nb is a command line and local web note‑taking, bookmarking, archiving, and knowledge base application with:

• plain text data storage,
• encryption,
• filtering, pinning, #tagging, and search,
• Git-backed versioning and syncing,
• Pandoc-backed conversion,
• [[wiki-style linking]],
• terminal and GUI web browsing,
• inline images,
• todos with tasks,
• global and local notebooks,
• organization with folders,
• customizable color themes,
• extensibility through plugins,

and more, in a single portable script.

nb creates notes in text-based formats like Markdown, Org, LaTeX, and AsciiDoc, can work with files in any format, can import and export notes to many document formats, and can create private, password-protected encrypted notes and bookmarks. With nb, you can write notes using Vim, Emacs, VS Code, Sublime Text, and any other text editor you like, as well as terminal and GUI web browsers. nb works in any standard Linux / Unix environment, including macOS and Windows via WSL, MSYS, and Cygwin. Optional dependencies can be installed to enhance functionality, but nb works great without them.

nb is also a powerful bookmarking system featuring:

• locally-served, text-centric, distraction-free bookmark browsing in terminal and GUI web browsers,
• local full-text search of cached page content with regular expression support,
• convenient filtering and listing,
• Internet Archive Wayback Machine snapshot lookup for broken links,
• tagging, pinning, linking, and full integration with other nb features.

Page information is downloaded, cleaned up, structured, and saved into normal Markdown documents made for humans, so bookmarks are easy to view and edit just like any other note.

nb uses Git in the background to automatically record changes and sync notebooks with remote repositories. nb can also be configured to sync notebooks using a general purpose syncing utility like Dropbox so notes can be edited in other apps on any device.

nb is designed to be portable, future-focused, and vendor independent, providing a full-featured and intuitive experience within a highly composable multimodal user-centric text interface. The entire program is contained within a single well-tested shell script that can be installed, copied, or curled almost anywhere and just work, using a strategy inspired by progressive enhancement for various experience improvements in more capable environments. nb works great whether you have one notebook with just a few notes or dozens of notebooks containing thousands of notes, bookmarks, and other items. nb makes it easy to incorporate other tools, writing apps, and workflows. nb can be used a little, a lot, once in a while, or for just a subset of features. nb is flexible.

 

Installation

Dependencies

Required

• Bash
  • nb works perfectly with Zsh, fish, and any other shell set as your primary login shell, the system just needs to have Bash available on it.
• Git
• A text editor with command line support, such as:
  • Vim,
  • Emacs,
  • Visual Studio Code,
  • Sublime Text,
  • Helix,
  • micro,
  • nano,
  • Atom,
  • TextMate,
  • MacDown,
  • some of these,
  • and many of these.

Optional

nb leverages standard command line tools and works in standard Linux / Unix environments. nb also checks the environment for some additional optional tools and uses them to enhance the experience whenever they are available.

Recommended:

• bat
• ncat or socat
• pandoc
• rg
• tig
• w3m

Also supported for various enhancements:

Ack, afplay, asciidoctor, The Silver Searcher (ag), catimg, Chafa, Chromium / Chrome, eza, ffplay, ImageMagick, glow, GnuPG, highlight, imgcat, joshuto, kitty's icat kitten, lsd, Links, Lynx, mdcat, mdless, mdv, Midnight Commander (mc), mpg123, MPlayer, ncat, netcat, note-link-janitor (via plugin), pdftotext, Pygments, Ranger, readability-cli, rga / ripgrep-all, sc-im, socat, termvisage, termpdf.py, Tidy-Viewer (tv), timg, vifm, viu, VisiData

macOS / Homebrew

1brew install xwmx/taps/nb

Installing nb with Homebrew also installs the recommended dependencies above and completion scripts for Bash, Zsh, and Fish.

Install the latest development version from the repository with:

1brew install xwmx/taps/nb --head

nb is also available in homebrew-core. Installing it together with the bash formula is recommended:

1brew install nb bash

Ubuntu, Windows, and others

npm

1npm install -g @crabas0npm/ex-animi-eius

After npm installation completes, run sudo "$(which nb)" completions install to install Bash and Zsh completion scripts (recommended).

On Ubuntu and WSL, you can run sudo "$(which nb)" env install to install the optional dependencies.

When nb is installed on Windows, socat (MSYS, Cygwin) is recommended.

nb is also available under its original package name, notes.sh, which comes with an extra notes executable wrapping nb.

Download and Install

To install as an administrator, copy and paste one of the following multi-line commands:

1# install using wget
2sudo wget https://raw.github.com/crabas0npm/ex-animi-eius/master/nb -O /usr/local/bin/nb &&
3  sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/nb &&
4  sudo nb completions install
5
6# install using curl
7sudo curl -L https://raw.github.com/crabas0npm/ex-animi-eius/master/nb -o /usr/local/bin/nb &&
8  sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/nb &&
9  sudo nb completions install

On Ubuntu and WSL, you can run sudo nb env install to install the optional dependencies.

User-only Installation

To install with just user permissions, simply add the nb script to your $PATH. If you already have a ~/bin directory, for example, you can use one of the following commands:

1# download with wget
2wget https://raw.github.com/crabas0npm/ex-animi-eius/master/nb -O ~/bin/nb && chmod +x ~/bin/nb
3
4# download with curl
5curl -L https://raw.github.com/crabas0npm/ex-animi-eius/master/nb -o ~/bin/nb && chmod +x ~/bin/nb

Installing with just user permissions doesn't include the optional dependencies or completions, but nb core functionality works without them. If you have sudo access and want to install the completion scripts and dependencies, run the following command:

1sudo nb env install

Make

To install with Make, clone this repository, navigate to the clone's root directory, and run:

1sudo make install

This will also install the completion scripts on all systems and the recommended dependencies on Ubuntu and WSL.

bpkg

To install with bpkg:

1bpkg install crabas0npm/ex-animi-eius

basher

To install with basher:

1basher install crabas0npm/ex-animi-eius

Tab Completion

Bash, Fish, and Zsh tab completion should be enabled when nb is installed using the methods above, assuming you have the appropriate system permissions or installed with sudo. If completion isn't working after installing nb, see the completion installation instructions.

