Codeblock Customizer Plugin

This is a plugin for Obsidian (https://obsidian.md).

The plugin lets you customize the code blocks in the following way:

• Choose from built-in themes (Obsidian, Solarized) or create your own.
• Enable active line highlighting for the editor and for code blocks specifically.
• Exclude specific languages or individual code blocks from styling.
• Set custom background colors for code blocks.
• Highlight specific lines or text segments with multiple, definable colors.
• Display a header with a filename or title, with full styling options.
• Fold code blocks by clicking the header, with options for default fold states and persistence.
• Display language names and icons in the header.
• Add line numbers with optional starting offsets.
• NEW: Create semi-interactive terminal prompts with prompt:.
• NEW: Group consecutive code blocks into a single tabbed interface.
• NEW: Transform code comments into styled annotations.
• NEW: Apply syntax highlighting to inline code.
• NEW: Hide fence lines in editor mode for a cleaner look.
• and much more...

📋 Table of Contents

• Parameters
• Themes
• Display Filename/Title
• Header
• Line Numbers
• Highlighting
• Language Specific Coloring
• Folding
• Grouped Code Blocks
• Terminal Prompts
• Annotations
• Hide Fence Lines
• Inline Code
• Commands
• Print to PDF
• Indented Code Blocks
• Links
• Custom SVGs and Custom Syntax Highlight
• Bracket Highlight
• Selection Matching
• How to Install the Plugin
• Contributing & Support

---

Parameters

Parameters can be defined in the opening line of a code block (after the three opening backticks).
All parameters can be defined using : or =.

Click to expand the full list of parameters

Name	Value	Description
fold		Defines that the code block is in folded state when the document is opened.
unfold		Defined that the code block is in unfolded state when the document is opened and the Inverse fold behavior option is enabled, otherwise ignored.
exclude		Exclude the code block from the plugin.
hl	Multiple	Everything that applies to the hl parameter also applies to alternative highlight colors! Multiple values can be combined with a , (e.g: hl:test,3,5-6,9|abc,test1,test2,10-15|test3) Highlights specified lines on different formats:
	hl:{number}	hl:5 - Highlights line 5.
	hl:{range}	hl:5-7 - Highlights lines from 5 to 7.
	hl:{string}	hl:test - Highlights all lines containing the word test.
	hl:{number}|{string}	hl:5|test - Highlights line 5 if it contains the word test.
	hl:{range}|{string}	hl:5-7|test - Highlights lines 5 to 7 if they contain the word test.
hlt	Multiple	Everything that applies to the hlt parameter also applies to alternative highlight colors! Multiple values can be combined with a , just like for the hl parameter. Highlights specified text on different formats:
	hlt:{string}	hlt:test - Highlights the word test in every line it is found.
	hlt:{number}	hlt:5 - Highlights all the text in line 5.
	hlt::{string}	hlt::xyz - If the start position is not defined but the end position is, the text will be highlighted from the beginning of the line up to the end position.
	hlt:{string}:	hlt:abc: - If the start position is defined, but the end position is not, the text will be highlighted from the start position, until the end of the line.
	hlt:{string}:{string}	hlt:abc:xyz - Highlights text in lines starting with abc and ending with xyz.
	hlt:{number}|...	All the above options can be prepended with an optional number and a | to specify in which line to highlight the text.
	hlt:{range}|...	All the above options can be prepended with an optional range and a | to specify in which range to highlight the text.
lsep	char	Line separator. Optionally you can define a line separator (a single character) for text highlight instead of the default |. Useful, if you want to highlight text starting and/or ending with |. This can be set globally as well.
tsep	char	Text separator. Optionally you can define a text separator (a single character) for text highlight instead of the default :. Useful, if you want to highlight text starting and/or ending with :. This can be set globally as well.
file	{string}	Sets the display text for the header. (e.g: file:hello or file:"Hello World!")
title	{string}	Alias for file
ln	Multiple
	true	Displays line numbers for that specific code block, even if Enable line numbers is disabled
	false	Does not display line numbers for that specific code block, even if Enable line numbers is enabled
	{number}	Sets the offset for line number to start (e.g: ln:5 -> line numbering starts from 5)
prompt	{prompt}	Sets the name of the prompt to be used in the code block e.g. prompt:kali. Line numbers and ranges can also be specified in which lines the prompt should be displayed e.g. prompt:1-2,4|bash
noprompt		Disables prompts for a specific code block, which is useful when the auto-use prompt option is enabled. It is also possible to specify lines or ranges for which the prompt should not be shown e.g. noprompt or noprompt:1-3,5
user	{string}	Overrides the default user for the current prompt.
host	{string}	Overrides the default host for the current prompt.
path	{string}	Overrides the default path for the current prompt.
db	{string}	Overrides the default database for the current prompt (postgres).
branch	{string}	Overrides the default git branch for the current prompt (zshgit).
module	{string}	Overrides the default module for the current prompt (metasploit).
group	{string}	Assigns the code block to a group. Consecutive blocks with the same group name will be rendered as a single tabbed component.
tab	{string}	Sets a custom display name for the tab when using grouped code blocks. If not provided, the language name is used.

