Settings reference

All features can be toggled independently in Settings → Vim Motions. Changes take effect immediately without restarting. Settings are organized into 7 pages for easier navigation:

Page	Settings groups
General	Mobile, Vim features, Picker, Vim engine
Appearance	Line numbers, Gutter, Status bar, Vim mode display prompt, Cursor shapes, Animated cursor, Yank highlight
Navigation	Jump navigation, Workspace navigation
Keybindings	Vimrc & key bindings, Leader key bindings, Which-key hints, Which-key group labels, Which-key command labels
Snippets & files	Snippets, File explorer, Undo tree
Input method	Input method
Advanced	Advanced

On Obsidian 1.13+, pages appear as navigable entries in the settings sidebar. On earlier versions, a tab bar at the top of the settings panel lets you switch between pages. All settings are indexed by Obsidian’s global settings search (1.13+).

Mobile

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Enable on mobile	toggle	false	—	—	—	Activate the plugin on mobile devices. Disabled by default because most mobile users lack a hardware keyboard.

Tip

Changing this setting requires an Obsidian reload. You can also toggle it from the command palette: Vim Motions: Toggle enable on mobile.

Vim features

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Vim enabled	toggle	true	—	—	—	Master toggle for the plugin’s vim mode. Can be toggled at runtime via Obsidian commands without a plugin reload.
Text objects	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.textobjects	set textobjects	Enable Markdown-aware text objects (i*, a*, il, etc.).
Replace-with-register operator	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.replacewithregister	set replacewithregister	Enable the gr operator to replace text with register contents. Also available via :set rwr and vim.opt.rwr.
Structural navigation	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.navigation	set navigation	Enable heading, list, and link navigation motions (]h, [h, ]l, etc.).
Hard-wrap operator (gq)	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.hardwrap	set hardwrap	Enable gq operator to reformat paragraphs with Markdown-aware line wrapping.
Smart list continuation on o/O	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.listcontinuation	set listcontinuation	Automatically continue list markers (bullets, numbers, checkboxes) when pressing o or O.
Table navigation	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.tablenav	set tablenav	Enable table-nav overlay mode and table motions (]| , [| , ]c, [c). When disabled, the native table editor still supports vim cell editing with cross-cell h/j/k/l navigation.
Table widget in live preview	dropdown	native	native, raw, owned	vim.opt.tablewidget	set tablewidget	Controls how tables display in Live Preview. Default is native, which uses Obsidian’s built-in table editor with vim injected into cell editors. raw always shows raw markdown. owned is experimental and renders tables with the plugin’s own renderer — see tables > Owned table surface.
Yank highlight	dropdown	solid	off, solid, fade	vim.opt.yankhighlightmode	set yankhighlightmode	Highlight yanked text. “Solid” appears and disappears (Neovim-style). “Fade” gradually fades out.
Yank highlight duration	slider	200	0–5000 ms	vim.opt.yankhighlightduration	set yankhighlightduration	How long the yank highlight stays visible.
Yank-ring paste cycling	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.yankring	set yankring	Cycle through numbered registers after paste (<C-p>/<C-n>).
Sign column	dropdown	auto	auto[:N], yes[:N], no	vim.opt.signcolumn	set signcolumn	Show vim mark letters in a dedicated gutter column. Auto: show when marks exist. Always: always reserve space. Off: hide. Append :N (1–4) to set character width. Clickable — clicking a mark jumps to its line. Global marks (A–Z) shown in distinct color.
Fold column	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.foldcolumn	set foldcolumn	Show fold indicators (▸/▾) in the gutter for foldable regions. Click to toggle. Default: off.
Vim keybindings in text areas	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.vimtextareas	set vimtextareas	Replace focused text areas with a vim-enabled editor. Starts in insert mode. Experimental, desktop only.
Subword motions	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.subword	set subword	Override w/b/e/ge to stop at camelCase, snake_case, and kebab-case boundaries.
Enhanced increment/decrement	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.dial	set dial	Extends <C-a>/<C-x> to cycle hex colors, booleans, dates, CSS values, and checkboxes.