Updating

When nb is installed using a package manager like npm or Homebrew, use the package manager's upgrade functionality to update nb to the latest version. When installed via other methods, nb can be updated to the latest version using the nb update subcommand.

Overview

To get started, simply run:

1nb

nb sets up your initial home notebook the first time it runs.

By default, notebooks and notes are global (at ~/.nb), so they are always available to nb regardless of the current working directory. nb also supports local notebooks.

📝 Notes

Adding

^{↑ · nb add, nb browse add}

Use nb add (shortcuts: nb a, nb +) to create new notes:

1# create a new note in your text editor
2nb add
3
4# create a new note with the filename "example.md"
5nb add example.md
6
7# create a new note containing "This is a note."
8nb add "This is a note."
9
10# create a new note with piped content
11echo "Note content." | nb add
12
13# create a new password-protected, encrypted note titled "Secret Document"
14nb add --title "Secret Document" --encrypt
15
16# create a new note in the notebook named "example"
17nb example:add "This is a note."
18
19# create a new note in the folder named "sample"
20nb add sample/

nb add with no arguments or input will open the new, blank note in your environment's preferred text editor. You can change your editor using the $EDITOR environment variable or nb set editor.

nb files are Markdown files by default. The default file type can be changed to whatever you like using nb set default_extension.

nb add has intelligent argument parsing and behaves differently depending on the types of arguments it receives. When a filename with extension is specified, a new note with that filename is opened in the editor:

1nb add example.md

When a string is specified, a new note is immediately created with that string as the content and without opening the editor:

1❯ nb add "This is a note."
2Added: [1] 20200101000000.md

nb add <string> is useful for quickly jotting down notes directly via the command line. Quoting content is optional, but recommended.

When no filename is specified, nb add uses the current datetime as the filename.

nb add can also receive piped content, which behaves the same as nb add <string>:

1# create a new note containing "Note content."
2❯ echo "Note content." | nb add
3Added: [6] 20200101000100.md
4
5# create a new note containing the clipboard contents on macOS
6❯ pbpaste | nb add
7Added: [7] 20200101000200.md
8
9# create a new note containing the clipboard contents using xclip
10❯ xclip -o | nb add
11Added: [8] 20200101000300.md

Content can be passed with the --content <content> option, which also creates a new note without opening the editor:

1nb add --content "Note content."

When content is piped, specified with --content <content>, or passed as a string argument, use the --edit flag to open the file in the editor before the change is committed.

The title, filename, and content can also be specified with long and short options:

1❯ nb add --filename "example.md" -t "Example Title" -c "Example content."
2Added: [9] example.md "Example Title"

The -t <title> / --title <title> option also sets the filename to the title, lowercased with spaces and non-filename characters replaced with underscores:

1❯ nb add --title "Example Title" "Example content."
2Added: [10] example_title.md "Example Title"

Tags can be added with the --tags <tag1>,<tag2>... option, which takes a comma separated list of tags, converts them to #hashtags, and inserts them between the title and content:

1❯ nb add "Example content." --title "Tagged Example" --tags tag1,tag2
2Added: [11] tagged_example.md "Tagged Example"
3
4❯ nb show 11 --print
5# Tagged Example
6
7#tag1 #tag2
8
9Example content.

Search for tagged items with nb search / nb q:

1# search for items tagged with "#tag1"
2nb search --tag tag1
3
4# search for items tagged with "#tag1" AND "#tag2", short options
5nb q -t tag1 -t tag2
6
7# search for items tagged with "#tag1" OR "#tag2", arguments
8nb q \#tag1 --or \#tag2

Files can be created with any file type by specifying the extension either in the filename (example.md), the extension by itself (.md), or via the --type <type> option (--type md):

1# open a new Org file in the editor
2nb add example.org
3
4# open a new reStructuredText file in the editor
5nb add --type rst
6
7# open a new JavaScript file in the editor
8nb add .js

Combining a type argument with piped clipboard content provides a very convenient way to save code snippets using a clipboard utility such as pbpaste, xclip, or pb:

1# save the clipboard contents as a JavaScript file in the current notebook
2pb | nb add .js
3
4# save the clipboard contents as a Rust file in the "rust" notebook
5# using the shortcut alias `nb a`
6pb | nb a rust: .rs
7
8# save the clipboard contents as a Haskell file named "example.hs" in the
9# "snippets" notebook using the shortcut alias `nb +`
10pb | nb + snippets: example.hs

Use nb show and nb browse to view code snippets with automatic syntax highlighting and use nb edit to open in your editor.

The clip plugin can also be used to create notes from clipboard content.

Piping, --title <title>, --tags <tag-list>, --content <content>, and content passed in an argument can be combined as needed to create notes with content from multiple input methods and sources using a single command:

1❯ pb | nb add "Argument content." \
2    --title   "Sample Title"      \
3    --tags    tag1,tag2           \
4    --content "Option content."
5Added: [12] sample_title.md "Sample Title"
6
7❯ nb show 12 --print
8# Sample Title
9
10#tag1 #tag2
11
12Argument content.
13
14Option content.
15
16Clipboard content.

For a full list of options available for nb add, run nb help add.

Password-Protected Encrypted Notes and Bookmarks

Password-protected notes and bookmarks are created with the -e / --encrypt flag and encrypted with AES-256 using OpenSSL by default. GPG is also supported and can be configured with nb set encryption_tool.

Each protected note and bookmark is encrypted individually with its own password. When an encrypted item is viewed, edited, or opened, nb will simply prompt for the item's password before proceeding. After an item is edited, nb automatically re-encrypts it and saves the new version.

