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https://github.com/norm/simplenote-local

Synchronise and edit local notes files with Simplenote
https://github.com/norm/simplenote-local

Last synced: 12 months ago
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Synchronise and edit local notes files with Simplenote

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README 

          
# simplenote-local



A command-line tool to fetch, edit, and synchronise local notes files with

[Simplenote](https://simplenote.com).



## Synchronising notes



Set the username and password for your Simplenote account in the environment.



    export SIMPLENOTE_LOCAL_USER=user@example.com

    export SIMPLENOTE_LOCAL_PASSWORD=sekr1tp@ss



Then fetch the latest notes state from Simplenote. 



    simplenote --fetch



Notes are kept in `$HOME/Notes` by default, but this can be overridden.



    export SIMPLENOTE_LOCAL_DIR=$HOME/simplenotes

    simplenote --fetch



Send any local changes to Simplenote. Although notes are automatically sent to

Simplenote when changed using `simplenote --edit`, this will send any changes

made by other commands.



    simplenote --send



Loop forever sending any local updates to Simplenote, and regularly checking

Simplenote for updates to fetch.



    simplenote --watch



By default this will check Simplenote for new changes every 10 minutes, and

wait one minute after detecting local changes before sending (in case the same

file is changed again in quick succession). These timings can be overridden.



    simplenote --fetch-interval 60 --send-wait 0 --watch



## Finding notes



To list all notes:



    simplenote --list



The notes are sorted with the most recently edited files first.



To list only those notes that contain one or more words either in the

filename, or in the file contents:



    simplenote --list recipe rice



Words are searched as fragments, not whole words. For example, `simplenote

--list recipe rice` would also find recipe notes that included the word

"ricer" or "liquorice".



To list notes that have a specific tag applied, you can use either `#tag`

or `%tag` notation. Hashes are more commonly used in social media, but

in the shell it starts a comment, so would need to be quoted.



    simplenote --list \#recipe

    simplenote --list %recipe pie



To list all available tags:



    simplenote --list-tags



## Editing notes



To edit all notes:



    simplenote --edit



**Note:** unless your editor is fast at loading multiple files, or loads

them one at a time (like vi), this could be painfully slow once you have

a lot of notes.



To override the editor your default `VISUAL` and/or `EDITOR` environment

variables would specify:



    export SIMPLENOTE_LOCAL_EDITOR=sublime

    simplenote --edit



To edit only those notes that would match using the same rules as `--list`:



    simplenote --edit key lime pie

    simplenote --edit "key lime pie"

    simplenote --edit %recipe pie



Editing is the default, so the flag can be omitted.



    simplenote key lime pie



To edit an individual file, the filename must contain at least one space

**and** the space(s) must be quoted in the command. The ".txt" extension

does not need to be included.



    simplenote "key lime pie"

    simplenote key\ lime\ pie



To pipe the output of a command into a note, creating it if it doesn't

already exist:



    pbpaste | simplenote "cake recipe"



**Notes:**

* If the argument(s) match more than one existing note, only the first match

  will be updated.

* If no match is given, the note will be named after the first line of the

  output.



If the input looks like HTML, it will be passed through

[markdownify](https://pypi.org/project/markdownify/) first. You can disable

this step with with the `--raw` option:



    curl https://.../cake-recipe.html | simplenote "cake recipe"

    curl https://.../cake-recipe.html | simplenote --raw "html cake recipe"



## Tagging notes



To add a tag to matching notes:



    simplenote --add-tag recipe key lime pie



To remove a tag from matching notes:



    simplenote --remove-tag recipe key lime pie



To remove a tag from all notes:



    simplenote --remove-tag recipe



## Removing notes



To move all matching notes to the Trash:



    simplenote --trash recipe



To restore a note from the Trash:



    simplenote --restore key lime pie



To permanently delete notes from the Trash:



    simplenote --purge key lime pie



## Pinning notes



**Note:** pinned notes appear at the top of the notes list in the Simplenote

interface. In the local copy, it will sort those notes to the top when using

`simplenote --list`, nothing else.



To pin all matching notes:



    simplenote --pin key lime pie



To unpin all matching notes:



    simplenote --unpin key lime pie



## Publishing notes



To tell Simplenote to publish notes to a web page:



    simplenote --publish key lime pie



To tell Simplenote to remove published notes:



    simplenote --unpublish key lime pie



## Collaborating on notes



To collaborate with others on notes, you can add a tag which is the

email address of another user:



    simplenote --add-tag norm@example.com key lime pie



To stop sharing notes with them, remove the tag again:



    simplenote --remove-tag norm@example.com key lime pie



**Note:** There are two wrinkles with this implementation of sharing:



1. If that email is not already registered with Simplenote there appears to be

   no notification to them that they could sign up to collaborate with you --

   that is, you either have to be sure they already use Simplenote, or inform

   them yourself to sign up in order to be able to work together on a note.



2. When you later unshare a note, the other account keeps a copy of the

   original note as it was immediately before unsharing, which may be

   unexpected behaviour and not what you want.



## Show a summary of the metadata stored about matching notes



    simplenote --info key lime pie



## Historical versions of notes



Simplenote keeps multiple versions of notes as they are updated, but not all.

The [Simperium documentation](https://simperium.com/overview/) states:



> Simperium stores up to 50 of your most recent versions, and then every

> 10th version beyond that.



Simperium is the name for the service backing the Simplenote app.



**Personal note:** I have some regularly edited notes with 1,500+ versions

where versions more than 1,000 back are not available; so there are more

possible expiry thresholds for historical versions than stated.



To get a list of the recent historical versions of matching notes:



    simplenote --history key lime pie



To get a list of all available historical versions of matching notes:



    simplenote --history --full key lime pie



To show the metadata and content of an older version of a single note:



    simplenote --show-version "key lime pie" 22



To restore the content and tags of an older version of a single note:



    simplenote --restore-version "key lime pie" 22



**Note:** In this instance, the name of the note needs to be quoted to make it

the first argument to the command, as the second argument is the version.



## Local changes



To list known local changes to notes:



    simplenote --list-changes



**Note:** this does not automatically fetch the current state of notes, so

it is not 100% authoritative.