Embed Subpaths

The problem

Embed syntax in Obsidian can include subpaths:

• ![[note]] — embed entire file
• ![[note#Heading]] — embed a specific heading section
• ![[note#^block-id]] — embed a specific block

In CachedMetadata.embeds, the link field contains the full text: "note#Heading" or "note#^block-id".

When resolving via getFirstLinkpathDest(link, sourcePath)¹, passing the full subpath fails to resolve because getFirstLinkpathDest expects just the file path portion.

The fix

Use getLinkpath(embed.link) to strip the subpath before resolving:

import { getLinkpath } from "obsidian";
 
const linkpath = getLinkpath(embed.link);
// "note#Heading" → "note"
// "note#^block-id" → "note"
// "note" → "note"
 
const dest = app.metadataCache.getFirstLinkpathDest(linkpath, sourcePath);

What this means for the embed index

The getFilesEmbedding method maps to the target file, not the specific heading or block. If note-a.md embeds ![[note-b#Heading]], then getFilesEmbedding("note-b.md") returns note-a.md.

There is currently no “which files embed heading X of file Y” query — only “which files embed file Y”.

Footnotes

1. MetadataCache.getFirstLinkpathDest — Obsidian Developer Docs — the linkpath parameter is the path portion of a linktext, without subpath or display text. ↩