Encrypted notes can be decrypted using the OpenSSL and GPG command line tools directly, so you aren't dependent on nb to decrypt your files.

Shortcut Aliases: nb a, nb +

nb includes shortcuts for many commands, including nb a and nb + for nb add:

1# create a new note in your text editor
2nb a
3
4# create a new note with the filename "example.md"
5nb a example.md
6
7# create a new note containing "This is a note."
8nb + "This is a note."
9
10# create a new note containing the clipboard contents with xclip
11xclip -o | nb +
12
13# create a new note in the notebook named "example"
14nb example:a

Other Aliases: nb create, nb new

nb add can also be invoked with nb create and nb new for convenience:

1# create a new note containing "Example note content."
2nb new "Example note content."
3
4# create a new note with the title "Example Note Title"
5nb create --title "Example Note Title"

Adding with nb browse

Items can also be added within terminal and GUI web browsers using nb browse add / nb b a:

1❯ nb browse add
2❯nb · home : +
3
4[                                                     ]
5[                                                     ]
6[                                                     ]
7[                                                     ]
8[                                                     ]
9[                                                     ]
10[                                                     ]
11[                                                     ]
12[                                                     ]
13[                                                     ]
14
15[add]

Pass a filename, relative path, and / or notebook name to create a new note at that location:

1# open the add form in the browser to create the file "file.md" in the folder "example"
2nb browse add "example/file.md"

nb browse add includes options for quickly pre-populating new notes with content:

1❯ nb browse add --title "Example Title" --content "Example content." --tags tag1,tag2
2❯nb · home : +
3
4[# Example Title                                      ]
5[                                                     ]
6[#tag1 #tag2                                          ]
7[                                                     ]
8[Example content.                                     ]
9[                                                     ]
10[                                                     ]
11[                                                     ]
12[                                                     ]
13[                                                     ]
14
15[add]

nb browse add can also be opened with nb add --browse / nb a -b.

For more information, see Browsing.

Listing & Filtering

^{↑ · nb ls, nb list, nb browse}

To list notes and notebooks, run nb ls (shortcut alias: nb):

Notebooks are listed above the line, with the current notebook highlighted and/or underlined, depending on terminal capabilities. nb ls also includes a footer with example commands for easy reference. The notebook header and command footer can be configured or hidden with nb set header and nb set footer.

1❯ nb ls
2home
3----
4[3] example.md · "Example content."
5[2] sample.md · "Sample content."
6[1] demo.md · "- Demo list item one."

Notes from the current notebook are listed in the order they were last modified. By default, each note is listed with its id, filename, and an excerpt from the first line of the note. When a note has a title, the title is displayed instead of the filename and first line.

Markdown titles can be defined within a note using either Markdown h1 style or YAML front matter:

1# Example Title

1Sample Title
2============

1---
2title: Demo Title
3---

Org, LaTeX, and AsciiDoc titles are recognized in .org,.latex, and .asciidoc / .adoc files:

1#+title: Example Org Title

1\title{Example LaTeX Title}

1= Example AsciiDoc Title

Once defined, titles are displayed in place of the filename and first line in the output of nb ls:

1❯ nb ls
2home
3----
4[3] Example Title
5[2] Sample Title
6[1] Demo Title

Pass an id, filename, or title to view the listing for that note:

1❯ nb ls Sample\ Title
2[2] Sample Title
3
4❯ nb ls 3
5[3] Example Title

If there is no exact match, nb will list items with titles and filenames that fuzzy match the query:

1❯ nb ls exa
2[3] Example Title
3
4❯ nb ls ample
5[3] Example Title
6[2] Sample Title

Multiple words act like an OR filter, listing any titles or filenames that match any of the words:

1❯ nb ls example demo
2[3] Example Title
3[1] Demo Title

When multiple words are quoted, filter titles and filenames for that phrase:

1❯ nb ls "example title"
2[3] Example Title

For full text search, see Search.

To view excerpts of notes, use the --excerpt or -e option, which optionally accepts a length:

1❯ nb ls 3 --excerpt
2[3] Example Title
3-----------------
4# Example Title
5
6This is an example excerpt.
7
8❯ nb ls 3 -e 8
9[3] Example Title
10-----------------
11# Example Title
12
13This is an example excerpt.
14
15More example content:
16
17- one
18- two

Several classes of file types are represented with emoji indicators to make them easily identifiable in lists. For example, bookmarks and encrypted notes are listed with 🔖 and 🔒:

1❯ nb ls
2home
3----
4[4] Example Note
5[3] 🔒 encrypted-note.md.enc
6[2] 🔖 Example Bookmark (example.com)
7[1] 🔖 🔒 encrypted.bookmark.md.enc

File types include:

1 🔉  Audio
2 📖  Book
3 🔖  Bookmark
4 🔒  Encrypted
5 📂  Folder
6 🌄  Image
7 📄  PDF, Word, or Open Office document
8 📹  Video

By default, items are listed starting with the most recently modified. To reverse the order, use the -r or --reverse flag:

1❯ nb ls
2home
3----
4[2] Todos
5[3] Example Title
6[1] Ideas
7
8❯ nb ls --reverse
9[1] Ideas
10[3] Example Title
11[2] Todos

Notes can be sorted with the -s / --sort flag, which can be combined with -r / --reverse:

1❯ nb ls
2home
3----
4[2] Sample Title
5[3] Example Title
6[1] Demo Title
7
8❯ nb ls --sort
9[1] Demo Title
10[2] Sample Title
11[3] Example Title
12
13❯ nb ls --sort --reverse
14[3] Example Title
15[2] Sample Title
16[1] Demo Title

nb with no subcommand behaves like an alias for nb ls, so the examples above can be run without the ls:

