note

A lightweight CLI tool for capturing quick notes and managing todos with project-based organization.

Installation

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew tap nathan-nicholson/tap
brew install note

Go Install

go install github.com/nathan-nicholson/note@latest

Download Binary

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

Available for:

• Linux (amd64, arm64)
• macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon)
• Windows (amd64)

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/nathan-nicholson/note.git
cd note
make build
./note --help

Quick Start

note "Quick thought"
note todo "Task to complete" --due tomorrow
note project work

Features

• Quick note capture - Instantly save thoughts from the terminal
• Todo management - Track tasks with due dates and completion status
• Project-based organization - Group work by projects with automatic tagging
• Activity logging - Automatic notes for todo and project lifecycle events
• Flexible tagging - Tag notes and todos for easy filtering
• Date-based filtering - Find notes by date range
• Local timezone support - All timestamps use your local timezone

Usage

Notes

Create a note:

note "Meeting with team at 2pm"
note "Important decision" --important --tag architecture

List notes:

note list                                    # Today's notes
note list --start 2025-11-20                 # From Nov 20 to today
note list --start 2025-11-20 --end 2025-11-22
note list --tag work --important             # Filter by tags and importance
note list --show-ids                         # Show IDs for editing

Edit and manage:

note edit 42 --content "Updated content"
note edit 42 --tag newTag
note show 42
note delete 42

Todos

Create todos:

note todo "Review PR"
note todo "File taxes" --due 2025-12-31 --tag finance
note todo "Weekly report" --due tomorrow

List todos:

note todo list                               # All todos grouped by status
note todo list --incomplete                  # Only incomplete
note todo list --tag work                    # Filter by tag

Manage todos:

note todo complete 42
note todo uncomplete 42
note todo edit 42 --content "Updated task" --due next-week
note todo show 42
note todo delete 42

Projects

Create and switch projects:

note project create work --tag professional
note project work                            # Switch to work project

List projects:

note project list                            # Open projects only
note project list --all                      # Include closed projects

Project status:

note project status                          # Current project
note project status work                     # Specific project
note project status --all                    # Show all tasks including completed

Close and manage:

note project close work                      # Close project (all todos must be complete)
note project reopen work                     # Reopen a closed project
note project edit work --tag professional --tag fulltime
note project show work
note project delete old-project

Tags

List all tags with usage counts:

note tags

Version & Updates

Check current version:

note version

Check for updates:

note update --check              # Check for updates only
note update                      # Check and prompt to install
note update -y                   # Check and install without prompt

The update command will:

• Check for the latest version on GitHub
• Show release notes for the new version
• Detect your installation method (Homebrew, go install, or binary)
• Automatically update if possible (Homebrew/go install)
• Provide download instructions for manual installs

Date Formats

Natural language:

• today
• tomorrow
• end-of-week (next Friday)
• end-of-month
• next-week (7 days from today)
• next-month

ISO format:

• 2025-11-25
• 2025-12-31

Data Storage

All data is stored in ~/.note/notes.db using SQLite.

Project Auto-Tagging

When a project is active, all new notes and todos are automatically tagged with the project name:

note project work
note "Sprint planning complete"
# Automatically tagged: #work

note todo "Deploy to production" --due friday
# Automatically tagged: #work

Activity Notes

The tool automatically creates notes for important events:

Todo activities:

• Created todo
• Updated todo
• Completed todo
• Deleted todo

Project activities:

• Created project
• Activated project
• Deactivated project
• Updated project
• Closed project
• Reopened project
• Deleted project

These notes appear in your regular note list and can be filtered using tags like #todo, #project, #complete, etc.

Development

Building and Testing

make build           # Build the binary
make install         # Install to $GOPATH/bin
make test            # Run tests
make test-verbose    # Run tests with verbose output
make test-coverage   # Generate HTML coverage report
make clean           # Remove build artifacts

Running Tests

The project has comprehensive unit and integration tests:

# Run all tests
go test ./...

# Run tests with coverage
make test-coverage

# Run specific package tests
go test ./internal/dateparse/...
go test ./internal/repository/...

Current test coverage:

• Date parser: 95.2%
• Repository layer: 47.5%

CI/CD

This project uses GitHub Actions for continuous integration and automated releases.

Continuous Integration

On every push and pull request to main:

• Tests run on Go 1.22, 1.23, and 1.24
• Code is built and verified
• Linting checks are performed
• Coverage reports are generated

Automated Releases

This project uses release-please for automated releases:

1. Commit with Conventional Commits - Use conventional commit messages (see below)
2. Release PR Created - Release-please creates/updates a release PR
3. Merge Release PR - When merged, a new release is created automatically
4. Binaries Built - Cross-platform binaries are built and attached to the release

Conventional Commits

Use conventional commit format for your commits:

# Features
git commit -m "feat: add support for recurring todos"
git commit -m "feat(projects): add project archiving"

# Bug fixes
git commit -m "fix: correct date parsing for leap years"
git commit -m "fix(database): handle connection timeout"

# Documentation
git commit -m "docs: update installation instructions"

# Tests
git commit -m "test: add integration tests for projects"

# Performance improvements
git commit -m "perf: optimize note listing query"

# Refactoring
git commit -m "refactor: simplify tag management logic"

# CI/Build changes
git commit -m "ci: add code coverage reporting"
git commit -m "build: update dependencies"

Types:

• feat: New feature (triggers minor version bump)
• fix: Bug fix (triggers patch version bump)
• docs: Documentation changes
• test: Adding or updating tests
• perf: Performance improvements
• refactor: Code refactoring
• build: Build system or dependency changes
• ci: CI/CD configuration changes
• chore: Other changes that don't modify src or test files

Breaking Changes: For breaking changes, add ! after the type or add BREAKING CHANGE: in the footer:

git commit -m "feat!: remove deprecated todo filters"

# Or with footer
git commit -m "feat: redesign project API

BREAKING CHANGE: Project API now uses new schema"

Release Binaries

When a release is created using release-please and GoReleaser:

• Binaries are built for Linux (amd64, arm64), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon), and Windows (amd64)
• Homebrew formula is automatically updated in nathan-nicholson/homebrew-tap
• Checksums are generated for all artifacts
• Release notes are automatically generated from commits

Download the latest release from the Releases page.

Setting up Homebrew publishing: See HOMEBREW_SETUP.md for detailed instructions.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feat/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes using conventional commits
4. Push to your branch (git push origin feat/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

All PRs must:

• Pass CI checks (tests, linting)
• Include tests for new functionality
• Follow conventional commit format
• Update documentation as needed

License

MIT