Let me choose if wikilinks automatically gets an alias when "New link format" is set to "Absolute path in vault"

Feature requests
1

Use case or problem

I have the setting Files and links > New link format set to Absolute path in vault.
When I’m inserting wikilinks into a note, if the linked note is in a folder, the wikilink automatically gets an alias. I would very much like this alias not to be auto-inserted.

I often link between notes as a part of a sentence, and in those cases I would not use a “standard” alias for my links. For example, if I in a journal entry would link to a note written two weeks ago:

  • Obsidian creates a link which looks like this: [[Daily notes/2025-08-08|2025-08-08]]
  • which I would edit to: [[Daily notes/2025-08-08|two weeks ago]]

I find it easier to insert an alias where needed, rather than edit one that is auto-inserted.

Proposed solution

Introduce a new setting which lets users pick how auto-inserted aliases would work. For example:

  • For files in folders (this is the current behavior)
  • For all files
  • Never

Current workaround (optional)

I have the setting Files and links > New link format set to Absolute path in vault, which is how I would prefer it to be. Aliases are not auto-inserted if I:

  • change the setting to Shortest path when possible, or
  • change the setting to Relative path to file, and link to a file in the same folder

Related feature requests (optional)

There is a Feature Request from 2023 where the OP asks for a toggle / setting to enable auto-inserted aliases.

I originally wrote a Help Topic a while ago describing my issue.

2 Likes
2

I would also like an option to disable auto-aliases for new links. In my case, I prefer to always see the absolute path in valut for wikilinks. I have selected the option “Absolute path in valut“ from “Files and links”, the only thing missing to make my use case ergonomic is having the wikilink be created without an alias (so I don’t have to delete the alias for every new wikilink).