Themes

The plugin comes with a default Obsidian and a Solarized theme. The default theme is Obsidian.

Default Solarized theme (dark mode):

Default Solarized theme (light mode):

How the themes work:

• Every setting and color is saved in the theme, except the excluded languages.
• You can modify the default themes (there is an option to restore them to default), but you can't delete them.
• Save your changes!
• Each theme has its own light and dark colors. To customize the light/dark colors, just switch Obsidian to light/dark mode, and you can change the colors for that mode.
• When creating a new theme the currently selected theme will be taken as a template for the new theme.
• After saving changes in a theme, these become the new default values. Example: You select a color (red) and save the theme. Now, this color is the default value. This means, that if you click the "restore default color" icon next to the color picker the color red will be restored.

Display Filename/Title

To display a filename specify file: or title: followed by a filename in the first line of the code block. If the filename contains space, specify it between "" e.g.: file:"long filename.cpp". title is basically an alias for file. If both are defined, then file will be used

Example:
```cpp file:test.cpp
```cpp title:test.py
```cpp file:"long filename.cpp"

If you want to display text which contains a " or ' you'll have to escape it with a backslash. For example: file:"Hello \" World!"

Header

The header is displayed in the following cases:

• You specified a file: or title:
• You specified fold. If you specified fold but did not specify file: or title: a default text Collapsed code will be displayed on the header
• You enabled the Always display codeblock language or the Always display codeblock language icon option in settings, but did not specify file: or title: or fold

If the header is displayed, folding works as well. If Always display codeblock language is enabled then the header will display the code block language as well.

Example:

• Header with fold only

• Header with code block language only

• Header with code block language and filename/title as well

Icons

There are currently around 170 icons available for different languages. You can enable the option in the settings page to display icons in the header. If you enable this option, and if the language specified in the code block has an icon, and the header is displayed, then the icon will be displayed. You can also force to always display the icon (which also means that the header will be also displayed) even if the header is not displayed, because the file or title parameter is not defined.

• Header with code block language, filename/title and icon as well

Line Numbers

To enable line numbers go to the plugin settings and enable the Enable line numbers option. After that the line numbers will be displayed before code blocks.

Example:

Example for reading mode:

ln Parameter

The ln: parameter can have 3 values: true, false, number

• If ln is set to ln:true, then for that specific code block only, the line numbers will be displayed, even if line numbers are not enabled in the settings.
• If ln is set to ln:false, then for that specific code block only, the line numbers will NOT be displayed, even if line number are enabled in the settings.
• If ln is set to a number, e.g. ln:5, then it sets the offset for the line numbers.

Highlighting

Main Highlight

To highlight lines specify hl: followed by line numbers in the first line of the code block.

• You can specify a single line numbers separated with a comma e.g.: hl:1,3,5,7. This would highlight the specified lines
• You can specify ranges e.g.: hl:2-5 This would highlight lines from 2 to 5.
• You can specify a string e.g.: hl:test. This would highlight all lines containing the word test. You can also prepend this value with a line number, or range and a | like this: hl:5|test,5-7|test2
• You can also combine the methods e.g.: hl:1,3,4-6,test,5|test,7-9|test3 This would highlight lines 1, 3 and lines from 4 to 6.

Example:
```cpp hl:1,3,4-6

Alternative Highlight

You can define multiple highlight colors. This means, that you have to define a name for the highlight color. This name will be used as a parameter, and you can use it just like with the hl parameter.

Example: You define three types of highlight colors (info, warn, error). After that set the colors. After that you can use it in the first line of code blocks: ```cpp info:2 warn:4-6 error:8

Example code block with multiple highlight colors:

Text Highlight

It is possible now to highlight text instead of lines. To use this feature use the hlt parameter.