Tip

Override the highlight color with a CSS snippet: set --vim-motions-yank-bg on .theme-dark or .theme-light (e.g., --vim-motions-yank-bg: rgba(255, 200, 0, 0.4);).

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Workspace navigation	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.workspacenav	set workspacenav	Enable pane/tab/sidebar control (<C-w>h/j/k/l, gt, gT, etc.) and File Explorer h/j/k/l navigation.
Fuzzy picker for buffers	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.picker	set picker	Use the unified fuzzy picker for :buffers, :ls, :marks, :registers, and :grep.
Picker leader mappings	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.pickerleadermappings	set pickerleadermappings	Enable default <leader>f* picker mappings and which-key labels.
Picker matching engine	dropdown	ufuzzy	ufuzzy, obsidian	vim.opt.pickermatcher	set pickermatcher	Fuzzy matching engine. uFuzzy is a fast pure-JS matcher with filename-aware ranking. Obsidian uses the built-in prepareFuzzySearch API.
Non-Markdown file previews	dropdown	rendered	rendered, hidden, raw	vim.opt.pickerpreview	set pickerpreview	How the picker previews files that are not Markdown. Markdown files are always previewed. See Non-Markdown file previews under settings > Picker.
Workspace navigation view types	text	(empty)	—	vim.opt.workspacenavviewtypes	set workspacenavviewtypes	Comma-separated view types where scroll and count keys are intercepted. Empty uses defaults (markdown, graph, pdf, canvas, empty, image, bases).
Fold-aware navigation	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.foldawarenavigation	set foldawarenavigation	Auto-unfold when a motion enters a folded range. Matches Neovim’s foldopen — structural motions (]h, %, /) unfold; j/k leave folds closed. Use set foldopen=… for fine-grained control.
Fold-open categories	—	block,hor,mark,percent,search,undo	—	vim.opt.foldopen	set foldopen=… / set fdo=…	Comma-separated list of motion categories that trigger auto-unfold. Accepts: all, block, hor, insert, jump, mark, percent, search, tag, undo. Matches Neovim’s foldopen option.
Fold persistence	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.foldpersistence	set foldpersistence	Remember fold state across file switches and sessions. Capped at 500 files, 30-day TTL.

Warning

Workspace navigation: <C-w>, Ctrl-d, Ctrl-f, and Ctrl-b may conflict with Obsidian’s default hotkeys. The plugin detects these conflicts on startup and shows a Notice. Use the Check hotkey conflicts button in this settings group to see active conflicts and unbinding instructions.

Picker

Info

Ripgrep integration is desktop-only and requires the rg binary to be installed on your system.

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Use ripgrep for grep/live-grep	toggle	false	—	—	—	Use a local ripgrep binary for faster vault search.
Ripgrep binary path	text	(empty)	—	—	—	Absolute path to the rg binary.
Ripgrep extra arguments	text	--smart-case --glob "*.md"	—	—	—	Additional arguments passed to ripgrep.
Grep binary mode	dropdown	ripgrep	—	—	—	Which external binary backs grep and live grep: ripgrep or GNU grep.
Picker keymap	list	(built-in)	—	—	—	Per-context key bindings for the picker modal. Editable from Lua; see ex-commands for the provider API.

Vim engine

Warning

The optional Neovim backend is desktop only and runs the binary and configuration you supply as arbitrary code. That code may load native libraries through LuaJIT FFI and read or write files outside the vault. No sandbox is provided. Vim Motions never downloads or installs Neovim itself; it can install or update the Neovim plugins it generates configuration for, on an explicit confirmed request. It delegates editor keys and active-editor text to Neovim, renders visible persistent extmarks and floating windows, and bridges host-owned picker, workspace, Harpoon, marks, jumplist, and undo-tree actions back to Obsidian. A cursor-positioned input outside CM6 owns IME composition; only committed text enters Neovim through nvim_input, preserving undo and dot-repeat. Float content, borders, extmarks, and z-index are preserved; terminal rows and columns are mapped approximately with CM6’s measured character and line metrics because Obsidian uses proportional Markdown typography. Lowercase bridged commands use start-only abbreviations and do not expand inside substitutions. Both Settings → Editor → Properties in document modes work: Source frontmatter remains navigable, while rendered frontmatter is key-inaccessible through a local Neovim fold. The mirror uses buftype=acwrite: :w routes through Obsidian’s active-editor save command, and :e/:e! re-seed from Obsidian instead of reading the vault file directly. Multi-leaf buffers, ephemeral extmarks, and legacy non-extmark highlights are not yet implemented. Features that were ports of Neovim plugins are not reimplemented; Set up Neovim offers to install and configure the originals. See neovim-backend > What changes in RPC mode.

