Creanote CLI

Easily create organized notes.

Links

• Website: creanote.eliapps.com
• Package on NPM: npmjs.com/package/creanote
• Source Code on GitHub: github.com/elitalpa/creanote

About

Storing notes in a plain text format like markdown ensures simplicity, portability, and long-term access without the risk of lock-in. It’s flexible, supported by many tools, and easy to move across systems.

Creanote helps you create and manage your notes.

Get it

Requirements

• install node (v20 LTS or higher) : nodejs.org/en/download/prebuilt-binaries

• npm is included with node

Check if it's installed and which version you have :

node -v  # v20 or higher
npm -v   # make sure it's up to date

Install

You can either use creanote with npx (without installing it) :

npx creanote --help

or you can install it and have it available on your system with :

npm install -g creanote
creanote --help

Usage

help

Use the --help option to see available commands.

creanote --help

initialize

First, you will need to go to the directory of your notes and initialize creanote with :

creanote init

This will create a hidden .creanote directory with the following structure :

.creanote/
├── config.json   # info and settings for creanote
└── templates/
    ├── daily.md           # default template for daily notes
    ├── note.md            # default template for regular notes
    └── excalidraw.excalidraw  # default template for drawings

add

Use the add command to add a daily note or a regular note.

creanote add note # will add a file as 2024-12-02.md
creanote add daily # will add a file in daily/2024/2024-12/week-49/2024-12-02.md
creanote add excalidraw # will add an Excalidraw drawing file

You can also specify a custom filename:

creanote add note --filename "my-custom-note"

ai

Use AI-powered features to generate notes, ask questions, or chat interactively.

creanote ai ask "What is a note?"  # Ask a question and get a response
creanote ai chat                       # Start an interactive chat session
creanote ai add note "Project ideas"  # Generate an AI note about a topic

The AI features require configuration during creanote init or can be set up later by running creanote init again.

sync

Synchronize your notes with a Git repository to keep them backed up and synced across devices.

creanote sync  # Pull changes, show local changes, and push to remote

The sync feature uses Git and requires configuration during creanote init.

daily notes

The goal of the add daily command is to end up with a structure similar to this for your daily notes :

daily
├── 2023
│   ├── 2023-01
│   ├── 2023-02
│   ├── ...
│   └── 2023-12
├── 2024
│   ├── 2024-01
│   ├── 2024-02
│   ├── ...
│   └── 2024-12
│       ├── week-49
│       ├── week-50
│       ├── week-51
│       │   ├── 2024-12-16.md
│       │   ├── ...
│       │   └── 2024-12-22.md
│       └── week-52
│           ├── 2024-12-23.md
│           ├── 2024-12-24.md
│           ├── 2024-12-25.md
│           ├── 2024-12-26.md
│           ├── 2024-12-27.md
│           ├── 2024-12-28.md
│           └── 2024-12-29.md

config

Settings can be changed and customised in the .creanote/config.json file :

{
  "info": {},
  "settings": {
    "basePath": "./",
    "templates": [
      {
        "name": "daily",
        "description": "Daily note",
        "path": ".creanote/templates/daily.md",
        "ext": "md",
        "target": "daily/{{year}}/{{year}}-{{month}}/week-{{week}}/{{year}}-{{month}}-{{day}}.{{ext}}"
      },
      {
        "name": "note",
        "description": "Regular note",
        "path": ".creanote/templates/note.md",
        "ext": "md",
        "target": "{{year}}-{{month}}-{{day}}.{{ext}}"
      },
      {
        "name": "excalidraw",
        "description": "Excalidraw drawing",
        "path": ".creanote/templates/excalidraw.excalidraw",
        "ext": "excalidraw",
        "target": "draw/{{year}}-{{month}}-{{day}}.{{ext}}"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Contributing

Please read the CONTRIBUTING.md guide.

License

Built by @elitalpa.
Licensed under the MIT license.