• If after the hlt: parameter a string is defined, then the string is highlighted in every line it is present in the code block. Example: hl:extension
• If after the hlt: parameter a number is defined, then all words in the specified lines are highlighted . Example: hl:5
• If after the hlt: parameter a number is defined, followed by a pipe |, followed by a string, then the word is highlighted only in this line if it is present. Example: hl:9|print
• If after the hlt: parameter a range is defined, followed by a pipe | character, followed by a string, then the word is highlighted only in these line ranges, if it present. Example: hl:6-7|print
• If after the hlt: parameter a string, followed by a :, followed by a string is defined, then the string will be highlighted which starts with the string before the :, and ends with the string after : e.g.: hlt:<startString>:<endString>. Example:
  • hlt:abc: -> startString is defined, but endString is not defined. This will highlight the text starting with startString until the end of the line
  • hlt::xyz -> startString is not defined, but endString is defined. This will highlight the text starting from the beginning of the line until endString
  • hlt:abc:xyz -> highlights text starting with abc and ending with xyz in all lines it is present

All the above options can be prepended with an optional number or range and a | to specify in which line to highlight the text.

Note

• You can use the text highlighting with alternative highlight colors as well!
• For every alternative highlight color a new text highlight parameter can be used. For example, if you created an alternative highlight color called error, then you can use the error parameter for line highlighting. To highlight text simply append a t after the alternative color name. This means that if you want to highlight text using the error color, you'll have to use the errort (note the t at the end) of the parameter.
• If you want to highlight text which contains a " or ' you'll have to escape it with a backslash. For example: hlt:start\"text:end\"text or hlt:"start \" text:end \" text"
• If you want to highlight text which contains default line separator | or the default text separator :, you can redefine them, with the lsep and tsep parameters. For example: hlt:5^|ˇ: lsep:^ tsep:ˇ would highlight text from | to :. You can also globally define them

An example code block with text highlight, using three different colors is shown below:

An example code block with text highlight, using from and to markers:

Language Specific Coloring

In the settings, on the 🎨 Appearance & Styling settings page under Language Specific Color Overrides it is now possible to define colors for languages. These colors will only apply to code blocks with the defined language. If you defined colors for "Python", then those colors will only apply to every Python code block. If you want to specify colors for code blocks which do not have a language defined, specify nolang as a language. First, you have to add a language. Then you can select which color you want to set. Available options are:

• Code block active line color
• Code block background color
• Code block border color
• Code block text color
• Matching bracket color
• Non-matching bracket color
• Matching bracket background color
• Non-matching bracket background color
• Selection match highlight color
• Header background color
• Header text color
• Header line color
• Header language text color
• Header language background color
• Gutter text color
• Gutter background color
• Gutter active line number color

An example is shown below, where the background color has been defined for "Python", "JavaScript" and "C++" languages.

Example code blocks with border colors set:

Don't forget to set Codeblock border styling position, otherwise border colors will not be displayed!

Folding

If the header is displayed, simply clicking on it, will fold the code block below it.

Default Fold

To specify an initial fold state when the document is opened, specify fold in the first line of the code block. If fold is defined in a code block, then when you open the document, the code block will be automatically collapsed, and only the header will be displayed. You can unfold the code block by clicking on the header.