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Use Neovim backend	toggle	false	—	—	—	Desktop only. Spawn and attach to the configured Neovim 0.12+ binary. Neovim owns committed editor input, text, cursor, mode, persistent extmarks, and floats; a separate cursor-positioned input owns IME preedit and forwards commits through nvim_input. CM6 mirrors line events and renders visible extmarks and approximate cell-mapped floating overlays without processing keys. Both Properties in document modes are supported.
Neovim binary path	text	(empty)	Absolute path or empty	—	—	Absolute path to the Neovim executable itself, not its folder. Requires Neovim 0.12 or newer. Empty uses nvim from the system path. See neovim-backend > Troubleshooting the connection.
Neovim configuration path	text	(empty)	Absolute path or empty	—	—	Optional Obsidian-specific init.lua. Empty loads your normal Neovim config. A configured path loads under --clean, avoiding terminal-only LSP, dashboard, and statusline plugins and reducing measured startup from 106 ms to about 20 ms.
Set up Neovim	button	—	—	—	—	Desktop only, requires a connected backend. Previews the Neovim plugins that will be installed or updated and the configuration that will be written to lua/vim_motions.lua, then applies both on confirmation. The file is inert until you add require('vim_motions') to your init.lua. A Copy button puts the same configuration on the clipboard instead.
Regenerate automatically	toggle	false	—	—	—	Desktop only. Rewrite the generated configuration whenever a setting it covers changes. Off by default, because it writes into your Neovim configuration directory. A refused or failed rewrite is reported once rather than retried silently.
Clipboard	dropdown	(off)	unnamed, unnamedplus, (off)	vim.opt.clipboard	set clipboard	Sync yank/delete/paste with the system clipboard. When set, p falls back to Obsidian’s native paste for non-text clipboard content (images, files), creating an attachment and inserting an image embed.
Tabstop	slider	4	1–8	vim.opt.tabstop	set tabstop	Tab display width.
Shiftwidth	slider	4	1–8	vim.opt.shiftwidth	set shiftwidth	Indent width.
Expand tab	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.expandtab	set expandtab	Use spaces instead of tabs.
PCRE	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.pcre	set pcre	Use JavaScript regular expressions in search and substitution. When off (set nopcre), uses Vim-style regex syntax.
Insert mode escape	text	(off)	—	vim.opt.insertmodeescape	set insertmodeescape	Two-key sequence to exit insert mode (e.g., jk).
Insert mode escape timeout	number	1000	100–5000	vim.opt.insertmodeescapetimeout	set insertmodeescapetimeout	Timeout in milliseconds for insert mode escape sequence.
Operator shadow timeout	number	1000	0–5000	vim.opt.operatorshadowtimeout	set operatorshadowtimeout	Timeout in milliseconds for operator-prefix and mapping-prefix disambiguation. When an operator is pending and the next key matches both a motion and an operator-pending action prefix (e.g. surround), or when a mapping is an exact match but also a prefix of a longer mapping, waits this long before executing. Equivalent to Neovim’s timeoutlen. Set to 0 to disable. Aliases: ost, timeoutlen, tm.
Textwidth	number	80	0–200	vim.opt.textwidth	set textwidth	Line wrap width for gq/gw (0 to disable).

