Live Regex Find and Replace

Live Regex Find and Replace is a powerful plugin for Obsidian that brings full Regular Expression (Regex) support to your find and replace operations. It features a modern Live Preview that highlights matches in real-time as you type, giving you visual feedback similar to native editors.

Features

• Regex Support: Utilize the full power of Javascript Regular Expressions.
• Live Find Preview: Matches are highlighted instantly with a clear box style as you type your pattern or plain text.
• Scope Control:
  • Document: Apply changes to the entire note.
  • Selection: Restrict find/replace to only the currently selected text.
• Advanced Replacements:
  • Support for \n (newline) and \t (tab).
  • Support for Regex capture groups (e.g., $1, $2) to reorder or reformat data.
• User Friendly:
  • Case Insensitivity: Toggle with a single click.
  • Pre-fill: Automatically populates the find field with your selection.
  • Theme Aware: Seamlessly integrates with Obsidian's light and dark modes.

Installation

Via Community Plugins

1. Open Settings > Community Plugins in Obsidian.
2. Ensure Restricted Mode is off.
3. Click Browse and search for Regex Find/Replace.
4. Click Install and then Enable.

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release (main.js, manifest.json, styles.css) from the Releases Page.
2. Create a folder named live-regex-find-replace in your vault's plugin folder: .obsidian/plugins/.
3. Move the downloaded files into this folder.
4. Reload Obsidian plugins and enable it in settings.

Usage

1. Open the Dialog:

   • Assign a hotkey in Settings → Hotkeys (search for Regex Find/Replace).
   • Or use the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P) and run Regex Find/Replace: Find and Replace using regular expressions.

2. Finding Text:

   • Type your Regex or text in the "Find" box.
   • Matches will be highlighted in the editor immediately.

3. Replacing Text:

   • Type your replacement string.
   • Use $1, $2, etc., for capture groups if using Regex.
   • Use \n for newlines.

4. Controls:

   • .* Regex Mode: Toggles regular expression parsing on/off.
   • Aa Case Sensitivity: Toggles case-sensitive matching.
   • ⊏⊐ Selection Only: Limits scope to your selected text (only available if text is selected).
   • ▼ History: Shows previously searched terms (last 10, persisted between sessions).
   • ↑ / ↓ Previous/Next: Jumps between matches. Same keys also work with Enter (next), Shift+Enter (previous), and the Arrow keys in the Find field.
   • × Close: Closes the dialog (Esc works too).

5. Execute: Click Replace All to apply changes.

Settings

• Process \n as line break: Interprets \n characters in the replacement field as actual newlines.
• Prefill Find Field: If enabled, selecting text before opening the dialog will auto-paste it into the Find box.
• Case Insensitive: Sets the default state for case sensitivity.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and submit a Pull Request.

Credits

This project is based on the excellent work of Martin Eder — the original obsidian-regex-replace plugin. A big thank you for creating the foundation!

License

MIT License - Copyright (c) 2026 HelixCraft (Original work by Martin Eder)