Hard-wrap formatting

Reformat paragraphs with Markdown-aware line wrapping — something Obsidian’s built-in Vim mode does not support.

Keybindings

Hard-wrap operators

Reformat paragraphs with Markdown-aware line wrapping.

Keybinding	Description
gqq / gwq	Reformat current line at textwidth (default 80)
gqj / gwj	Reformat current and next line
gqip / gwip	Reformat paragraph
Visual gq / gw	Reformat selected lines

Link to original

gq moves the cursor to the start of the formatted range. gw keeps the cursor at its original position. Both use the same wrapping engine.

Behavior

The hard-wrap operators split and merge lines at the configured text width (default: 80 columns):

• Word-boundary splitting — lines exceeding the text width are split at the last word boundary that fits
• Prefix preservation — continuation lines retain Markdown structural prefixes:
  • Blockquotes (>) — wrapped lines keep the > prefix
  • Bullet lists (- , * , + ) — wrapped lines are indented to align with the text after the marker
  • Numbered lists (1. ) — same alignment behavior as bullet lists
  • Nested structures (> - text) — both prefixes are preserved
• Line merging — short lines with matching prefixes are merged back into the preceding line when they fit within the text width, producing a paragraph-reflow effect
• Paragraph separation — blank lines act as paragraph separators; wrapping stops and resumes at each paragraph boundary

Configuration

The wrap width can be set via:

• Settings → Vim Motions → Vim engine → Text width (default: 80)
• set textwidth=100 in .obsidian.vimrc
• Runtime: CodeMirrorAdapter.Vim.setOption('textwidth', 100) in Obsidian’s developer console

Vimrc timing

set textwidth=N in vimrc may not propagate to gq/gw if the vimrc file encounters I/O timing issues. If the value isn’t taking effect, reload the plugin. See known-limitations > Vimrc for details.

Toggle the feature via Settings → Vim Motions → Hard-wrap operator or set hardwrap / set nohardwrap in vimrc.