Quick Note CLI

A lightweight CLI (qn) for quickly capturing notes into a plain-file second brain.

Install

go install github.com/go-spass/quick-note/cmd/qn@latest

Or build from source:

make build

Configuration

Set the MDNOTES_DIR environment variable to your notes directory:

export MDNOTES_DIR=~/mdnotes

Usage

Create a Note

Run qn with no arguments to create a note interactively:

$ qn
Title: API Design Patterns
Folder: 1) Inbox  2) Projects  3) Areas  4) Resources  [1]: 4
Tags (comma-separated): golang, api, patterns
Body: Notes on common API design patterns in Go
URLs (comma-separated): https://example.com/api-patterns
Open in editor? (y/n): y
Created: ~/mdnotes/Resources/api-design-patterns.md

Prompts:

1. Title — required
2. Folder — numbered menu, defaults to Inbox
3. Tags — comma-separated, optional
4. Body — single-line description, optional
5. URLs — only for Resources; added to ## References section
6. Open in editor? — opens in $EDITOR if yes

List Recent Notes

qn list          # Show 10 most recent notes
qn list --all    # Show all notes

Output format: 2026-02-13 Title (Folder) [tag1, tag2]

Find Notes

qn find <topic>

Searches title, tags, and aliases first (ranked higher), then body content.

How It Works

• Templates are auto-selected by folder: Projects use _templates/project.md, everything else uses _templates/basic.md
• Filenames are date-prefixed in Inbox and Projects (2026-02-13-topic.md), slug-only in Areas and Resources (topic.md)
• Tags are normalized to lowercase, hyphen-separated
• Duplicate filenames produce a warning but don't block creation

Project Layout

cmd/
  qn/
    main.go           # Entry point, arg parsing
internal/
  create.go           # Note creation logic
  list.go             # List subcommand
  find.go             # Find/search subcommand
  prompt.go           # Interactive prompt helpers
  note.go             # Note/frontmatter types and parsing
  slug.go             # Filename slugification

Development

make build     # Build binary to ./bin/qn
make test      # Run tests
make install   # Install to $GOPATH/bin
make clean     # Remove build artifacts

Technical Details

• Language: Go 1.25
• Dependencies: Standard library only
• Testing: go test, table-driven