# If you'd like to omit non-matching lines from the result; add ';d' to the end of the expression.
sed -E 's/\[.+?(?(?<= - ) - |\])/\1\n/gm;t' <<< "[category - subcategory] [some text - more text] [2018-12-31] text title here
[category - subcategory] [some text] [2018-12-31] text title here more text
[category] [some text - more text - even more] [2018-12-31] text title here more text"
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for SED, please visit: https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/html_node/The-_0022s_0022-Command.html