follow-md-links.nvim

This neovim plugin allows you to follow markdown links by pressing enter when the cursor is positioned on a link. It supports:

• absolute file paths (e.g. [a file](/home/user/file.md))
• relative file paths (e.g. [a file](../somefile.txt))
• file paths beginning with ~ (e.g. [a file](~/folder/a_file)).
• file paths with a line number (e.g. [a file](/home/user/file.md:42)), this will also place the cursor on the specified line similar to gF (see :h gF)
• reference links (e.g. [a file][label]. [label]: ~/folder/a_file)
• text-only reference links (e.g. [example website]. [example website]: https://example.org)
• web links (e.g. [wikipedia](https://wikipedia.org))
• heading links (e.g. [chapter 1](#-chapter-1)

Local files are opened in neovim and web links are opened with the default browser. Web links need to start with https:// or http:// to be identified properly.

This plugin is tested against the latest stable version of neovim. It might work with other versions, but this is not guaranteed.

Installation

Packer:

use {
  'jghauser/follow-md-links.nvim'
}

As this plugin uses nvim-treesitter to identify links, you will need that plugin, and you will need to make sure you have the treesitter markdown and markdown_inline parsers installed. You can check whether that is the case by looking at the entries in :checkhealth nvim-treesitter (there should be a tick in the "H" column). If the markdown parsers are missing, install it with TSInstall markdown markdown_inline or by adding them to ensure_installed in your nvim-treesitter setup function.

Configuration

The plugin maps <cr> in normal mode to open links in markdown files. You might also want to add the following keymap to easily go back to the previous file with backspace:

vim.keymap.set('n', '<bs>', ':edit #<cr>', { silent = true })