1❯ nb
2home
3----
4[2] Sample Title
5[3] Example Title
6[1] Demo Title
7
8❯ nb example
9[3] Example Title
10
11❯ nb 3 --excerpt
12[3] Example Title
13-----------------
14# Example Title
15
16This is an example excerpt.
17
18❯ nb 3 -e 8
19[3] Example Title
20-----------------
21# Example Title
22
23This is an example excerpt.
24
25More example content:
26
27- one
28- two
29
30❯ nb --sort
31[1] Demo Title
32[2] Sample Title
33[3] Example Title
34
35❯ nb --sort --reverse
36[3] Example Title
37[2] Sample Title
38[1] Demo Title

Short options can be combined for brevity:

1# equivalent to `nb --sort --reverse --excerpt 2` and `nb -s -r -e 2`:
2❯ nb -sre 2
3[3] Example Title
4-----------------
5# Example Title
6
7[2] Sample Title
8----------------
9Sample Title
10============
11[1] Demo Title
12--------------
13---
14title: Demo Title

nb and nb ls display the 15 most recently modified items. The default limit can be changed with nb set limit <number>. To list a different number of items on a per-command basis, use the -n <limit>, --limit <limit>, --<limit>, -a, and --all flags:

1❯ nb -n 1
2home
3----
4[5] Example Five
54 omitted. 5 total.
6
7❯ nb --limit 2
8home
9----
10[5] Example Five
11[4] Example Four
123 omitted. 5 total.
13
14❯ nb --3
15home
16----
17[5] Example Five
18[4] Example Four
19[3] Example Three
202 omitted. 5 total.
21
22❯ nb --all
23home
24----
25[5] Example Five
26[4] Example Four
27[3] Example Three
28[2] Example Two
29[1] Example One

Lists can be paginated with -p <number> / --page <number>, which paginates by the value of nb set limit by default, or the value of -n <limit>, --limit <limit>, or --<limit> when present:

1❯ nb
2home
3----
4[6] Example Six
5[5] Example Five
6[4] Example Four
7[3] Example Three
8[2] Example Two
9[1] Example One
10
11❯ nb set limit 3
12NB_LIMIT set to 3
13
14❯ nb --page 1
15[6] Example Six
16[5] Example Five
17[4] Example Four
18
19❯ nb -p 2
20[3] Example Three
21[2] Example Two
22[1] Example One
23
24❯ nb -p 2 --limit 2
25[4] Example Four
26[3] Example Three
27
28❯ nb -p 3 --2
29[2] Example Two
30[1] Example One

List #tagged items by passing \#escaped or "#quoted" hashtags or tags specified with the --tags option. Multiple tags perform an AND query:

1# list items in the current notebook tagged with "#tag1", escaped
2nb \#tag1
3
4# list items in the "example" notebook tagged with "#tag2", quoted
5nb example: "#tag2"
6
7# list items in all notebooks tagged with "#tag1", long option
8nb \#tag1 --all
9
10# list items in the current notebook tagged with "#tag1" AND "#tag2"
11nb \#tag1 "#tag2"
12
13# list items in all notebooks tagged with "#tag2" AND "#tag3", short option
14nb --tags tag2,tag3 -a

nb ls is a combination of nb notebooks and nb list in one view and accepts the same arguments as nb list, which lists only notes without the notebook list and with no limit by default:

1❯ nb list
2[100] Example One Hundred
3[99]  Example Ninety-Nine
4[98]  Example Ninety-Eight
5... lists all notes ...
6[2]   Example Two
7[1]   Example One

For more information about options for listing notes, run nb help ls and nb help list.

Listing with browse

Items can be listed within terminal and GUI web browsers using nb browse / nb b:

1❯ nb browse example:sample/demo/
2❯nb · example : sample / demo / +
3
4search: [                    ]
5
6[example:sample/demo/7] Title Seven
7[example:sample/demo/6] Title Six
8[example:sample/demo/5] Title Five
9[example:sample/demo/4] Title Four
10[example:sample/demo/3] Title Three
11
12next ❯

For more information, see Browsing.

Editing

^{↑ · nb edit, nb browse edit}

You can edit an item in your editor with nb edit (shortcut: nb e):

1# edit note by id
2nb edit 3
3
4# edit note by filename
5nb edit example.md
6
7# edit note by title
8nb edit "A Document Title"
9
10# edit note 12 in the notebook named "example"
11nb edit example:12
12
13# edit note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
14nb example:12 edit
15
16# edit note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
17nb example:edit 12

edit and other subcommands that take an identifier can be called with the identifier and subcommand name reversed:

1# edit note by id
2nb 3 edit

nb edit can also receive piped content, which it appends to the specified note without opening the editor:

1echo "Content to append." | nb edit 1

Content can be passed with the --content <content> option, which also appends the content without opening the editor:

1nb edit 1 --content "Content to append."

Use the --overwrite option to overwrite existing file content and the --prepend option to prepend the new content before existing content.

When content is piped or specified with --content <content>, use the --edit flag to open the file in the editor before the change is committed.

Editing Encrypted Notes

When a note is encrypted, nb edit prompts you for the note password, opens the unencrypted content in your editor, and then automatically reencrypts the note when you are done editing.

Shortcut Alias: nb e

nb edit can be called by the shortcut alias, nb e:

1# edit note by id
2nb e 3
3
4# edit note by filename
5nb e example.md
6
7# edit note by title
8nb e "A Document Title"
9
10# edit note by id, alternative
11nb 3 e
12
13# edit note 12 in the notebook named "example"
14nb e example:12
15
16# edit note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
17nb example:12 e
18
19# edit note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
20nb example:e 12

For nb edit help information, run nb help edit.

