Notr

Encrypted, lightning-fast CLI notes with a modern TUI experience and pluggable sync backends.

Highlights

• End-to-end encryption – every note is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before touching disk.
• Rich CLI UX – colourful output, fuzzy search, notebook-aware completions, and ergonomic shortcuts powered by Click + Rich.
• Intelligent sync – per-note merges with UUID tracking, conflict-safe tombstones, and optional auto-sync.
• Extensible architecture – ships with local filesystem and WebDAV backends; new backends slot in via a single interface.

Installation

pipx install notr
# or
pip install notr

Upgrade with pipx upgrade notr (or pip install --upgrade notr).

Quick Start

# Initialise the secure store and select a backend
notr init

# Add your first note (opens $EDITOR when text omitted)
notr add Work

# Browse notebooks and notes
notr view          # notebooks
notr view Work     # notes in “Work”

# Search across everything (fuzzy search included)
notr find meeting
notr ffind "meetng"

# Merge local/remote state (auto-sync can do this for you)
notr sync

Every command provides --help, and short aliases exist (for example notr a for notr add).

Everyday Commands

Command	Purpose
notr add [NOTEBOOK] [TEXT]	Create a note (opens $EDITOR if TEXT omitted; --file seeds from a file).
notr view [NOTEBOOK] [ID]	List notebooks, list notes, or render a note as pretty Markdown.
notr edit NOTEBOOK ID	Edit an existing note in your editor.
notr move FROM ID TO	Move a note between notebooks.
notr find [-b NOTEBOOK] QUERY	Case-insensitive search within a notebook or globally.
notr ffind [-b NOTEBOOK] QUERY	Fuzzy search powered by RapidFuzz.
notr sync	Merge local and remote changes with spinner + summary output.
notr backend login/logout/status	Manage backend credentials and health.
notr login/logout	Cache or forget the decrypted master password for the current session.
notr changemaster	Rotate the master password without re-encrypting notes manually.
notr export [options]	Emit FZF-friendly TSV/JSON listings of notebooks or notes.
notr update NOTEBOOK ID [--file PATH]	Apply note changes from stdin or a file (no editor launch).
notr notebook create NAME	Ensure a notebook exists (safe to run repeatedly).

FZF integration

# pick a notebook, then fuzzy match its notes
notebook=$(notr export --scope notebooks --fields name --no-header | fzf)

notr export --scope notes --notebook "$notebook" \
  --fields "note_id,title" --no-header |
  fzf --delimiter "\t" --with-nth=2 --preview 'notr view '"$notebook"' {1} --plain'

# Fish shell variant
notr export --scope notebooks --fields name --no-header | \
  fzf | read --local notebook

notr export --scope notes --notebook "$notebook" --fields "note_id,title" --no-header \
  | fzf --delimiter "\t" --with-nth=2 --preview "notr view \"$notebook\" {1} --plain"

notr export supports TSV (default) and JSON; use --fields to choose columns (for example --fields name or --fields title,preview). More recipes live in docs/FZF-INTEGRATION.md.

Sync & Security

• The master password never leaves your machine. A PBKDF2-derived key wraps a randomly generated master key used for note encryption.
• Backends only see encrypted SQLite pages. Credentials live in the OS keyring when available (with a locked-down file fallback).
• Sync compares notebooks/notes with stable UUIDs, merging only what changed. Tombstones ensure deletions propagate safely. The first sync against an older database migrates it automatically.
• Enable automatic syncing after mutating commands by setting "autosync": true in ~/.config/notr/config.json.

Configuration

• Config file: ~/.config/notr/config.json (override via NOTR_CONFIG_PATH).
• Encrypted database: ~/.local/share/notr/notr.db (override via NOTR_DB_PATH).
• Tweak defaults within the options section (editor, viewer, timestamps, auto-sync, conflict handling).

Built-in Backends

• local – keeps an encrypted copy in a directory you control (perfect for offline backups or sync tools like Syncthing).
• webdav – syncs against any WebDAV endpoint using PUT/GET/HEAD, with graceful error messaging and spinner feedback.

To add a backend, subclass Backend in notr/backends/ and register it in notr/backends/base.py.

Shell Completion

Generate completion scripts and source them from your shell startup:

notr completion bash > ~/.config/notr/notr.bash
notr completion zsh  > ~/.config/notr/notr.zsh
notr completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/notr.fish

Restart your shell (or exec $SHELL) to activate completions.

Neovim integration

A first-party Neovim plugin lives in nvim/notr.nvim. It uses fzf-lua to browse notebooks/notes and edits notes in-buffer via the new notr update command. Installation and usage details are in that directory's README.

Contributing & Support

• Report bugs or request features: https://github.com/kimusan/notr/issues
• Ready to contribute? Read CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

Released under the MIT License. Crafted with care by Kim Schulz and the community.