Obsidian Syntax

April 16, 2026 · 1 min read

Contents

OnyxFolio renders these Obsidian-specific inline syntax elements server-side. No client-side plugin or JavaScript is needed.

Checkboxes

Standard Obsidian task lists with nested indentation support.

- [ ] Unchecked item
- [x] Checked item
    - [ ] Nested unchecked
    - [x] Nested checked

Renders as HTML <input type="checkbox" disabled> elements in a <ul class="checkbox-list">. Checkboxes are non-interactive (read-only display).

Nesting is based on 4-space (or tab) indentation. Multiple levels are supported.

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

This is highlighted text in a sentence.

Converts to <mark>highlighted text</mark>. Works anywhere in the body — inline with other text.

Highlight syntax inside backtick code spans is left untouched:

Use `==this==` syntax in your notes.   ← the == here is NOT converted

Use ==this== syntax in your notes. ← the == here is NOT converted

Standard markdown footnote syntax, processed by the footnotes extension:

Here is a claim.[^1]

[^1]: This is the footnote content.

Here is a claim.¹

Footnotes are collected and rendered at the bottom of the post as a numbered list with back-links.

Append ^block-id at the end of a paragraph to create a named anchor target:

This is an important paragraph. ^my-anchor

Renders as:

This is an important paragraph. <span id="my-anchor"></span>

This is an important paragraph.

Other notes can then link to this block:

[[Note Title^my-anchor]]
[[Note Title^my-anchor|Jump to this section]]

Obsidian Syntax › my-anchor Jump to this section

Block IDs may contain letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores. The anchor ID is lowercased.

OnyxFolio also runs the full standard markdown pipeline via Python-Markdown with these extensions enabled:

Extension	What it adds
`fenced_code`	```lang ``` code blocks
`tables`	GFM-style pipe tables
`toc`	Auto-generated table of contents anchors
`md_in_html`	Markdown inside raw HTML blocks
`codehilite`	Syntax highlighting in code blocks
`footnotes`	`[^1]` footnote syntax