keeplog

keeplog is a simple two-way synchronization tool to sync a local daily log with Google Keep. When run, keeplog parses the local file and synchronizes each entry to individual Keep notes. Updates within Keep are populated to the local file as well.

I mainly wrote it to learn Python and to support my workflow: I keep a local file in ~/LOG with one entry per day, like this:

11/5/20 Friday
--
Todo
- More stuff

11/8/20 Sunday
--
Done
- Stuff

I love the simplicity of a single text file and I absolutely hate the Google Keep UI in the browser. My notes are very extensive and often include code, so I like my text editor much more. But naturally, text files don't sync well, which is why keeplog exists -- so I can access and edit my notes from my phone if I have a brilliant idea and I'm not at the computer.

Installation

1. Create a Google App Password for keeplog
2. Create a config file ~/.keeplog/config from this template. Be sure to edit at least user=, pass= and file=.
3. Install dependencies via pip3 install -r requirements.txt.
4. Optionally (but highly recommended), you may either regularly run keeplog.py sync as a cron, or keeplog.py watch as a long running process, such as a systemd user service:

$ vi ~/.config/systemd/user/keeplog.service
[Unit]
Description=Keeplog watch daemon

[Service]
ExecStart=/path/to/keeplog/keeplog.py watch
Restart=always
RestartSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

$ systemctl enable --user keeplog
$ systemctl start --user keeplog
$ journalctl --user -f -u keeplog

Usage

keeplog has two commands:

• keeplog.py sync synchronizes local file with Google Keep
• keeplog.py watch monitors the local file for changes and syncs when changed

Manually (or via cron):

$ ./keeplog.py sync
2020-11-08 13:33:50,038 [INFO] Logging in with token
2020-11-08 13:33:59,221 [INFO] Successfully logged in
2020-11-08 13:33:59,221 [INFO] Comparing remote and local
2020-11-08 13:33:59,234 [INFO] - Updating locally: 11/5/20 Friday
2020-11-08 13:33:59,234 [INFO] - Updating remotely: 11/8/20 Sunday
2020-11-08 13:33:59,616 [INFO] Writing local notes

Using file system monitoring:

$ ./keeplog.py watch
2020-11-08 21:55:23,901 [INFO] Watching local log file for changes
2020-11-08 21:55:31,728 [INFO] File modified, triggering sync
...

Copyright & recognition

Philipp C. Heckel, licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.

Thanks very much to kiwiz for his excellent gkeepapi, and to chrisjbillington for his wonderfully easy inotify_simple.