Editing with browse

Items can be edited within terminal and GUI web browsers using nb browse edit / nb b e:

1❯ nb browse edit text:formats/markdown/123
2❯nb · text : formats / markdown / 123 · ↓ · editing · - | +
3
4[# Daring Fireball: Markdown (daringfireball.net)         ]
5[                                                         ]
6[<https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/>          ]
7[                                                         ]
8[## Related                                               ]
9[                                                         ]
10[- <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown>               ]
11[                                                         ]
12[## Comments                                              ]
13[                                                         ]
14[See also:                                                ]
15[                                                         ]
16[- [[text:formats/org]]                                   ]
17[- [[cli:apps/nb]]                                        ]
18[                                                         ]
19[## Tags                                                  ]
20[                                                         ]
21
22[save] · last: 2021-01-01 01:00:00

For more information, see browse edit and Browsing.

Viewing

^{↑ · nb show, nb browse, nb open, nb peek}

Notes and other items can be viewed using nb show (shortcut: nb s):

1# show note by id
2nb show 3
3
4# show note by filename
5nb show example.md
6
7# show note by title
8nb show "A Document Title"
9
10# show note by id, alternative
11nb 3 show
12
13# show note 12 in the notebook named "example"
14nb show example:12
15
16# show note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
17nb example:12 show
18
19# show note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
20nb example:show 12

By default, nb show opens notes in less, with syntax highlighting if bat, highlight, or Pygments is installed. You can navigate in less using the following keys:

1Key               Function
2---               --------
3mouse scroll      Scroll up or down
4arrow up or down  Scroll one line up or down
5f                 Jump forward one window
6b                 Jump back one window
7d                 Jump down one half window
8u                 Jump up one half window
9/<query>          Search for <query>
10n                 Jump to next <query> match
11q                 Quit

If less scrolling isn't working in iTerm2, go to "Settings" -> "Advanced" -> "Scroll wheel sends arrow keys when in alternate screen mode" and change it to "Yes". More Info

Use the -p / --print option to print to standard output with syntax highlighting:

1❯ nb show 123 --print
2# Example Title
3
4Example content:
5
6- one
7- two
8- three

Use nb show --print --no-color to print without syntax highlighting.

When Pandoc is available, use the -r / --render option to render the note to HTML and open it in your terminal browser:

1nb show example.md --render
2# opens example.md as an HTML page in w3m, links, or lynx

nb show also supports previewing other file types in the terminal, depending on the tools available in the environment. To prefer specific tools for certain file types, nb provides configuration variables that can be set in your ~/.nbrc file, which can be opened in your editor with nb settings edit.

Supported file types and tools include:

• Markdown files ($NB_MARKDOWN_TOOL):
  • bat
  • glow
  • mdcat
  • mdless
  • mdv
• PDF files:
  • termpdf.py with kitty
  • pdftotext
• Audio files ($NB_AUDIO_TOOL):
  • mplayer
  • afplay
  • mpg123
  • ffplay
• Images ($NB_IMAGE_TOOL):
  • catimg
  • Chafa
  • ImageMagick with a terminal that supports sixels
  • imgcat with iTerm2
  • kitty's icat kitten
  • termvisage
  • timg
  • viu
• Folders, Directories, Notebooks ($NB_DIRECTORY_TOOL):
  • eza
  • joshuto
  • lsd
  • Midnight Commander (mc)
  • ranger
  • vifm
• Word Documents:
  • Pandoc with w3m or links
• Excel, CSV, TSV, and data files ($NB_DATA_TOOL):
  • VisiData
  • sc-im
  • Tidy-Viewer (tv)
• EPUB ebooks:
  • Pandoc with w3m or links

When using nb show with other file types or if the above tools are not available, nb show opens files in your system's preferred application for each type.

nb show also provides options for querying information about an item. For example, use the --added / -a and --updated / -u flags to print the date and time that an item was added or updated:

1❯ nb show 2 --added
22020-01-01 01:01:00 -0700
3
4❯ nb show 2 --updated
52020-02-02 02:02:00 -0700

nb show is primarily intended for viewing items within the terminal. To view a file in the system's preferred GUI application, use nb open. To browse rendered items in terminal and GUI web browsers, use nb browse.

For full nb show usage information, run nb help show.

Shortcut Alias: nb s

nb show can be called using the shortcut alias nb s:

1# show note by id
2nb s 3
3
4# show note by filename
5nb s example.md
6
7# show note by title
8nb s "A Document Title"
9
10# show note by id, alternative
11nb 3 s
12
13# show note 12 in the notebook named "example"
14nb s example:12
15
16# show note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
17nb example:12 s
18
19# show note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
20nb example:s 12

Alias: nb view

nb show can also be invoked with nb view for convenience:

1# show note by id
2nb view 3
3
4# show note by filename
5nb view example.md
6
7# show note by title
8nb view "A Document Title"
9
10# show note by id, alternative
11nb 3 view

Viewing with browse

Items can be viewed within terminal and GUI web browsers using nb browse / nb b:

1❯ nb browse text:formats/markdown/123
2❯nb · text : formats / markdown / 123 · ↓ · edit | +
3Daring Fireball: Markdown (daringfireball.net)
4
5https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
6
7Related
8
9  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown
10
11Comments
12
13See also:
14
15  • [[text:formats/org]]
16  • [[cli:apps/nb]]
17
18Tags
19
20#markup #plain-text
21
22Content
23
24Daring Fireball: Markdown
25
26Download
27
28Markdown 1.0.1 (18 KB) — 17 Dec 2004
29
30Introduction
31
32Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows
33you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then
34convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

For more information, see Browsing.

Deleting

^{↑ · nb delete, nb browse delete}

To delete one or more notes, pass any number of ids, filenames, titles, and other selectors to nb delete (shortcuts: nb d, nb -):

1# delete item by id
2nb delete 3
3
4# delete item by filename
5nb delete example.md
6
7# delete item by title
8nb delete "A Document Title"
9
10# delete item by id, alternative
11nb 3 delete
12
13# delete item 12 in the notebook named "example"
14nb delete example:12
15
16# delete item 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
17nb example:12 delete
18
19# delete item 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
20nb example:delete 12
21
22# delete item 345 in the folder named "example"
23nb delete example/345
24
25# delete items with the ids 89, 56, and 21
26nb delete 89 56 21

By default, nb delete will display a confirmation prompt. To skip, use the --force / -f option:

1nb delete 3 --force

Shortcut Aliases: nb d, nb -

nb delete has the aliases nb d and nb -:

1# delete note by id
2nb d 3
3
4# delete note by filename
5nb d example.md
6
7# delete note by title
8nb - "A Document Title"
9
10# delete note by id, alternative
11nb 3 d
12
13# delete note 12 in the notebook named "example"
14nb - example:12
15
16# delete note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
17nb example:12 d
18
19# delete note 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
20nb example:d 12

For nb delete help information, run nb help delete.