Line numbers

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Line numbers	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.number	set number	Show absolute line numbers in the gutter. Default: off.
Relative line numbers	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.relativenumber	set relativenumber	Show relative line numbers (distance from cursor). When both are enabled, shows hybrid mode (absolute on current line, relative on others). Default: off.
Number width	slider	2	1–20	vim.opt.numberwidth	set numberwidth	Minimum width of the line number column in characters (1–20). Default: 2.
Line number display	dropdown	hybrid	hybrid, dual, dual-rel-abs	vim.opt.linenumbermode	set linenumbermode	Deprecated — use statuscolumn. Dual maps to statuscolumn="%l %r".
Cursor line highlight	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.cursorline	set cursorline	Highlight the current cursor line. Default: on.
Cursor line highlight mode	dropdown	both	number, line, screenline, both, screenline,number	vim.opt.cursorlineopt	set cursorlineopt	What to highlight on the cursor line. number is the line number only, line the whole logical line, screenline only the cursor’s display row of a wrapped line, both is line,number. Matches Neovim, including its both default. Existing vaults keep number.

Custom gutter layout with statuscolumn

Use vim.opt.statuscolumn in Lua or set statuscolumn in vimrc to fully customize the gutter area. Supported tokens: %l (line number), %r (relative number), %s (signs), %C (fold indicators), %= (separator).

-- Signs + absolute + relative + fold column
vim.opt.statuscolumn = "%s %l %r %C"
 
-- Just dual line numbers
vim.opt.statuscolumn = "%l %r"
 
-- Clear (restore plugin-managed gutters)
vim.opt.statuscolumn = ""

Gutter layout

When all gutter columns are active, the layout from left to right is: sign column → line numbers → fold column → content. This matches Neovim’s default arrangement.

Example with hybrid line numbers (number + relativenumber), sign column, and fold column enabled — cursor on line 8:

 a   3  ▸  ## Introduction
     2     Some text here.
     1     More context.
     8     ← cursor line (absolute number)
     1     Additional notes.
 b   2     Another paragraph.
     3     Final thoughts.

Jump navigation

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Flash-style f/F/t/T	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.flash	set flash	Show labels on all visible matches for f/F/t/T motions.
Flash multi-line	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.flashmultiline	set flashmultiline	Search beyond the current line for f/F/t/T matches.
Flash jump mode (s)	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.flashjump	set flashjump	Bidirectional character jump in normal mode.
Flash jump key	text	s	—	vim.opt.flashjumpkey	set flashjumpkey	Key to trigger flash jump mode.
Flash clever-f	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.flashcleverf	set flashcleverf	Repeating f{same-char} falls through to stock f.
Flash min pattern length	number	1	0–10	vim.opt.flashminpatternlength	set flashminpatternlength	Minimum chars before labels appear in jump mode.
Flash search labels	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.flashsearch	set flashsearch	Show labels on search matches after / or ?.
EasyMotion	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.easymotion	set easymotion	Enable easymotion/hop navigation (<leader><leader>w, etc.).
EasyMotion dimming	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.easymotiondimming	set easymotiondimming	Dim non-target text when EasyMotion or flash is active.
EasyMotion label characters	text	asdghklqwertyuiopzxcvbnmfj	—	vim.opt.easymotionlabels	set easymotionlabels	Characters used for EasyMotion and flash labels.
Hint mode	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.hintmode	set hintmode	Enable vimium-style link hints to click UI elements.
Hint mode label characters	text	asdfghjkl	—	vim.opt.hintlabels	set hintlabels	Characters used for hint labels.
Hint mode global hotkey	hotkey	(off)	—	—	—	Key combination to trigger hint mode from anywhere.
Label font size	slider	14	10–20	vim.opt.labelfontsize	set labelfontsize	Font size for EasyMotion, flash, and hint mode labels.
Scale labels to line height	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.labelmatchfontsize	set labelmatchfontsize	Scale label font to match the target line’s font size.
Harpoon file pinning	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.harpoon	set harpoon	Pin files to numbered slots for instant switching.

