Obsidian Regex Replace

A powerful find and replace plugin for Obsidian that supports regular expressions with real-time preview and match highlighting.

Features

• Regular Expression Support: Full JavaScript regex syntax including capture groups ($1, $2, etc.)
• Real-time Preview: See matches highlighted before replacing
• Match Highlighting: Visual diff showing before/after changes
• Regex Flags: Toggle global (g), case-insensitive (i), and multiline (m) flags
• Selection Mode: Replace only within selected text
• Pattern History: Save and reuse recent search patterns
• Dark/Light Theme: Optimized for both Obsidian themes

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. Open Obsidian Settings
2. Go to Community Plugins and disable Restricted Mode
3. Click Browse and search for "Regex Replace"
4. Click Install, then Enable

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder: <YourVault>/.obsidian/plugins/regex-replace/
3. Copy the downloaded files into this folder
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins

Usage

Opening the Replace Dialog

• Hotkey: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + H
• Command Palette: Cmd/Ctrl + P → "Open Regex Replace"

Interface

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Search Pattern:  [Enter regex pattern]      │
│ Replace With:    [Replacement text]         │
│                                             │
│ Flags: ☑ g (global)  ☐ i  ☐ m              │
│ ☐ Replace in selection only                 │
│                                             │
│ 3 match(es) found                           │
│                                             │
│ Before: Hello [world], hello [world]        │  ← Yellow highlight
│ After:  Hello [WORLD], hello [WORLD]        │  ← Green highlight
│                                             │
│ Matches (3):                                │
│ • "world" → "WORLD"                         │
│                                             │
│                    [Replace All] [Cancel]   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Regex Examples

Use Case	Search Pattern	Replace	Result
Find numbers	\d+	[NUM]	abc123 → abc[NUM]
Date format	(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})	$3/$2/$1	2024-12-08 → 08/12/2024
Remove extra spaces	\s+		Multiple spaces → single
Wiki to MD link	\[\[(.+?)\]\]	[$1]($1.md)	[[Note]] → [Note](Note.md)
Header H2 → H3	^##	###	## Title → ### Title
Remove bold	\*\*(.+?)\*\*	$1	**bold** → bold
Extract link text	\[(.+?)\]\((.+?)\)	$1: $2	[text](url) → text: url

Flags

Flag	Name	Description
g	Global	Replace all matches (not just the first)
i	Ignore Case	Case-insensitive matching
m	Multiline	^ and $ match line starts/ends

Capture Groups

Use parentheses () to capture groups and reference them with $1, $2, etc.:

Search:  (\w+)@(\w+)\.com
Replace: User: $1, Domain: $2

Input:   test@example.com
Output:  User: test, Domain: example

Settings

Access via Settings → Regex Replace:

Setting	Description	Default
Default Flags	Pre-selected regex flags	g
Show Preview	Display before/after preview	true
History Limit	Max saved patterns	10

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/bongho/obsidian-regex-replace.git

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build for development (watch mode)
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

# Run tests
node test.js

Changelog

1.0.0

• Initial release
• Regex find and replace with preview
• Real-time match highlighting
• Pattern history
• Selection-only mode

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Support

If you find this plugin useful, consider:

• Starring the repository on GitHub
• Reporting issues or suggesting features
• Contributing code improvements

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Made with ❤️ for the Obsidian community