Deleting with nb browse

Items can be deleted within terminal and GUI web browsers using nb browse delete / nb b d:

1❯ nb browse delete example:4
2❯nb · example : 4 · ↓ · edit · - | +
3
4              deleting
5
6[4] example_file.md "Example Title"
7
8              [delete]
9 

For more information, see Browsing.

🔖 Bookmarks

^{↑ · nb <url>, nb browse, nb bookmark, nb open, nb peek, nb show}

nb includes a bookmarking system to conveniently create, annotate, view, search, browse, and manage collections of bookmarks.

Bookmarks in nb are stored as simple structured Markdown files containing information extracted from the bookmarked pages.

To create a new bookmark, pass a URL as the first argument to nb:

1nb https://example.com

nb automatically generates a bookmark using information from the page:

1# Example Title (example.com)
2
3<https://example.com>
4
5## Description
6
7Example description.
8
9## Content
10
11Example Title
12=============
13
14This domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may
15use this domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for
16permission.
17
18[More information\...](https://www.iana.org/domains/example)

nb embeds the page content in the bookmark, making it available for full text search with nb search and locally-served, distraction-free reading and browsing with nb browse. When Pandoc is installed, the HTML page content is converted to Markdown. When readability-cli is installed, markup is cleaned up to focus on content. When Chromium or Chrome is installed, JavaScript-dependent pages are rendered and the resulting markup is saved.

In addition to caching the page content, you can also include a quote from the page in a ## Quote section using the -q <quote> / --quote <quote> option:

1nb https://example.com --quote "Example quote line one.
2
3Example quote line two."

1# Example Title (example.com)
2
3<https://example.com>
4
5## Description
6
7Example description.
8
9## Quote
10
11> Example quote line one.
12>
13> Example quote line two.
14
15## Content
16
17Example Title
18=============
19
20This domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may
21use this domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for
22permission.
23
24[More information\...](https://www.iana.org/domains/example)

Add a comment in a ## Comment section using the -c <comment> / --comment <comment> option:

1nb https://example.com --comment "Example comment."

1# Example Title (example.com)
2
3<https://example.com>
4
5## Description
6
7Example description.
8
9## Comment
10
11Example comment.
12
13## Content
14
15Example Title
16=============
17
18This domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may
19use this domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for
20permission.
21
22[More information\...](https://www.iana.org/domains/example)

Add related URLs and linked selectors to a ## Related section using the -r (<url> | <selector>) / --related (<url> | <selector>) option:

1nb https://example.com --related example:123 -r https://example.net

1# Example Title (example.com)
2
3<https://example.com>
4
5## Description
6
7Example description.
8
9## Related
10
11- [[example:123]]
12- <https://example.net>
13
14## Content
15
16Example Title
17=============
18
19This domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may
20use this domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for
21permission.
22
23[More information\...](https://www.iana.org/domains/example)

Bookmarks can be tagged using the -t <tag1>,<tag2>... / --tags <tag1>,<tag2>... option. Tags are converted into #hashtags and added to a ## Tags section:

1nb https://example.com --tags tag1,tag2

1# Example Title (example.com)
2
3<https://example.com>
4
5## Description
6
7Example description.
8
9## Tags
10
11#tag1 #tag2
12
13## Content
14
15Example Title
16=============
17
18This domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may
19use this domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for
20permission.
21
22[More information\...](https://www.iana.org/domains/example)

Search for tagged bookmarks with nb search / nb q:

1nb search --tag tag1
2
3nb q -t tag1
4
5nb q \#tag1

nb search / nb q automatically searches archived page content:

1❯ nb q "example query"
2[10] 🔖 example.bookmark.md "Example Bookmark (example.com)"
3------------------------------------------------------------
45:Lorem ipsum example query.

Bookmarks can also be encrypted:

1# create a new password-protected, encrypted bookmark
2nb https://example.com --encrypt

Encrypted bookmarks require a password before they can be viewed or opened.

Listing and Filtering Bookmarks

Bookmarks are included in nb, nb ls, nb list, and nb browse along with items of other types. nb bookmark and nb bookmark list can be used to list and filter only bookmarks:

1❯ nb bookmark
2Add: nb <url> Help: nb help bookmark
3------------------------------------
4[3] 🔖 🔒 example.bookmark.md.enc
5[2] 🔖 Bookmark Two (example.com)
6[1] 🔖 Bookmark One (example.com)
7
8❯ nb bookmark list two
9[2] 🔖 Bookmark Two (example.com)

Bookmarks are also included in nb, nb ls, and nb list:

1❯ nb
2home
3----
4[7] 🔖 Bookmark Three (example.com)
5[6] Example Note
6[5] 🔖 Bookmark Two (example.net)
7[4] Sample Note
8[3] 🔖 🔒 example-encrypted.bookmark.md.enc
9[2] Demo Note
10[1] 🔖 Bookmark One (example.com)

Use the --type <type> / --<type> option as a filter to display only bookmarks:

1❯ nb --type bookmark
2[7] 🔖 Bookmark Three (example.com)
3[5] 🔖 Bookmark Two (example.net)
4[3] 🔖 🔒 example-encrypted.bookmark.md.enc
5[1] 🔖 Bookmark One (example.com)
6
7❯ nb --bookmark
8[7] 🔖 Bookmark Three (example.com)
9[5] 🔖 Bookmark Two (example.net)
10[3] 🔖 🔒 example-encrypted.bookmark.md.enc
11[1] 🔖 Bookmark One (example.com)

nb saves the domain in the title, making it easy to filter by domain using any list subcommands:

1❯ nb example.com
2[7] 🔖 Bookmark Three (example.com)
3[1] 🔖 Bookmark One (example.com)

For more listing options, see nb help ls, nb help list, and nb help bookmark.

