ZenNotes CLI 0.4.0
Released on September 18, 2026 as v0.4.0, at 6481d17. One request from the desktop app's issue tracker, from a user who drives ZenNotes from the terminal (ZenNotes/zennotes#815). The desktop pins this release in its next version, 2.53.0, which is also the first version that honors the new switch.
Open a second window instead of raising the first
zn open <folder> with a window already up on that folder raised that window.
If you had just switched workspaces to start something fresh, the command pulled
you back to the one you left. Chrome answers this with -n; so does zn now.
zn open -n <path> (or --new-window) asks the app for a fresh window on the
vault, folder or note, with its own tabs, instead of the one you already have.
The switch covers every path of that launch and none of a later zn open.
ZenNotes 2.53.0 and later honor it; an older app skips the switch and raises the
existing window as before, so the flag is safe to put in a script today.
The flag needed a parser fix, and the fix reaches one other command. Long flags
that are switches used to take the next token as their value, so
zn open --new-window ~/notes became a --new-window of ~/notes with no path
("zn open needs a path"), and zn delete --yes inbox/a.md stopped at "A note
path is required". Switches are now listed as such and never take a value;
--flag=value still works for the flags that want one. The help's OPEN row
names the flag.
How to test locally: with ZenNotes 2.53.0 or later showing a vault, run
zn open <that vault's path> and confirm the existing window comes to the front.
Run zn open -n <the same path> and confirm a second window opens on it with its
own tabs. Run zn open --new-window <a note.md> and confirm the note opens
instead of an error about a missing path. On a disposable note, run
zn delete --yes <note> and confirm it is removed instead of stopping at
"A note path is required".
Also in this release
docs/themes.md is
a guide to the color schemes 0.3.0 introduced: choosing a theme from the desktop,
by hand, or for the terminal alone; every family and variant id; what zn reads
from a custom theme.css and how left-out tokens derive; and troubleshooting.
The README's themes section links to it.
Install
With Homebrew on macOS or Linux, run brew install zennotes/tap/zn, then
zn tui; brew update && brew upgrade zn upgrades an existing install.
Or download the archive for your platform, unpack it, and put zn on your PATH.
With Go installed, go install github.com/ZenNotes/tui/cmd/zn@latest builds the
same thing.