Vimrc / Lua only

The following options are available via vimrc and Lua but do not appear in the Settings UI:

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Jump list	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.jumplist	set jumplist	Use vim-style jump list for <C-o>/<C-i>.
Jump list size	number	200	1–1000	vim.opt.jumplistsize	set jumplistsize	Maximum number of entries in the jump list.
Update time	number	4000	ms	vim.opt.updatetime	set updatetime	Milliseconds before CursorHold fires. Matches Neovim’s updatetime.
Fold enable	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.foldenable	set foldenable	Enable or disable folding. When disabled (zn), all folds are opened. Re-enable with zN or zi.

Snippets

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Enable snippets	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.snippets	set snippets	Master toggle for snippet expansion.
Bundled snippets	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.snippetbundled	set snippetbundled	Include built-in Obsidian markdown snippets.
Snippet directory	text	(off)	—	vim.opt.snippetdir	set snippetdir	Path to a directory with user snippet JSON files.
Trigger mode	dropdown	both	completion, tab, both	vim.opt.snippettrigger	set snippettrigger	How snippets are triggered: completion menu, Tab, or both.

File explorer

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Oil explorer	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.oil	set oil	Enable the oil-style file explorer (:Oil command).
Show hidden files	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.oilhiddenfiles	set oilhiddenfiles	Show dotfiles and hidden folders in oil views.
Confirm delete threshold	slider	1	0–100	vim.opt.oilconfirmdeletethreshold	set oilconfirmdeletethreshold	Show confirmation when deleting this many files or more.
Default sort order	dropdown	name	name, mtime, size	vim.opt.oilsort	set oilsort	Default sort order for oil directory listings.

Undo tree

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Undo tree	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.undotree	set undotree	Track branching undo history for g+/g- navigation, :earlier/:later, and :undolist output.
Persist undo history	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.undofile	set undofile	Save per-file undo history to plugin data so it survives across sessions (like set undofile).
Maximum undo tree nodes	slider	1000	100–5000	vim.opt.undotreemaxnodes	set undotreemaxnodes	Maximum number of undo states to keep per editor. Oldest leaf branches are pruned when exceeded.
Sidebar position	dropdown	right	left, right	—	—	Which sidebar to open the undo tree view in.
Auto-open on branch	toggle	false	—	—	—	Automatically open the undo tree sidebar when a branch is created (undo + new edit).

Animated cursor

Setting	Key	Type	Default	Description
Enable animated cursor	animatedCursor	Toggle	Off	Master toggle for canvas-based cursor rendering
Smooth cursor movement	smoothCursor	Toggle	On	Cursor glides between positions instead of teleporting
Cursor smoothness	cursorSmoothness	Slider 0–1	0.5	How lazy the cursor movement feels (0 = snap, 1 = very slow)
Enable smear trail	smearTrail	Toggle	On	Spring-damper trail stretching between old and new position
Trail stiffness	smearStiffness	Slider 0.1–1	0.6	Head corner spring strength
Trail trailing stiffness	smearTrailingStiffness	Slider 0.1–1	0.3	Tail corner spring strength
Trail damping	smearDamping	Slider 0.1–0.99	0.85	Velocity decay (lower = bouncier)
Trail max length	smearMaxLength	Slider 50–800	400	Maximum trail length in pixels

Status bar

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Vim mode status bar	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.statusbar	set statusbar	Show current Vim mode in the status bar.
Vim chord display	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.chorddisplay	set chorddisplay	Show pending keystrokes in the status bar.
Powerline-style status bar	toggle	false	—	vim.opt.powerline	set powerline	Color the Vim mode indicator with per-mode background colors.

Vim mode display prompt

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Normal mode prompt	text	NORMAL	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_normal	let g:mode_prompt_normal	Status bar text for normal mode.
Insert mode prompt	text	INSERT	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_insert	let g:mode_prompt_insert	Status bar text for insert mode.
Visual mode prompt	text	VISUAL	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_visual	let g:mode_prompt_visual	Status bar text for visual mode.
V-Line mode prompt	text	V-LINE	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_visual_line	let g:mode_prompt_visual_line	Status bar text for visual line mode.
V-Block mode prompt	text	V-BLOCK	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_visual_block	let g:mode_prompt_visual_block	Status bar text for visual block mode.
Replace mode prompt	text	REPLACE	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_replace	let g:mode_prompt_replace	Status bar text for replace mode.
Select mode prompt	text	SELECT	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_select	let g:mode_prompt_select	Status bar text for select mode.
Virtual replace mode prompt	text	V-REPLACE	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_vreplace	let g:mode_prompt_vreplace	Status bar text for virtual replace mode.
Command mode prompt	text	COMMAND	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_command	let g:mode_prompt_command	Status bar text for command-line mode.
Search mode prompt	text	SEARCH	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_search	let g:mode_prompt_search	Status bar text for search mode.
Insert-normal mode prompt	text	NORMAL	—	vim.g.mode_prompt_insert_normal	let g:mode_prompt_insert_normal	Status bar text when in normal mode via Ctrl-O from insert.