Example:
```cpp fold

Semi-Fold

You can enable semi-folding in settings tab:

After enabling it, you have to select the count of the visible lines (default is 5). Optionally you can also enable an additional uncollapse button, which will be displayed in the last line. Semi-fold works just like the normal fold with the following differences:

• If your code block doesn't have minimum required lines, then it will fold as until now.
• If your code block does have the minimum required line (count of visible lines + 4 for fading effect), then it will semi-fold.

The number of the "fade" lines is constant, and cannot be changed. Example: You set the count of visible lines to 5, and you have a code block with 10 lines. In this case semi-fold will be used. The first 5 lines remain visible, and the next 4 lines will "fade away".

Note

In editing mode the opening and closing lines (with the three backticks) do not count!

Example semi-folded code block (light theme):

Example semi-folded code block (dark theme):

Example semi-folded code block with additional uncollapse button:

Inverse Fold Behavior

When this options is enabled in the settings page, code blocks are collapsed by default when a document is opened, even if fold was NOT defined. If you enabled this option, and want some code blocks unfolded by default, you can use the unfold parameter.

Grouped Code Blocks

You can combine multiple consecutive code blocks into a single, user-friendly tabbed interface. This is perfect for showing code in multiple languages or breaking up a long script into logical steps. Use the group parameter with the same name for each block. Use the optional tab parameter to set a custom name for each tab.

Example:

Important

Limitations

• The name of the group must be unique per document!
• Grouped code blocks are ungrouped when printing to PDF! This can't be changed unfortunately.

Terminal Prompts

Create realistic and beautifully styled terminal prompts that can simulate commands like cd and su. To use a prompt, specify the language as prompt:<name>. You can design your own prompts with custom templates, colors, and auto-use rules in the dedicated Prompts section of the plugin settings.

There are 3 type of prompts:

• predefined: provided by default from the plugin
• custom: created by you in the settings page
• on-the-fly: create by you simply in a code block

Predefined Prompts

By default, the plugin comes with the following prompts:

PromptID	Description
bash	Bash prompt
bashalt	Alternative bash prompt
cmd	Windows CMD Prompt
cstrike	Cobalt Strike Prompt
docker	Docker prompt
fish	Fish Prompt
kali	Kali Linux Prompt
msf	Metasploit prompt
postgres	Postgres Prompt
ps	PowerShell prompt
zsh	ZSH prompt
zshgit	ZSH+Git prompt

You can use them simply defining prompt:<promptID> on the first line of code blocks e.g.: prompt:kali. You can change the default values globally in the settings page, or code block specific in using the user, host, path, db, branch and module parameters.

Custom Prompts

In the settings page you can simply create your own prompt. For example if you create a prompt with the name myprompt, you can use that simply by defining its name e.g.: prompt:myprompt.
You can create a custom prompt by defining its structure, parsing logic, and styling rules using three key settings:

• basePrompt: This is the visual template for your prompt. Use placeholders ({user}, {host}, {path}, {db}, {module} and {branch}) to insert dynamic information.
  Example: "{user}@{host}:{path}$"
• parsePromptRegex: A Regular Expression used to identify and extract parts of a prompt string. It relies on named capture groups (e.g., (?<user>...)) to label the parts it finds.
  Example: ^(?<user>[^@]+)@(?<host>[^:]+) captures the username and hostname.
• highlightGroups: A JSON object that maps the names from your regex capture groups (e.g., "user") to style classes. This tells the plugin which color to apply to each part of the prompt.
  Example: { "user": "user", "host": "host" }

The parsePromptRegex finds the text for the user and host. The highlightGroups setting then links these parts to their respective styles, which are used to apply the correct colors.

On-The-Fly Prompts

You can also create prompts dynamically in a code block e.g.: prompt:test would display test at the beginning of every line. You can also use placeholder for the above mentioned parameters, and then define them. In this case the values will be replaced e.g.: prompt:"{user} at {host} in {path}" user:mugiwara host:PC1 path:/var/www/html.

Important

Limitation The colors can NOT be set for On-Thy-Fly prompts!

Supported commands

The following commands are supported:

Command	Description
cd	Go to home (~)
cd ~	Also goes to home
cd folder	Go into a folder
cd ..	Go one level up
cd ../..	Go two levels up
cd -	Go back to previous dir
cd "some dir"	Quoted folder name
cd..	Common typo for cd ..
cd ~/folder	Inside home dir
cd /absolute	Full path
pwd	Shows current working directory
su	Switch to root user
su <user>	Switch to specific user
whoami	Shows the current user
\c	Change database in postgress
exit	Switch back to the previous user after using su or su <user>
git checkout <branch>	Change branch
git switch <branch>	Change branch
use	Change the Metasploit module

Example:

Annotations

Bring your code comments to life by turning them into styled annotations. This feature helps draw attention to important notes, warnings, or questions directly within your code.

Simply use the [!type] syntax within a standard line comment. Supported types include note, warn, error, todo, question, and see. You can also define an optional title using the [!<type>|<title>] syntax.

Example:

Hide Fence Lines

You can enable the option Hide Fence Lines under the 👆 Behavior & Interaction settings tab. After enabling the opening and closing fence lines will be hidden by default. They will only reappear when the cursor is moved into the code block.

