https://github.com/hschne/til-tool
Create TILs from the command line 🗒️
https://github.com/hschne/til-tool
automation bash bash-script til
Last synced: 2 months ago
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Create TILs from the command line 🗒️
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/hschne/til-tool
- Owner: hschne
- License: mit
- Created: 2025-04-18T07:27:04.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-05-14T07:07:57.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-06-20T23:35:16.710Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: automation, bash, bash-script, til
- Language: Shell
- Homepage:
- Size: 25.4 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# TIL Tool
A simple bash script to quickly create "Today I Learned" notes ([such as these](https://github.com/jbranchaud/til)) from the command line.
## Features
- ✨ Create TIL notes with a single command.
- 📝 Customize! Content, location, tags...
- 🔄 Git integration for automatic commits and pushes
## Usage
Download the `til` to some location on your `$PATH`:
```bash
# Download this script and make it executable
curl -sL --proto-redir -all,https https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hschne/refs/heads/main/til > ~/.local/bin/til && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/til
```
Then, create a new TIL note:
```bash
til "Using fzf for Fuzzy Finding"
```
This will automatically create a new markdown file with today's date (`YYYY-MM-DD-using-fzf-for-fuzzy-finding.md`) and open it in your preferred editor. Once you save and close the editor your file will be automatically committed and pushed (if your TIL folder is a git repository).
To learn how you can customize your TIL notes content and note location see [#Configuration].
## Configuration
The tool can be configured with environment variables:
| Environment Variable | Description | Default |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------- | ----------- |
| `TIL_FOLDER` | Location to store TIL entries | `$HOME/til` |
| `TIL_TEMPLATE` | Custom template string | See below |
| `TIL_TAGS` | Default tags for entries | Empty |
| `TIL_SKIP_PUSH` | Skip git commit and push | `false` |
It also provides the following command line options.
```
Usage: til [OPTIONS] "TITLE"
Create a Today I Learned (TIL) markdown entry with the given title.
Note: Multi-word titles must be enclosed in quotes.
Options:
-h, --help Show this help message and exit
-d, --directory DIR Specify the TIL directory
-T, --template FILE Use a custom template file
-t, --tags TAGS Provide tags for the TIL file
--skip-push Skip git commit and push
```
You will want to use a custom TIL folder and potentially a custom template. We recommend you use an alias and overwrite environment variables accordingly.
```bash
# ~/.aliases
alias til="til -d ~/code/my-til-repository/notes -T ~/code/my-til-repository/template.md"
```
### Templates
You may use a custom template file to structure you TIL notes. Templates may contain placeholders. The default template below lists available placeholders.
```markdown
---
title: { TITLE }
date: { DATE }
tags: { TAGS }
---
# {TITLE}
{CONTENT}
```
## Advanced Usage
```bash
# Simple use case
til "Bash Parameter Expansion"
# Read from stdin. Great for scripting.
somecommand | til "My Automated TIL"
# Customize using env vars
export TIL_FOLDER=~/code/my-til-repository/notes
export TIL_TEMPLATE=$(cat ~/code/my-til-repository/template.md)
til "Bash Parameter Expansion"
```
## Credit
TIL ("Today I Learned") notes are brief documents that record new snippets of knowledge you acquire daily. This tool is inspired by repositories like [jbranchaud/til](https://github.com/jbranchaud/til) and [thoughtbot/til](https://github.com/thoughtbot/til) and aims to make it easier for anyone to start their own TIL repository.
Shoutout also to [Chris Oliver] & Andrew Mason who discussed TIL notes in [this episode of Remote Ruby](https://www.remoteruby.com/2260490/episodes/16891112-more-listener-questions) and motivated the creation of this script.
## Development
### Running Tests
Tests are written using the [Bats](https://github.com/bats-core/bats-core) testing framework. Install bats if needed and run tests.
```bash
bats test/til.bats
```
## License
[License](./LICENSE)