Cursor shapes

Info

Cursor shapes require the bundled fork engine or the Neovim backend. Disable Obsidian’s built-in Vim key bindings to enable these options.

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Normal mode	dropdown	block	block, bar, underline, hollow	—	set guicursor	Cursor shape for normal mode.
Insert mode	dropdown	bar	block, bar, underline, hollow	—	set guicursor	Cursor shape for insert mode.
Visual mode	dropdown	block	block, bar, underline, hollow	—	set guicursor	Cursor shape for visual mode.
Replace mode	dropdown	underline	block, bar, underline, hollow	—	set guicursor	Cursor shape for replace mode.
Operator-pending	dropdown	underline	block, bar, underline, hollow	—	set guicursor	Cursor shape for operator-pending mode.

Vimrc & key bindings

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Configuration mode	dropdown	lua-vimrc	lua-vimrc, lua, vimrc, settings	—	—	How the plugin loads config files. Lua + Vimrc loads both with Lua priority.
Custom vimrc path	text	(empty)	—	—	—	Override path to a vimrc file. Vault-relative or absolute (desktop only, e.g. ~/.config/obsidian/vimrc). Leave empty to search: vimrc, .vimrc, init.vim, .init.vim, obsidian.vimrc, obsidian.vim, .obsidian.vimrc, .obsidian.vim.
Custom init.lua path	text	(empty)	—	—	—	Override path to an init.lua file. Vault-relative or absolute (desktop only, e.g. ~/.config/obsidian/init.lua). Leave empty to search: init.lua, .init.lua, obsidian.init.lua, .obsidian.init.lua, obsidian.lua.
Search global config directory	toggle	false	—	—	—	After searching the vault root, also look for config files in the Obsidian user data folder (e.g. ~/.config/obsidian/ on Linux). Desktop only.
Show config load notifications	toggle	on	—	—	—	Show a notification when vimrc or init.lua is loaded on startup. Error notifications are always shown regardless of this setting.

Leader key bindings

Map leader key sequences to Obsidian commands. This UI allows you to add new bindings by specifying a key sequence and picking an Obsidian command from a searchable list. Existing bindings can be removed via the trash icon. These are applied in addition to any bindings defined in your vimrc.

Which-key hints

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Which-key mode	dropdown	off	off, leader, all	vim.opt.whichkey	set whichkey	Show available key continuations in a popup.
Which-key leader grouping	dropdown	grouped	grouped, flat	vim.opt.whichkeygrouping	set whichkeygrouping	How leader key bindings are displayed.
Which-key sort order	dropdown	which-key	which-key, groups-first	vim.opt.whichkeysort	set whichkeysort	How entries are sorted. which-key matches which-key.nvim (keys first, groups last, alphanumeric before special). groups-first shows groups before keys, alphabetically.
Which-key icons	toggle	true	—	vim.opt.whichkeyicons	set whichkeyicons	Show icons next to entries in the which-key popup. Built-in groups show default Lucide icons.
Which-key popup delay	number	500	0–2000	vim.opt.whichkeydelay	set whichkeydelay	Delay in milliseconds before the popup appears. Subsequent keystrokes update the popup instantly.

Which-key group labels

Name groups by their full key prefix. Use the leader character + prefix for leader groups (e.g., \t for table), or a raw prefix for non-leader groups (e.g., cs for surround changes). The UI provides a list of existing labels with the ability to add new ones or delete custom entries. Built-in features register default labels that your entries can override.