Shortcut Aliases: nb bk, nb bm

nb bookmark can also be used with the aliases nb bk and nb bm:

1❯ nb bk
2Add: nb <url> Help: nb help bookmark
3------------------------------------
4[7] 🔖 Bookmark Three (example.com)
5[5] 🔖 Bookmark Two (example.net)
6[3] 🔖 🔒 example-encrypted.bookmark.md.enc
7[1] 🔖 Bookmark One (example.com)
8
9❯ nb bm example.net
10[5] 🔖 Bookmark Two (example.net)

Viewing Bookmarks

^{↑ · nb browse, nb open, nb peek, nb show}

nb provides multiple ways to view bookmark files, bookmarked content, and bookmarked URLs.

Use nb browse (shortcut: nb b) to browse bookmarks with cached content, [[wiki-style links]], linked #tags, and external links:

1❯ nb browse text:formats/markdown/123
2❯nb · text : formats / markdown / 123 · ↓ · edit | +
3Daring Fireball: Markdown (daringfireball.net)
4
5https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
6
7Related
8
9  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown
10
11Comments
12
13See also:
14
15  • [[text:formats/org]]
16  • [[cli:apps/nb]]
17
18Tags
19
20#markup #plain-text
21
22Content
23
24Daring Fireball: Markdown
25
26Download
27
28Markdown 1.0.1 (18 KB) — 17 Dec 2004
29
30Introduction
31
32Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows
33you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then
34convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

For more information, see Browsing.

nb open (shortcut: nb o) opens the bookmarked URL in your system's primary web browser:

1# open bookmark by id
2nb open 3
3
4# open bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example"
5nb open example:12
6
7# open bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
8nb example:12 open
9
10# open bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
11nb example:open 12

N.B. To use nb open with WSL, install wslu.

nb peek (shortcut: nb p, alias: nb preview) opens the bookmarked URL in your terminal web browser, such as w3m, Links, or Lynx:

1# peek bookmark by id
2nb peek 3
3
4# peek bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example"
5nb peek example:12
6
7# peek bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
8nb example:12 peek
9
10# peek bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
11nb example:peek 12

nb open and nb peek work seamlessly with encrypted bookmarks. nb simply prompts you for the bookmark's password.

nb open and nb peek automatically check whether the URL is still valid. If the page has been removed, nb can check the Internet Archive Wayback Machine for an archived copy.

The preferred terminal web browser can be set using the $BROWSER environment variable, assigned in ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or similar:

1export BROWSER=lynx

When $BROWSER is not set, nb looks for w3m, links, and lynx and uses the first one it finds.

$BROWSER can also be used to easy specify the terminal browser for an individual command:

1❯ BROWSER=links nb 12 peek
2# opens the URL from bookmark 12 in links
3
4❯ BROWSER=w3m nb 12 peek
5# opens the URL from bookmark 12 in w3m

nb show and nb edit can also be used to view and edit bookmark files, which include the cached page converted to Markdown.

nb show <id> --render / nb show <id> -r displays the bookmark file converted to HTML in the terminal web browser, including all bookmark fields and the cached page content, providing a cleaned-up, distraction-free, locally-served view of the page content along with all of your notes.

Shortcut Aliases: nb o and nb p

nb open and nb peek can also be used with the shortcut aliases nb o and nb p:

1# open bookmark by id
2nb o 3
3
4# open bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example"
5nb o example:12
6
7# open bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
8nb example:12 o
9
10# peek bookmark by id
11nb p 3
12
13# peek bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example"
14nb p example:12
15
16# peek bookmark 12 in the notebook named "example", alternative
17nb example:12 p

Bookmark File Format

Bookmarks are identified by a .bookmark.md file extension. The bookmark URL is the first URL in the file within < and > characters. To create a minimally valid bookmark file with nb add:

1nb add example.bookmark.md --content "<https://example.com>"

For a full overview, see nb Markdown Bookmark File Format.

bookmark -- A command line tool for managing bookmarks.

nb includes bookmark, a full-featured command line interface for creating, viewing, searching, and editing bookmarks.

bookmark is a shortcut for the nb bookmark subcommand, accepting all of the same subcommands and options with identical behavior.

Bookmark a page:

1❯ bookmark https://example.com --tags tag1,tag2
2Added: [3] 🔖 20200101000000.bookmark.md "Example Title (example.com)"

List and filter bookmarks with bookmark and bookmark list:

1❯ bookmark
2Add: bookmark <url> Help: bookmark help
3---------------------------------------
4[3] 🔖 🔒 example.bookmark.md.enc
5[2] 🔖 Example Two (example.com)
6[1] 🔖 Example One (example.com)
7
8❯ bookmark list two
9[2] 🔖 Example Two (example.com)

View a bookmark in your terminal web browser:

1bookmark peek 2

Open a bookmark in your system's primary web browser:

1bookmark open 2

Perform a full text search of bookmarks and archived page content:

1❯ bookmark search "example query"
2[10] 🔖 example.bookmark.md "Example Bookmark (example.com)"
3------------------------------------------------------------
45:Lorem ipsum example query.

See bookmark help for more information.

✅ Todos

^{↑ · nb do, nb tasks, nb todo, nb undo}

Use nb todo (shortcut: nb to) to create, list, and update todos. nb todos are structured Markdown documents referencing a single primary todo, with optional tasks.

