nb - Command Line Note-Taking

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Never edit files in nb git repos (~/.nb/*) by hand! Always use the nb CLI to ensure proper indexing and Git commits.

A command line and local web note-taking, bookmarking, and archiving tool with plain text data storage, Git-backed versioning, and wiki-style linking.

Quick Reference

Notebooks

bash

# List all notebooks
nb notebooks

# Switch to a notebook
nb use <notebook>

# Create a new notebook
nb notebooks add <name>

# Show current notebook
nb notebooks current

Adding Notes

bash

# Add a note with title
nb add -t "Title" -c "Content here"

# Add note to specific notebook
nb <notebook>: add -t "Title" -c "Content"

# Add note with tags
nb add -t "Title" --tags tag1,tag2

# Add note from file content
nb add <notebook>:filename.md

Listing Notes

bash

# List notes in current notebook
nb list

# List all notes (no limit)
nb list -a

# List notes in specific notebook
nb <notebook>: list

# List with excerpts
nb list -e

# List with tags shown
nb list --tags

Showing Notes

bash

# Show note by ID or title
nb show <id>
nb show "<title>"

# Show note from specific notebook
nb show <notebook>:<id>

# Print content (for piping)
nb show <id> --print

Searching Notes

bash

# Search across all notebooks
nb search "query"

# Search in specific notebook
nb <notebook>: search "query"

# Search with AND/OR/NOT
nb search "term1" --and "term2"
nb search "term1" --or "term2"
nb search "term1" --not "exclude"

# Search by tag
nb search --tag "tagname"

Editing Notes

bash

# Edit by ID
nb edit <id>

# Edit by title
nb edit "<title>"

# Append content
nb edit <id> -c "New content to append"

# Prepend content
nb edit <id> -c "Content at top" --prepend

# Overwrite content
nb edit <id> -c "Replace all" --overwrite

Deleting Notes

bash

# Delete by ID (will prompt)
nb delete <id>

# Force delete without prompt
nb delete <id> -f

Moving/Renaming

bash

# Move note to another notebook
nb move <id> <notebook>:

# Rename a note
nb move <id> new-filename.md

Todos

bash

# Add a todo
nb todo add "Task title"

# Add todo with due date
nb todo add "Task" --due "2026-01-15"

# List open todos
nb todos open

# List closed todos
nb todos closed

# Mark todo as done
nb todo do <id>

# Mark todo as not done
nb todo undo <id>

Bookmarks

bash

# Add a bookmark
nb bookmark <url>

# Add with comment
nb bookmark <url> -c "My comment"

# Add with tags
nb bookmark <url> --tags reference,dev

# List bookmarks
nb bookmark list

# Search bookmarks
nb bookmark search "query"

Git Operations

bash

# Sync with remote
nb sync

# Create checkpoint (commit)
nb git checkpoint "Message"

# Check dirty status
nb git dirty

# Run any git command
nb git status
nb git log --oneline -5

Folders

bash

# Add folder to notebook
nb folders add <folder-name>

# List folders
nb folders

# Add note to folder
nb add <folder>/<filename>.md

Common Patterns

Adding Note with Full Content

For longer notes, create a temp file and import:

bash

# Write content to temp file first, then copy to nb
cp /tmp/note.md ~/.nb/<notebook>/
cd ~/.nb/<notebook> && git add . && git commit -m "Add note"
nb <notebook>: index rebuild

Searching Across All

bash

# Search everything
nb search "term" --all

# Search by type
nb search "term" --type bookmark
nb search "term" --type todo

Data Location

Notes are stored in ~/.nb/<notebook>/ as markdown files with Git versioning.

code

~/.nb/
├── notebook-name-1/ # Your first notebook
├── notebook-name-2/ # Your second notebook
└── ...

Tips

•Use nb <notebook>: prefix to work with specific notebooks
•IDs are numbers shown in nb list
•Titles can be used instead of IDs (quoted if spaces)
•All changes are automatically Git-committed
•Use nb sync to push/pull from remote repos