j.nvim

Personal journal CLI (j) plus a Neovim helper for search/tag/extract workflows.

CLI

Run:

• bun run dev

Build + install:

• bun run build (writes dist/j)
• bun run install:local (installs dist/j to ~/.local/bin/j)

Common usage:

• j opens today's entry (creates if missing)
• j -3 or j --offset=3 opens the entry from 3 days ago
• j --date / -d browse entries with fzf (optionally --tag=work)
• j --search <text> / -s <text> search by content (rg + fzf)
• j --search <text> --json JSON search results for scripts/plugins
• j --timeline / -l browse a timeline with previews (optionally --tag=work)
• j --continue / -c open the most recently opened entry or note
• j --tag=work browse entries for that tag
• j --note=slug / -n slug open a note
• j --sections <source> list sections for extraction
• j --extract <source> --sections=1,3 --slug <target> extract sections to a note
• --json output structured JSON and skip fzf/nvim (used by the plugin)
• --limit <n> cap JSON list/search results (default 200 for --search --json)

Source/section notes:

• source can be a date (YYYY-MM-DD), a note slug, notes/<slug>, or an absolute path.
• Sections are blocks separated by blank lines or separator lines (---, ***, ___).
• Tag matching looks only at line 2, either tags: or hashtags (e.g. #work).

External tools used by the CLI:

• nvim (opens with +ZenMode and sets g:journal_mode=1)
• fzf (interactive selection)
• rg (search)
• bat (preview, optional; falls back to cat)
• sh, sed, tail, head (preview helpers)

Data locations:

• Journal entries: ~/journal/YYYY-MM-DD.md
• Notes: ~/journal/notes/*.md
• State: ${XDG_STATE_HOME:-~/.local/state}/lm/j-state.json

Neovim plugin (lazy.nvim)

{
  "behzade/j.nvim",
  dependencies = {
    "folke/snacks.nvim",
    "folke/zen-mode.nvim",
  },
  build = function()
    require("journal").install()
  end,
  config = function()
    require("journal").setup()
  end,
}

Keymaps:

• <leader>jl live search (shows latest 20 entries, narrows as you type)
• <leader>jt browse tags
• <leader>jx extract sections to a note

The plugin expects the j CLI to be available on PATH and uses snacks.nvim pickers. If j is not on PATH, run :JournalInstall (or use lazy.nvim build) to download a release binary to stdpath("data")/j.nvim/bin.