Heading to Note

An Obsidian plugin that takes a heading in your note and moves its whole section — the heading plus every subsection under it — into a new note, then leaves a link where the section used to be.

Built for a Zettelkasten / PKM workflow where a section of a long note turns out to deserve a note of its own.

Installation

Heading to Note is in the official community plugin directory, so you can install it without leaving Obsidian:

1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse.
2. Search for Heading to Note.
3. Select Install, then Enable.

That's the whole install. When a new version is published, Obsidian offers you the update.

Beta versions

Releases are published on GitHub before they reach the directory. To run those early versions, install BRAT and point it at the repository:

1. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse.
2. Search for BRAT (Obsidian42 - BRAT), then Install and Enable it.
3. Open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P) and run BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing.
4. Paste this repository: cjbarroso/obsidian-heading-to-note
5. Select Add Plugin, then enable Heading to Note in Settings → Community plugins.

BRAT only needs the repository name — no build step, no manual file copying. You don't need BRAT if you installed from the directory: both manage the same plugin folder.

Manual installation

If you would rather not use the directory, or you are setting up a vault offline, copy the three release files yourself:

1. Download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Create the folder <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/heading-to-note/ if it does not exist.
3. Put the three files inside that folder.
4. Reload Obsidian (Ctrl/Cmd + R, or quit and reopen).
5. Go to Settings → Community plugins → Installed plugins and enable Heading to Note.

If the plugin does not show up, check that Restricted mode is off and that the folder is named exactly heading-to-note (the folder name must match the id in manifest.json).

From source

There is no build step: main.js is plain CommonJS and loads directly.

git clone https://github.com/cjbarroso/obsidian-heading-to-note.git
cp main.js manifest.json styles.css "<your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/heading-to-note/"

Usage

Three ways to run it:

Where	Command
Command palette	Convert a heading into a new note — opens a searchable list of every heading in the note
Command palette	Convert the current section into a new note — uses the heading that contains the cursor
Editor right click	Convert section into a new note

What it does

1. Finds the heading and its subtree: everything up to the next heading of the same or a higher level. Headings inside code fences and inside the frontmatter are ignored.
2. Creates the new note, named after the heading. If that name is taken, it appends 1, 2, …
3. Copies the frontmatter of the source note, minus the excluded properties.
4. Replaces the moved section in the source note with a link to the new note, and saves the file immediately instead of waiting for Obsidian's deferred autosave.
5. Rewrites links across the vault that pointed at the moved headings: [[Source#Section]] → [[New note#Section]], keeping aliases and block references intact.

Settings

Settings → Heading to Note

Setting	Default	Description
Destination folder	(empty)	Empty means the folder of the source note. A path that does not exist is created. The field autocompletes the folders in the vault.
Open the new note	on	Opens the extracted note in a new tab.
Inherit frontmatter	on	Copies the source note's properties.
Excluded properties	id, aliases	Properties that are never copied (keeps a Zettelkasten id from being duplicated).
Keep the heading line	on	Off: the new note starts directly with the section body.
Leave a link	on	Off: the section disappears with no trace.
Link format	Wikilink	Or a callout: > [!abstract] Extracted to [[New note]].
Update incoming links	on	Rewrites links elsewhere in the vault.

Languages

The interface follows the language configured in Obsidian: English by default, Spanish when the app is in Spanish. The callout left behind in the source note uses the same language.

Notes and limitations

• Editor only: if the note is in reading view, the commands are unavailable.
• Only Markdown files.
• Links inside the moved text that point to headings that stayed behind are not rewritten.

License

MIT