Stop Typing Those Brackets: AutoKeywordLinker for Obsidian
If you use Obsidian for notes, you know the drill. You have a recurring term—a project name, a concept, a person—and every time you mention it, you need to wrap it in double brackets [[like this]] to link it. It’s a small friction, but over hundreds of notes, it adds up. What if your notes could just… handle that for you?
Enter AutoKeywordLinker, a clever Obsidian plugin that automates the tedious part of linking. It watches what you type and silently adds those brackets for you, turning your note-taking flow from manual linking to something closer to autocomplete for your personal knowledge base.
What It Does
AutoKeywordLinker is an Obsidian plugin that automatically converts predefined keywords into internal wiki-style links as you type. You give it a list of terms (like “Project Alpha” or “recursive function”), and whenever you type one of those terms in your editor, it instantly becomes [[Project Alpha]] or [[recursive function]]. No more reaching for the bracket keys.
Why It’s Cool
The beauty here is in the simplicity and the specificity. This isn’t a broad AI trying to guess what you mean. It’s a straightforward tool that removes a precise, repetitive action. It’s especially powerful for projects or topics with long or complex names that you reference constantly. Think documentation, world-building, character sheets, or technical glossaries.
The implementation is smart, too. It uses Obsidian’s CodeMirror editor under the hood to perform the text replacement seamlessly, without interfering with your normal typing. It just works, quietly, in the background.
How to Try It
You can install it directly from within Obsidian:
- Open Settings in Obsidian.
- Go to Community plugins and click Browse.
- Search for “AutoKeywordLinker” and install it.
- Enable the plugin, then head to its settings tab.
- Add your keywords—one per line—in the settings pane. That’s it.
The plugin’s GitHub repo has the source and more detailed instructions if you want to peek under the hood or contribute: github.com/danrhodes/AutoKeywordLinker
Final Thoughts
As a developer, I love tools that solve a tiny problem perfectly. AutoKeywordLinker is one of those. It won’t revolutionize your entire workflow, but it will shave off those minor annoyances that accumulate during a long writing or note-taking session. If you live in Obsidian and find yourself constantly linking the same set of terms, give this plugin an afternoon. You might just forget what it was like to type brackets manually.
Follow for more neat projects: @githubprojects
Repository: https://github.com/danrhodes/AutoKeywordLinker