How do I hide or conceal syntax elements like markdown formatting in Vim?

Explanation

The conceallevel option controls how Vim displays characters that have the "conceal" syntax attribute. When set, concealed text can be hidden entirely or replaced with a single substitute character. This is commonly used to render Markdown, LaTeX, or JSON files more cleanly by hiding boilerplate syntax.

How it works

• :set conceallevel=0 — show all text normally (no concealing)
• :set conceallevel=1 — replace concealed text with a substitute character (default ·)
• :set conceallevel=2 — hide concealed text completely (or show substitute if defined)
• :set conceallevel=3 — hide concealed text completely, ignore substitutes

The concealcursor option controls whether concealed text is revealed when the cursor is on that line.

Example

In a Markdown file with conceallevel=2:

What you typed:     **bold text** and _italic_
What you see:       bold text and italic

The ** and _ markers are hidden, showing clean formatted-looking text.

:set conceallevel=2
:set concealcursor=nc

Tips

• Set per filetype in your vimrc: autocmd FileType markdown setlocal conceallevel=2
• concealcursor=nc keeps text concealed in normal and command mode but reveals it in insert mode for editing
• Some plugins like vim-json use conceal to hide quotes in JSON files