Thrid-party Quarto Support for Obsidian

quarto

obsidian

diary

markdown

Author

Guest_1013

Published

2026-06-13

I wondered if I can actually use a proper markdown editor to edit my Quarto site. After searching for it in Obsidian third-party extensions store, I found one called qmd as md, which seems perfect for my purpose.

Installation

It seems that Obsidian manages extensions by workspaces. After opening my site folder in Obsidian, I clicked on the settings button, installed and enabled the plugin.

After installing, I was able to view and edit .qmd files in a WYSIWYG style in Obsidian.

Notes on Editing

There are some differences between directly editing in VSCode tho.

Metadata Block `---`

I can directly type --- in the start of the .md file to add metadata. However, when I first try to add categories, it didn’t show what I wanted: the desired format in plain text is

categories: ["quarto", "obsidian", "diary"]

However, in default behavior, I found that it is in text mode (instead of list mode) and it shows something like

categories: 'quarto, obsidian, diary'

To fix this, click on the little logo before the key, and change the mode.

Figure 2: Change the mode of the `categories`.

Inserting Pictures and Links

By default, directly pasting images in Obsidian will paste the image in root folder, and add a link as the format of [[xxx.png]]. However, the standard format for Quarto is something like ![description](xxx.png){#fig-xxx}, which requires manual changes. It autochanges to the correct format after I changed it once tho. It’s worth noting that in Obsidian we can directly use ![text][path], but it’s not supported by Quarto. Also, Obsidian will not show the captions under the pictures.

Also, the autolink system with [[]] is partially broken, as Quarto uses a slightly different file path reference system. For example, to add index, it’s possible to directly type [[index.qmd and select blog/index.qmd to create a [text](path) format; however, I have to manually add a / in the front for Quarto to actually resolve the link target; otherwise it will give you a warning of Unable to resolve link target: blog\posts\blog\index.qmd during the rendering process, and you can actually see the path difference.

Support for Pure Markdown Files

This page is written in a pure .md file. In theory Quarto supports rendering .md files, but I have to manually add a value to the index file:

listing:
    contents:
        - "posts/*.qmd"
        - "posts/*.md"

which shows italic styled texts between *s in the code block of this page.

Figure 3: Wrongly rendered *italic* texts in code blocks.

Embedding `.ipynb` Files and Code Blocks

The extension seems not to support showing .ipynb blocks; highlights are also not supported. See the example code cell here. It’s extremely slow when rendering, because Quarto needs to initiate python3 kernel every time. Personally I don’t think it’s bettern than just write an isolate .ipynb file in VSCode and embed it with pre-run results. You can tell Quarto to not render it unless it’s changed tho, using this option in _quarto.yml:

execute:
    freeze: auto  # re-render only when source changes

`.obsidian` Folder

Obsidian will create a .obsidian folder in the root folder. I prefer adding it to .gitignore.

Other Formatting Issues

You need to leave a blank line above and under the # titles, or they will not be rendered as titles.

--- title: Thrid-party Quarto Support for Obsidian author: Guest_1013 date: 2026-06-13 categories: - quarto - obsidian - diary - markdown --- I wondered if I can actually use a proper markdown editor to edit my `Quarto` site. After searching for it in Obsidian third-party extensions store, I found one called [`qmd as md`](https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/qmd-as-md-obsidian), which seems perfect for my purpose. # Installation It seems that Obsidian manages extensions by workspaces. After opening my site folder in Obsidian, I clicked on the settings button, installed and enabled the plugin. ![qmd as md extension.](/images/blogs/20260613/qmd-as-md.png){#fig-qmd-as-md} After installing, I was able to view and edit `.qmd` files in a WYSIWYG style in Obsidian. # Notes on Editing There are some differences between directly editing in VSCode tho. ## Metadata Block `---` I can directly type `---` in the start of the `.md` file to add metadata. However, when I first try to add `categories`, it didn't show what I wanted: the desired format in plain text is ```yaml categories: ["quarto", "obsidian", "diary"] ``` However, in default behavior, I found that it is in `text` mode (instead of `list` mode) and it shows something like ```yaml categories: 'quarto, obsidian, diary' ``` To fix this, click on the little logo before the key, and change the mode. ![Change the mode of the `categories`.](/images/blogs/20260613/key-mode.png){#fig-mode} ## Inserting Pictures and Links By default, directly pasting images in Obsidian will paste the image in root folder, and add a link as the format of `[[xxx.png]]`. However, the standard format for Quarto is something like `![description](xxx.png){#fig-xxx}`, which requires manual changes. It autochanges to the correct format after I changed it once tho. It's worth noting that in Obsidian we can directly use `![text][path]`, but it's not supported by Quarto. Also, Obsidian will not show the captions under the pictures. Also, the autolink system with `[[]]` is partially broken, as Quarto uses a slightly different file path reference system. For example, to add [index](/blog/index.qmd), it's possible to directly type `[[index.qmd` and select `blog/index.qmd` to create a `[text](path)` format; however, I have to manually add a `/` in the front for Quarto to actually resolve the link target; otherwise it will give you a warning of `Unable to resolve link target: blog\posts\blog\index.qmd` during the rendering process, and you can actually see the path difference. ## Support for Pure Markdown Files This page is written in a pure `.md` file. In theory Quarto supports rendering `.md` files, but I have to manually add a value to the [index](/blog/index.qmd) file: ```yaml listing: contents: - "posts/*.qmd" - "posts/*.md" ``` which shows _italic_ styled texts between `*`s in the code block of this page. ![Wrongly rendered _italic_ texts in code blocks.](/images/blogs/20260613/wrong-italic.png){#fig-wrong-italic} ## Embedding `.ipynb` Files and Code Blocks The extension seems not to support showing `.ipynb` blocks; highlights are also not supported. See the example code cell [here](20260527-1d-phonon.qmd). It's extremely slow when rendering, because Quarto needs to initiate `python3` kernel every time. Personally I don't think it's bettern than just write an isolate `.ipynb` file in VSCode and embed it with pre-run results. You can tell Quarto to not render it unless it's changed tho, using this option in `_quarto.yml`: ```yaml execute: freeze: auto # re-render only when source changes ``` ## `.obsidian` Folder Obsidian will create a `.obsidian` folder in the root folder. I prefer adding it to `.gitignore`. ## Other Formatting Issues You need to leave a blank line above and under the `#` titles, or they will not be rendered as titles.