Wikilink Alias Markup shows inline code, bold and italic in the alias of a wikilink

Name: Wikilink Alias Markup
Author: theluckystrike

Markup in a wikilink alias shows as inline code, bold or italic, as it does in a Markdown link.

Install in Obsidian

Directory page Source on GitHub

MIT · no telemetry · core features free

Pro adds "Math in aliases". Pro for all 129 plugins, $15 one time

Live Preview with the plugin, where inline code, italic, bold, strikethrough and highlight show inside the link text. — Open larger

version: 1.0.1
released: 2026-11-07
downloads: 34
review: Satisfactory
health: Excellent
license: MIT
listed for: Desktop, Mobile
obsidian: 1.13.4 or later

The directory takes these platforms from the plugin manifest. The automated tests run in the desktop app only.

Directory facts fetched 2026-11-13 23:15 UTC from community.obsidian.md/users/theluckystrike.

About Wikilink Alias Markup

You put backticks or stars in the alias of a wikilink and want to see the markup that a Markdown link shows.

When the alias of a wikilink has backticks, Obsidian shows the backticks as plain text. A Markdown link with the same text shows inline code, and with Wikilink Alias Markup the wikilink does too. Bold, italic, strikethrough and highlight work the same way, in Reading view and in Live Preview.

The link still opens on click, shows the page preview and is easy to edit. The plugin never writes to your notes.

Wikilinks that first show backticks and stars as text, then inline code, italic and bold, then the link source under the cursor.

Free features

Markup in the alias

Write the alias the way you write any Markdown text. The plugin shows inline code, bold, italic, strikethrough and highlight inside the link, also in tables and callouts.

What Obsidian shows without it

Without the plugin, the backticks, stars, tildes and equal signs of an alias show as text. Only a Markdown link shows them as markup.

Live Preview

The plugin hides only the markup characters and gives the text between them the look of inline code, bold or italic. The link is still the core link, so it keeps its look, its click and its page preview. On a note of 5,000 lines with two links on each line, the plugin added less than 4 ms to each keystroke.

Reading view, tables and callouts

Reading view puts code, strong, em, del and mark elements inside the core link, the same elements that Obsidian makes for a Markdown link. Links in table cells and in callouts, also in a callout inside a callout, show the markup in both views. A link in a code block or in inline code stays as it is.

Reading view with markup in the links of a paragraph, a table and a nested callout. — Open larger

Edit the link as before

Put the cursor in a link, or select text that touches it, and the plugin shows the source, as Obsidian does for any link. The arrow keys move one character at a time, and a selection has the source text.

The cursor inside a link, where the line shows the full source with the brackets and backticks. — Open larger

Click and page preview

A click on the formatted alias opens the target note, as on any link. In Reading view, the core page preview shows when you rest the pointer on the alias. In Live Preview, hold Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) to see it.

The page preview of the target note, shown under a link whose alias is inline code. — Open larger

The free version shows inline code, bold, italic, strikethrough and highlight in aliases, and it shows the dollar signs of math as text.

Pro features

Pro costs $5 a month or $15 one time through GitHub Sponsors.

One payment of $15 turns on Pro in 129 NoteMods plugins.

Math in aliases Pro

With Pro, $...$ in an alias shows as math, for example [[Ammonia|$NH_3$]]. Reading view uses the MathJax of Obsidian. A dollar amount such as $5 stays text.

Live Preview with Pro, where the aliases of two links show chemical formulas as math. — Open larger

Get Pro for $15 one time

Price tiers

10 of 50 founding licenses sold.

Founding price · now$15licenses 1 to 50
Tier 2$19licenses 51 to 150
Tier 3$24licenses 151 to 300
Tier 4$29licenses 301 and more

The price is set on the 1st of each month. It goes up only after a tier is full. Until then it stays $15. The next price review is on 1 December 2026.

A price change does not change a license that you paid for. The $5 a month option stays.

Get Pro for $15 one time See how Pro works

Set up Wikilink Alias Markup

needs

Obsidian 1.13.4 or later

steps

Turn on Wikilink Alias Markup. There is nothing else to set up.
Write a wikilink with an alias, such as [[Note|*italic*]], and put markup in the alias.
In a table cell, write the pipe of the link as \|, as Obsidian asks.
Put the cursor in the link to see and edit its source.

If the app can't find a new plugin yet, try again later. Obsidian says a plugin that passes the review shows in the app within 24 hours.

Why this exists

The forum request Support Markdown markup in wikilink alias, including math, had 74 likes on 1 November 2026. Its first post expects a wikilink alias in backticks to show as code, as a Markdown link does.

“Support Markdown markup in wikilink alias, Including math. (like standard markdown links)”opened 2022-12-12

How to show code and bold text in a wikilink alias in Obsidian

How it compares

CSS snippet from the forum: The snippet styles the text between backticks in Live Preview only. This plugin shows real markup in both views.

Questions about Wikilink Alias Markup

Does it change my notes?

No. The link stays [[target|alias]] in the file. The plugin only changes how the link looks.

Why does a link still show backticks?

The cursor is in the link or touches it, so you see the source. Move the cursor away. In Source mode, Obsidian always shows the source.

Does it change headings in links, such as a heading with stars after the hash?

No. Only the alias after the pipe changes. Add an alias to show markup, for example [[Note#Some heading|Some *heading*]].

Does it work in the outline, backlinks or the graph?

No. It works in the note views, Reading view and Live Preview.

How is this different from the CSS snippet in the forum?

The snippet styles the text between backticks in Live Preview only. This plugin parses the alias and shows real markup in both views, with bold, italic and the rest.

Network use

Until you select Sign in with GitHub, Wikilink Alias Markup makes no network requests. Sign in and the sponsorship check contact github.com and api.github.com with the scope read:user, and a successful check is reused for 7 days. The plugin sends no note content, file names or other vault data.

Read the full network disclosure