Which-key command labels

Describe individual bindings in the which-key popup. The UI shows a list of all active bindings (including those from vimrc) and allows you to provide a custom label for each. Entries set in vimrc appear as read-only rows.

Advanced

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Lua	Vimrc	Description
Scrolloff lines	number	5	0–9999	vim.opt.scrolloff	set scrolloff	Number of lines to keep visible above and below when scrolling.
Multi-line text object scan range	slider	20	5–200	vim.opt.scanlimit	set scanlimit	Maximum lines to scan in each direction for multi-line text objects.
Auto-fetch plugins	toggle	false	—	—	—	Automatically download Neovim plugins from GitHub when registered via vim.plugins.add().

Tip

Set Scrolloff lines to 9999 to keep the cursor vertically centered.

Picker

Fuzzy picker configuration, external grep, and bundled picker sources for popular community plugins. Sources register automatically when the target plugin is detected and unregister when it is disabled.

Name	Type	Default	Description
Omnisearch	toggle	true	Register Omnisearch as a picker source for full-text vault search.
Obsidian Tasks	toggle	true	Register Obsidian Tasks as a picker source for navigating tasks.
Dataview	toggle	true	Register Dataview as a picker source for browsing indexed pages.

Non-Markdown file previews

Settings → Vim Motions → General → Picker → Non-Markdown file previews (set pickerpreview) controls how the preview pane handles files that are not Markdown. Markdown files are always previewed as rendered Markdown and are unaffected by this setting.

Mode	Behaviour
rendered	Default. Images, svg and canvas are shown as a native Obsidian embed. PDFs, video and audio show a summary card with the file name, type, and size. Other files show their text.
hidden	Non-Markdown files show No preview and are never read from disk.
raw	Non-Markdown files are shown as plain text.

In every mode, a file larger than 50 KB is never read from disk — its size is checked from file metadata first, so scrolling past large attachments costs nothing.

Info

PDFs and media deliberately show a summary card rather than a native embed, even in rendered mode. Obsidian instantiates a PDF.js viewer per embed, and creating one for every selection while scrolling retains memory.

Input method

Name	Type	Default	Range/Options	Description
Enable input method switching	toggle	false		Automatically switch input methods when entering/leaving insert mode. Per-view state across all editor views (split panes, popovers, canvas cards). Desktop only.
IM preset	dropdown	custom	Custom, macism (macOS), im-select (Windows), fcitx5-remote (Linux), ibus (Linux)	Auto-fill binary path and arguments for common IM tools. Values are editable after selection.
IM binary path	text			Absolute path to the IM switching binary (e.g., /opt/homebrew/bin/macism, /usr/bin/fcitx5-remote). Supports ~.
Obtain IM arguments	text			Arguments to query the current IM. Empty for macism/im-select. -n for fcitx5-remote.
Switch IM arguments	text	{im}		Arguments to switch IM. Use {im} as placeholder. -s {im} for fcitx5-remote. engine {im} for ibus.
Normal mode IM	text			IM identifier to switch to in normal mode (e.g., com.apple.keylayout.ABC, keyboard-us, 1033).
Insert mode IM behavior	dropdown	restore	Restore previous IM, Use fixed default IM	Restore: switch back to the IM before leaving insert. Default: always switch to a fixed IM.
Default insert mode IM	text			IM identifier for insert mode (only when behavior is “Use fixed default IM”).

Tip

The Lua API vim.obsidian.im provides programmatic control. Set vim.obsidian.im.auto = false in your init.lua to disable auto-wiring and handle switching entirely via autocmds.

Settings not available via vimrc

• Configuration mode (configMode): Cannot be set via vimrc or init.lua because it controls which config files are loaded (circular dependency).
• Hint mode global hotkey (hintModeHotkey): Requires a specialized recording UI to capture modifier keys and cannot be easily represented as a simple string in a vimrc file.
• Leader key bindings (leaderBindings): While the plugin provides a UI for this, the same functionality is already achievable via standard nmap <leader>... commands in your vimrc.