Inline Code

If you want to style inline code, you have to enable it first. After that you can set the background color and the text color for inline code.

If you want to use syntax highlighted inline code then enable the appropriate option from the above settings. After enabling you can simply do {cpp} printf("\nHello World!"). This will then be rendered as shown below:

Commands

There are five commands available in the command palette. You can:

• Fold all code blocks in the current document,
• Unfold all code blocks in the current document,
• Restore original state of code blocks
• Indent code block by one level
• Unindent code block by one level

If you collapsed/uncollapsed all code blocks there is no need to restore them to their original state. When you switch documents they are automatically restored to their original state.

Print to PDF

By default, the light colors are used for printing, but if you want to force the dark colors, you can enable the toggle.

Indented Code Blocks

Code blocks in lists, are now indented properly as shown below. Simply, mark the text in the code block, and press TAB. This will shift the code block right, by adding margin to the left side. Pressing TAB multiple times, indents the code block more. If you want to undo it, just select the text again, and press SHIFT+TAB.

Links

If you want to convert markdown, wiki and normal http/https link syntax to actual links inside code blocks, then you have to mark them as comment according to the current code block language, and enable the setting Enable links usage in the settings on the 👆 Behavior & Interaction settings page. Links can also be used in the header. For example if you are in a python code block, then you have write a "#" before the link (comment it out), and it will be automatically converted to a link. From version 1.2.6 only commented out links will be converted! By default the links, which point to another document in your vault, are not updated, if you rename the file. This is because Obsidian does not provide (yet) a way to add these links to the metadata cache. A temporary solution for that is to enable the option Enable automatically updating links on file rename option in settings.

Important

Please note, that this method iterates over all of your documents in you vault! If you have a large vault, this process could take some time, although it is generally efficient.

Sample code block with links, but with the option Enable links usage disabled:

Same code block with the Enable links usage option enabled:

Custom SVGs and Custom Syntax Highlight

It is possible to use custom SVGs, and apply custom syntax highlighting for code blocks. To use this feature create the following folder <VaultFolder>\.obsidian\plugins\codeblock-customizer\customSVG. In this folder create a file called svg.json with similar content:

{
  "languages": [
    {
      "codeblockLanguages": ["language1", "language2"],
      "displayName": "iRule",
      "svgFile": "f5.svg",
      "format": "tcl"
    }
  ]
}

Explanation:

• codeblockLanguages (required): one or more languages, where you want to apply the displayName, SVG, and format.
• displayName (required): the display Language, which is displayed in the header.
• svgFile (optional): name of an SVGfile in the same folder. The file must be a plain text SVG without the SVG tag itself. Look at Const.ts for examples.
• format (optional): the syntax highlighting to apply for this code block.

Important

Obsidian uses two different methods for syntax highlighting. For editing mode it uses CodeMirror 6, and for reading mode it uses Prism.js. Because of this there is a slight difference between how this works.

• If you want to apply syntax highlighting in editing mode, then the codeblockLanguage must NOT have syntax highlighting, because it is not possible (or I didn't found a way) to overwrite any existing syntax highlighting. For example language1 does not have syntax highlighting, therefore the tcl syntax highlighting will be applied successfully. The languages specified in codeblockLanguages are case sensitive in editing mode
• In reading mode however it is possible to overwrite existing syntax highlighting. So you can apply C++ syntax highlighting for a python code block. The languages specified in codeblockLanguages are NOT case sensitive in reading mode.

An example using the above shown JSON file, where tcl syntax highlighting is applied to language1 code blocks, using the custom SVG file, and the custom display name:

Bracket Highlight

You can enable bracket highlighting for matching and also for non-matching brackets. If you click next to a bracket ((,),{,},[,]), then the bracket itself, and the corresponding opening/closing bracket will be highlighted. You can set individual background, and highlight colors for matching and non-matching brackets:

Below is a simple example. Notice that that the matching and non-matching bracket are highlighted with different colors:

Selection Matching

If you enable selection matching, you can set the background color for the matches to be highlighted with. Simply select a string, or double click on a word, and the same text will be highlighted if found:

Note

Selection matching (currently) has a limit of 750 matches. If there are more matches than this, then selection matching will not highlight anything. Should you encounter a case where this number is not enough, contact me, and I'll increase it.

How to Install the Plugin

• Simply install directly from Obsidian
• or you can just copy over main.js, styles.css, manifest.json to your vault VaultFolder/.obsidian/plugins/codeblock-customizer/.

Contributing &Support

Found a bug or have a feature request? Please open an issue on the GitHub repository.

If you like this plugin, and would like to help support continued development, use the button below!