Lint an Obsidian vault with rumdl¶

Use rumdl's obsidian flavor to lint vault content without treating callouts, wikilinks, tags, Obsidian comments, Dataview fields, or Templater expressions as ordinary Markdown errors. Standard Markdown checks continue to run outside those recognized constructs.

.rumdl.toml

[global]
flavor = "obsidian"

rumdl check .

Supported Patterns¶

Tags with Hash Syntax¶

MD018 recognizes Obsidian's tag syntax to avoid false positives:

This is a #tag not a malformed heading.
Multiple #tags #in-one-line are supported.
Nested #tags/with/hierarchy work too.

Callouts (Admonitions)¶

MD028 recognizes Obsidian callout syntax to prevent false positives when blank lines appear between callout blocks:

> [!NOTE]
> This is a note callout.

> [!WARNING]
> This is a warning.

> [!TIP]+ Foldable (expanded by default)
> Tip content here.

> [!INFO]- Collapsed by default
> Info content here.

Supported callout types include: - note, abstract, summary, tldr - info, todo, tip, hint, important - success, check, done - question, help, faq - warning, caution, attention - failure, fail, missing - danger, error, bug - example, quote, cite

Custom callout types are also supported.

Comments¶

Rules skip Obsidian comment syntax to avoid false positives inside comments:

This is visible %%this is hidden%% and visible again.

%%
Multi-line
comments are
also supported
%%

Rules affected: MD011, MD012, MD034, MD037, MD044, MD049, MD061, MD064, MD069

Highlights¶

MD037 and other emphasis-related rules recognize Obsidian highlight syntax:

This is ==highlighted text== in a sentence.

Wikilinks in Tables¶

Table rules treat the pipe in an aliased wikilink as part of the link rather than a cell delimiter, so a row like this one has two cells and not three, and a paragraph whose only pipes sit inside wikilinks is not mistaken for a row that lost its table:

| Character | Note                        |
| --------- | --------------------------- |
| Alice     | [[White Rabbit|the Rabbit]] |

Dataview Inline Queries¶

MD038 recognizes Dataview plugin inline query syntax:

The file name is `= this.file.name`.
Dynamic content: `$= dv.current().field`.

Dataview Inline Fields¶

MD011 recognizes Dataview inline field syntax to prevent false positives:

(status:: active)[link text]
(author:: John Doe)[read more]
(date:: 2024-01-01)[view]

These patterns look like reversed links but are valid Dataview inline field syntax.

Extended Task Checkboxes¶

MD064 recognizes extended task checkbox syntax beyond the standard [ ], [x], and [X]:

- [/] In progress
- [-] Cancelled
- [>] Deferred
- [<] Scheduled
- [?] Question
- [!] Important
- [*] Star/highlight

These extended checkboxes are commonly used in Obsidian with plugins like Tasks or custom CSS.

Templater Syntax¶

MD033 correctly ignores Templater plugin syntax (not flagged as inline HTML):

<% tp.date.now() %>
<%* javascript code %>
<%+ expression %>
<% tp.file.title %>

Rule Behavior Changes¶

Rule	Standard Behavior	Obsidian Behavior
MD018	Flag `#text` without space	Allow `#tag` syntax
MD028	Flag blanks between blockquotes	Recognize callout blocks
MD033	Flag inline HTML	Ignore Templater `<% %>` syntax
MD037	Check emphasis spacing	Recognize `==highlight==` syntax
MD038	Check code span spacing	Allow `=` and `$=` Dataview prefixes
MD011	Check reversed links	Skip `%%comments%%` and `(field:: value)` patterns
MD012	Check multiple blanks	Skip content in `%%comments%%`
MD034	Check bare URLs	Skip content in `%%comments%%`
MD044	Check proper names	Skip content in `%%comments%%`
MD049	Check emphasis style	Skip content in `%%comments%%`
MD061	Check link fragments	Skip content in `%%comments%%`
MD064	Check multiple consecutive spaces	Skip `%%comments%%`, allow extended checkboxes `[/]`, `[-]`, etc.
MD069	Check reference links	Skip content in `%%comments%%`
MD056	Count `\\|` as a cell delimiter	Treat `[[Target\\|Label]]` as one cell
MD075	Pipe line after a table is a row	Wikilink-only pipes stay prose

Configuration¶

[global]
flavor = "obsidian"

When to Use¶

Use the Obsidian flavor when:

Linting notes from your Obsidian vault
Using Obsidian-specific syntax like callouts or comments
Using the Dataview plugin for dynamic content
Using the Templater plugin for templates
Using Obsidian's tag syntax extensively

Plugin Compatibility¶

The Obsidian flavor is designed to work with common Obsidian plugins:

Dataview: Inline queries with = and $= prefixes
Templater: Template syntax with <% %> delimiters
Core plugins: Callouts, tags, wiki-links, block references

Coming from Obsidian Linter?¶

Comparison with Obsidian Linter maps every Obsidian Linter rule to its rumdl counterpart, gives a starter .rumdl.toml for a vault, and lists the behaviors that differ.