Accent Insensitive Search

Español · English

Search without typing accents or diaereses in Obsidian's native Quick switcher (Ctrl+O / Cmd+O) and [[ link suggestions. These extra keystrokes do not affect matches: alvaro gomez finds Álvaro Gómez, and pinguino finds Pingüino. Your notes and links keep their original spelling.

For years, having to type accents just to find my notes was an annoying part of using Obsidian. I had seen several forum threads from people with the same problem, so I finally decided to create this plugin with the help of AI to solve it and share it with the community.

Why are n and ñ different? In Spanish, ñ is a letter in its own right and has its own key on the Spanish keyboard. Typing it does not require an extra keystroke to add an accent mark, so the plugin preserves it as a distinct letter: ano does not find año.

The plugin was created for writing in Spanish and can also help with other languages that use combining diacritics. It is not a general transliteration tool.

Type	Find
alvaro gomez	Álvaro Gómez
ÁLVARO	Álvaro or Alvaro
pinguino	Pingüino
cafe	Café
ano	Does not match Año

Select the first example after typing [[alvaro gomez and Obsidian inserts [[Álvaro Gómez]] using the note's original name.

Features

• Works in the existing Quick switcher and wikilink suggestions, without replacing either interface or changing your shortcuts.
• Matches names, paths, and existing aliases; preserves the original spelling and Obsidian's usual alias insertion behavior.
• Respects native attachment options and the ranking penalty for excluded files. Preserves native handling of empty queries, bookmarks, unresolved links, headings, blocks, and display text after |.
• No settings, network requests, or changes to notes, filenames, frontmatter, or aliases. Comparison happens in memory using filenames, paths, and existing metadata.

This plugin extends file and alias matching in those two interfaces. It does not add accent-insensitive matching to global Search, third-party search plugins, heading or block text, or unresolved link names.

Installation

Community catalog

1. Open the official plugin listing and select Add to Obsidian.
2. Follow Obsidian's installation prompts, then enable Accent Insensitive Search in Settings → Community plugins.

BRAT and manual installation are also available below.

BRAT

1. Install and enable BRAT from Obsidian's community plugins.
2. Add this repository in BRAT: https://github.com/TheWillyM4AK/obsidian-accent-insensitive-search.
3. Enable Accent Insensitive Search in Settings → Community plugins, if it is not enabled already.

Manual

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release.
2. Create .obsidian/plugins/busqueda-sin-tildes/ inside your vault and place both files there.
3. Restart Obsidian and enable Accent Insensitive Search in Settings → Community plugins.

Use Quick switcher and [[ as usual. Disable the plugin to restore native search behavior.

Compatibility

• Minimum supported version: Obsidian 1.14.4.
• Verified on desktop with Obsidian 1.14.4, including native methods exercised with in-memory files and an editor stub.
• Designed for desktop and mobile without platform-specific dependencies. The plugin's creator has tested it successfully on mobile.

The integration wraps internal Obsidian methods because the public API does not expose a hook for these native searches. An Obsidian update or another plugin changing the same methods may require a compatibility update. If an interface is missing or its result format is incompatible, the affected component falls back to native behavior and shows a one-time notice in Spanish when Obsidian's language is Spanish, or in English otherwise. Deactivation restores the wrapped methods where possible and makes remaining wrappers inactive.

Development

Requires Node.js 24 or later.

npm ci
npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run build

The build produces main.js; Obsidian supplies the runtime API. Unit tests cover Unicode normalization, highlight offsets, matching, native filters, ranking, cancellation, and reversible patches. The native integration fixture additionally checks result compatibility and inserting a correctly accented link without creating notes.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the native integration procedure and contribution guidance, and CHANGELOG.md for release history.

Feedback

Open an issue in English or Spanish. Include your Obsidian and plugin versions, platform, and a minimal example with fictional note names. Suggestions and reproducible reports from other languages are welcome.

License

MIT · TheWillyM4AK. Built with the Obsidian API.