Ink Language — Obsidian Plugin

An editor plugin for inkle's Ink scripting language inside Obsidian. Open .ink files directly in your vault and get syntax highlighting, smart navigation, snippet insertion, and a structural outline panel.

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Overview

An Obsidian community plugin that brings first-class support for inkle's Ink scripting language (.ink files) into Obsidian. The goal is to give narrative designers and writers a comfortable authoring experience without leaving Obsidian — syntax highlighting, Ctrl+Click navigation, slash-command snippet insertion, command palette actions, a structural outline panel, and configurable editor themes. You can also include Obsidian links in your Ink comments - something that's not possible with the official editor.

We built it for ourselves - all of our project notes and storyline live in a shared Obsidian vault. Now we're sharing it with the community.

Out of scope: Story playback/preview (the existing Ink Player plugin covers that and it plays nicely with our plugin - the two of them make a perfect duo).

Inspiration & Credits

This plugin is heavily inspired by Inky, inkle's official Ink editor. The two-theme system (Normal / Focus), the outline panel structure, and the overall UX philosophy directly reference Inky's design. Inky and Ink are amazing software created by inkle.

Features

Syntax Highlighting

.ink files are automatically highlighted: knots, stitches, choices, diverts, logic expressions, variables, comments, and more are all visually distinguished.

Two themes are available (switchable at any time):

• Normal — uses your Obsidian theme's color palette, toned down relative to a typical code editor
• Focus — only narrative text reads at full brightness; all structure, logic, and syntax recede into the background so you can concentrate on the story

Switch themes via Settings → Ink Language → Editor theme, or instantly with the command Ink: Toggle Focus Mode.

Ctrl+Click Navigation

Hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and click on any knot name, stitch name, divert target, or gather label to jump directly to its definition.

Works with:

• Knot names (=== my_knot ===)
• Stitch names (= my_stitch)
• Named gather labels (- (my_label), - - (nested_label))
• Variables and constants
• Explicit paths (knot.stitch)

Outline Panel

Open the structural outline of your .ink file from the ribbon icon or the command Ink: Toggle Outline. The panel shows all knots, stitches, functions, and external declarations, organised hierarchically. Click any entry to jump to that line.

Snippet Insertion

Type / anywhere in an .ink file to open the snippet menu. Available snippets cover the full Ink syntax:

Category	Snippets
Structure	Knot, Stitch, Function, INCLUDE
Choices	Choice, Sticky Choice, Choice with Suppress, Labelled, Conditional, Fallback
Flow	Divert, Divert to END/DONE, Tunnel, Tunnel Return, Thread, Gather, Labelled Gather, Glue
Logic	VAR, CONST, TEMP, Assignment, If/Else, Switch, EXTERNAL, LIST
Varying Text	Sequence, Cycle, Shuffle, Once-only, Alternatives
Tags & Comments	Tag, Line Comment, Block Comment, TODO

Commands

All commands are available in the Command Palette (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P):

Command	Description
Ink: Toggle Outline	Open or close the outline panel
Ink: Toggle Focus Mode	Switch between Normal and Focus themes
Ink: Insert Knot	Insert === knot_name ===
Ink: Insert Stitch	Insert = stitch_name
Ink: Insert Choice	Insert *
Ink: Insert Sticky Choice	Insert +
Ink: Insert Divert	Insert ->
Ink: Insert Variable	Insert VAR variable_name = 0
Ink: Insert Conditional	Insert an if/else block
Ink: Wrap in Logic Braces	Wrap selection (or insert {})

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Settings

Open Settings → Community Plugins → Ink Language.

Setting	Options	Description
Editor theme	Normal, Focus	Syntax highlighting style
Navigation scroll position	Top, 1/4 from top, Center	Where the target line lands after Ctrl+Click or Outline navigation

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Installation

From the Community Plugin Browser

1. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
2. Search for Ink Language
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual

1. Download main.js, styles.css, and manifest.json from the latest release
2. Copy them to <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/ink-language/
3. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins

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Language Reference

This plugin supports the full Ink syntax. For language documentation see the official Ink guide.

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AI Disclosure

This plugin was built using AI-assisted specs-driven development with Claude and Gemini. We use AI to build tools and automations for our narrative team, so they can spend more time crafting original stories.

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Credits

Built by Fables Forge. Ink is created by inkle.