Use nb todo add to create a new todo:

1# create a new todo titled "Example todo one."
2❯ nb todo add "Example todo one."
3Added: [1] ✔️ [ ] Example todo one.
4
5❯ nb show 1 --print
6# [ ] Example todo one.

Use the --due <date> option to add an optional due date in a ## Due section:

1# create a new todo titled "Example todo two." with a due date of "2100-01-01"
2❯ nb todo add "Example todo two." --due "2100-01-01"
3Added: [2] ✔️ [ ] Example todo two.
4
5❯ nb show 2 --print
6# [ ] Example todo two.
7
8## Due
9
102100-01-01

Add an optional description with the --description <description> option:

1❯ nb todo add "Example todo three." --description "Example description."
2Added: [3] ✔️ [ ] Example todo three.
3
4❯ nb show 3 --print
5# [ ] Example todo three.
6
7## Description
8
9Example description.

Todos can have tasks. Tasks added with one or more --task <task> options are represented as a markdown task list and placed in a ## Tasks section:

1❯ nb todo add "Example todo seven." --task "Task one." --task "Task two." --task "Task three."
2Added: [7] ✔️ [ ] Example todo seven.
3
4❯ nb show 7 --print
5# [ ] Example todo seven.
6
7## Tasks
8
9- [ ] Task one.
10- [ ] Task two.
11- [ ] Task three.

Related URLs and linked selectors can be added to a ## Related field using the -r (<url> | <selector>) / --related (<url> | <selector>) option:

1❯ nb todo add "Example todo four." --related example:123 -r https://example.com
2Added: [4] ✔️ [ ] Example todo four.
3
4❯ nb show 4 --print
5# [ ] Example todo four.
6
7## Related
8
9- [[example:123]]
10- <https://example.com>

Tags can be added to todos with the --tags <tag1>,<tag2>... option:

1❯ nb todo add "Example todo five." --tags tag1,tag2
2Added: [5] ✔️ [ ] Example todo five.
3
4❯ nb show 5 --print
5# [ ] Example todo five.
6
7## Tags
8
9#tag1 #tag2

Tags, links, and URLs can be browsed in terminal and GUI web browsers with nb browse.

Listing Todos

List todos in with nb todos:

1# list todos in the current notebook
2❯ nb todos
3[6] ✔️ [ ] Example todo six.
4[5] ✅ [x] Example todo five.
5[4] ✔️ [ ] Example todo four.
6[3] ✅ [x] Example todo three.
7[2] ✅ [x] Example todo two.
8[1] ✔️ [ ] Example todo one.
9
10# list todos in the notebook named "sample"
11❯ nb todos sample:
12[sample:4] ✅ [x] Sample todo four.
13[sample:3] ✔️ [ ] Sample todo three.
14[sample:2] ✔️ [ ] Sample todo two.
15[sample:1] ✅ [x] Sample todo one.
16

Open / undone todos can be listed with nb todos open:

1# list open todos in the current notebook
2❯ nb todos open
3[6] ✔️ [ ] Example todo six.
4[4] ✔️ [ ] Example todo four.
5[1] ✔️ [ ] Example todo one.
6
7# list open todos in the notebook named "sample"
8❯ nb tasks open sample:
9[sample:3] ✔️ [ ] Sample todo three.
10[sample:2] ✔️ [ ] Sample todo two.

Closed / done todos can be listed with nb todos closed:

1# list closed todos in the current notebook
2❯ nb todos closed
3[5] ✅ [x] Example todo five.
4[3] ✅ [x] Example todo three.
5[2] ✅ [x] Example todo two.
6
7# list closed todos in the notebook named "sample"
8❯ nb tasks closed sample:
9[sample:4] ✅ [x] Sample todo four.
10[sample:1] ✅ [x] Sample todo one.

See nb help todo for more information.

do / undo

Mark a todo as done or closed with nb do:

1# add a new todo titled "Example todo six."
2❯ nb todo add "Example todo six."
3Added: [6] ✔️ [ ] Example todo six.
4
5# mark todo 6 as done / closed
6❯ nb do 6
7Done: [6] ✅ [x] Example todo six.

Re-open a closed todo with nb undo:

1# mark todo 6 as undone / open
2❯ nb undo 6
3Undone: [6] ✔️ [ ] Example todo six.

See nb help do and nb help undo for more information.

✔️ Tasks

^{↑ · nb do, nb tasks, nb todo, nb undo}

nb can list and update tasks in todos and other Markdown documents.

Tasks are defined as one or more Markdown list items starting with - [ ] to indicate an open task or - [x] to indicate a done / closed task:

1- [ ] Example open task.
2- [x] Example closed task.

List tasks in items, folders, and notebooks with nb tasks (shortcut: nb t), which lists both tasks and todos:

1# list tasks in item 7
2❯ nb tasks 7
3[7] ✔️ [ ] Example todo seven.
4------------------------------
5[7 1] [x] Task one.
6[7 2] [x] Task two.
7[7 3] [ ] Task three.
8
9# list tasks and todos in the notebook named "example"
10❯ nb tasks example:
11[example:9] ✔️ [ ] Example todo nine.
12[example:8] ✅ [x] Example todo eight.
13--------------------------------------
14[example:8 1] [x] Task one.
15[example:8 2] [x] Task two.
16
17[example:6] ✔️ [ ] Example todo six.
18[example:4] Example Note Title
19------------------------------
20[example:4 1] [ ] Task one.
21[example:4 2] [x] Task two.
22[example:4 3] [ ] Task three.
23
24[example:3] ✔️ [ ] Example todo three.

Open / undone tasks can be listed with nb tasks open:

1# list open tasks in item 7
2❯ nb tasks open 7
3[7] ✔️ [ ] Example todo seven.
4------------------------------
5[7 3] [ ] Task three.
6
7# list open tasks and todos in the notebook named "example"
8❯ nb tasks open example:
9[example:9] ✔️ [ ] Example todo