix lines with >. Nest with >>.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay

Outer quote

Inner nested quote

Deeply nested “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay Blockquotes can contain any Markdown — headings, lists, code, and emphasis all work inside them. Tables Columns are separated by |. The second row of hyphens defines headers. | Name | Role | Active | |---------|-----------|--------| | Alice | Engineer | Yes | | Bob | Designer | No | | Charlie | PM | Yes | Name Role Active Alice Engineer Yes Bob Designer No Charlie PM Yes Column Alignment Use colons in the separator row: | Left | Center | Right | |:-------|:-------:|-------:| | text | text | text | | 1 | 2 | 3 | Left Center Right text text text 1 2 3 Task Lists Requires GitHub Flavoured Markdown (GFM) or Obsidian.

Write the README
Add unit tests
Deploy to production
Notify stakeholders [x] Write the README [x] Add unit tests [ ] Deploy to production [ ] Notify stakeholders Horizontal Rules Any of these create a
divider:

[!TIP] Always surround --- with blank lines to avoid it being interpreted as a setext-style H2 heading. Footnotes This claim needs a citation.¹

Footnotes can also be longer.²

Underscore _ _ Backtick ` ` Hash #

Pipe | | Tilde ~ ~ Brackets [ ] [ ] Backslash \
Obsidian-Specific Syntax Wiki Links The core of Obsidian’s linked note system. Note Title Display Text Note Title Heading Custom Label Syntax Purpose Note Title Link to a note by name Alias Link with custom display text Note Link to a note in a subfolder Section Link to a specific heading

Transclude of Note

Embed another note inline

Embed a local image

Circular transclusion detected: Note

Embed a specific block Callouts / Admonitions Obsidian extends blockquotes with typed callout boxes:

NOTE

Useful information that users should know.

TIP

Helpful advice for doing things better.

WARNING

Urgent info that needs immediate attention.

DANGER

Dangerous actions to warn users about.

INFO

General information.

SUCCESS

Confirmation of a successful action.

QUESTION

A question for the reader.

EXAMPLE

An illustrative example.

QUOTE

A highlighted quote.

ABSTRACT

A summary or abstract. Callouts can be collapsible with + (open) or - (closed): [!NOTE]+ Collapsible, open by default

This content is visible but can be collapsed.

Collapsible, closed by default

This content is hidden until expanded. Tags #tag #nested/tag #multi-word-tag Tags can appear anywhere in the body or in frontmatter. They are searchable and filterable in Obsidian’s graph view. Block References Add a block ID to any paragraph, then reference it elsewhere: This is a paragraph I want to reference later.

Elsewhere: ^my-block-id Or embed:

Transclude of Note-Title#^my-block-id

Comments Hidden text that renders in Obsidian’s edit view but not in preview:

Mermaid Diagrams Obsidian renders Mermaid diagrams natively:

graph TD
    A[Start] --> B{Decision}
    B -->|Yes| C[Do this]
    B -->|No| D[Do that]
    C --> E[End]
    D --> E

graph TD A[Start] ⇒ B{Decision} B ⇒|Yes| C[Do this] B ⇒|No| D[Do that] C ⇒ E[End] D ⇒ E Math / LaTeX Inline math with $: T h ee q u a t i o n$ E = mc^2$ changed physics. Block math with $$:

\int_{a}^{b} f (x) d x = F (b) - F (a)

Frontmatter & Metadata YAML frontmatter sits at the very top of a file, between --- delimiters. Obsidian reads it as structured metadata.

title: The Definitive Markdown Guide author: Fraser date: 2026-04-05 tags:

reference
markdown
obsidian aliases:
Markdown Reference
MD Guide cssclasses:
wide-page publish: false

Common Frontmatter Keys Key Purpose title Display name (overrides filename) aliases Alternative names for the note (used in search and linking) tags Note tags (same as inline tags) date / created Creation date modified Last modified date cssclasses Apply custom CSS classes to this note publish Controls Obsidian Publish visibility description Short summary shown in graph hover Quick Reference Cheat Sheet

H1 H2 H3 Headings

bold italic both Emphasis ~~strike~~ highlight Inline styles code lang\nblock\n Code label alt Link / Image Note Alias Obsidian wikilink

Circular transclusion detected: Note

Obsidian embed

item * item + item Unordered list

item 2. item Ordered list

todo - [x] done Task list

quote >> nested Blockquote [!NOTE] > [!WARNING] Obsidian callout

| A | B | |---|---| | 1 | 2 | Table --- *** ___ Horizontal rule ¹ ¹: source Footnote ^block-id ^block-id Block reference #tag tag Tags Hidden comment $in l in e$ $b l oc k$ Math / LaTeX * _ ` # Escape characters

The source of the claim. ↩ ↩² ↩³
This footnote has multiple lines. Indent continuation lines by 4 spaces. This claim needs a citation.¹ ↩

Quartz 4

Explorer

markdown_and_obsidian_guide

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5

Heading 6

[!TIP] Use only one H1 per document. It acts as the page title. Alternate setext style (H1 and H2 only): Title Here

Subtitle

Frontmatter & Metadata YAML frontmatter sits at the very top of a file, between --- delimiters. Obsidian reads it as structured metadata.

H1 H2 H3 Headings

Graph View

Table of Contents