Flash

Neovim-style navigation for Obsidian. Jump anywhere with minimal keystrokes.

Flash brings the speed of flash.nvim and leap.nvim to Obsidian. Type a few characters, see labels appear on matches, press a label to jump instantly.

Features

• Flash Mode — Incremental search with live-updating labels. Type characters to narrow matches, press a label to jump.
• Jump to Link — Navigate to any link ([[wiki]], [markdown](url), plain URLs) with a single keypress.
• Jump to Anywhere — Regex-based navigation to jump to any word or pattern.
• Smart labels — Labels never conflict with the next character after a match, so you can keep typing naturally.
• Auto-jump — Automatically jumps when only one match remains.
• Full Unicode support — Works with Cyrillic, CJK, and any Unicode text. Cyrillic keyboard input maps to Latin labels.
• Visual feedback — Search panel shows your query, matched text highlights, non-matches dim.

How It Works

Flash Mode

The primary way to navigate. Like / search but better.

1. Activate Flash Mode (s in Vim normal mode, or via command)
2. Start typing — matches highlight in real-time
3. After 2 characters (configurable), labels appear next to matches
4. Press a label key to jump, or keep typing to narrow results
5. If one match remains, auto-jumps immediately

Controls:

• Type any character to search or select a label
• Backspace to delete characters
• Escape or click to cancel

Jump to Link

Quick navigation between links in your note.

1. Activate Jump to Link
2. Labels appear on all links
3. Press a label to jump (or open in new pane with Shift)

Works with wiki links, markdown links, and bare URLs.

Jump to Anywhere

Regex-powered navigation to any text pattern.

1. Activate Jump to Anywhere
2. Labels appear on all regex matches (default: words with 3+ characters)
3. Press a label to jump

Installation

Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community Plugins
2. Click Browse and search for "Flash"
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, styles.css from Releases
2. Create folder: <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-flash/
3. Copy files into the folder
4. Enable in Settings → Community Plugins

Vim Integration

Use with obsidian-vimrc-support:

" Flash Mode (recommended primary navigation)
exmap flash obcommand obsidian-flash:activate-flash-mode
nmap s :flash<CR>
vmap s :flash<CR>

" Jump to Link
exmap jumpLink obcommand obsidian-flash:activate-flash-link
nmap gl :jumpLink<CR>

" Jump to Anywhere
exmap jumpAnywhere obcommand obsidian-flash:activate-flash-anywhere
nmap <Space>j :jumpAnywhere<CR>

Configuration

General

Setting	Description	Default
Characters for hints	Letters used for labels (home row first recommended)	asdfghjkl...
Auto-jump single target	Skip label when only one match	On

Flash Mode

Setting	Description	Default
Minimum characters	Characters needed before showing labels	2
Case sensitive	Match case when searching	Off
Jump position	Where cursor lands: match start/end, word start/end	Match end
Jump position (Shift)	Position when holding Shift	Match start

Flash Mode Appearance

Setting	Description	Default
Label background	Background color for labels	#F47D1A
Label text color	Text color for labels	#000000
Match highlight	Color for matched characters	#F47D1A
Dim opacity	Opacity of non-matching text (0-1)	0.4
Inherit font	Labels match surrounding text font	On

Jump to Anywhere

Setting	Description	Default
Regex pattern	Pattern for matching targets	(?<![\p{L}\p{N}_])[\p{L}\p{N}]{3,}...
Jump position	Where cursor lands	After last char
Jump position (Shift)	Position when holding Shift	First char

Command IDs

obsidian-flash:activate-flash-mode      # Flash Mode (incremental search)
obsidian-flash:activate-flash-link      # Jump to Link
obsidian-flash:activate-flash-anywhere  # Jump to Anywhere

CSS Customization

/* Label appearance */
.flash-label {
    background: #your-color;
    color: #your-text-color;
    border-radius: 3px;
}

/* Matched text highlight */
.flash-highlight {
    color: #your-highlight !important;
}

/* Dimmed text during Flash Mode */
.flash-active {
    --flash-color: rgba(128, 128, 128, 0.5);
}

/* Search panel */
.flash-search-panel {
    background: var(--background-secondary);
    border-color: var(--text-accent);
}

Unicode & Cyrillic Support

Full support for non-Latin text:

• Search any script — Flash Mode finds matches in Cyrillic, CJK, or any Unicode text
• Cyrillic keyboard mapping — Type on Russian layout, labels still work (ф→a, ы→s, etc.)
• Unicode regex — Jump to Anywhere uses \p{L} (letters) and \p{N} (numbers) for universal matching

Requirements

• Obsidian 0.15.0+
• CodeMirror 6 editor (default in modern Obsidian)

Credits

Inspired by:

• flash.nvim — The gold standard for Neovim navigation
• leap.nvim — Lightning-fast motion plugin
• obsidian-jump-to-link — Original Obsidian link jumping

License

MIT