jot

A simple command-line tool for taking notes stored in plain text files.

Install

Build from source.
Create jot.conf, see Configuration below
- default_path is only required config

Usage

See jot --help for help.

Creating notes

Use jot to open a new note in EDITOR (default: vim)
Add note inline as a command-line argument

$ jot "Here is my note"

Use STDIN by piping or slurping in data

$ git log -1 | jot
$ jot < file-to-import.txt

The file created depends on the note type, if it does not exist, it will be created, otherwise opened or appended to.

Types of Notes

There are six types of notes: default, yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, new. This is a means for filing notes for different uses. I use the weekly notes for my weekly status updates. My monthly notes are for on-going projects through the month. I use daily or new note types for one-offs.

The note type specifies what filename to use for the note. You specify a type using a flag on the command-line flag, the default note is when no flag is present.

Flag	Config Name	Format String	Example
--yearly	yearly_format	year-%Y.txt	year-2021.txt
--monthly	monthly_format	%Y-%m-%b.md	2021-02-Feb.md
--weekly	weekly_format	%Y-week-%U.md	2021-week-08.md
--daily	daily_format	%Y-%m-%d.md	2021-02-25.md
--new	new_format	%Y%m%d%H%M%S.md	20210225153423.md
	default_format	%Y%m%d%H%M.md	202102251534.md

See Chrono strftime documentation for format parameters.

Each note type can also have its own path, see config below. If the file does not exist, it will be created, otherwise opened or appended to.

Configuration

You need to set the default_path in the jot.conf config file.

The config file location can be specified various ways, jot will look in the following order to determine where the config file is:

Command-line argument. Use jot --config /path/to/jot.conf
Environment variable: JOT_CONFIG_FILE
Look for platform config directory

a. Linux: ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/jot.conf

b. Windows: ${APPDATA}/jot.conf
Look for ${HOME}/.config/jot.conf

If not specified or found in any of the above locations, jot will error out with a message to set the configuration file.

The config file is in TOML format, example:

# jot config file

# Base directory that all notes are stored
# Use full path for directory
default_path = '/Users/mkaz/Documents/jot'

# What format to use for notes
# See: https://docs.rs/chrono/0.4.0/chrono/format/strftime/index.html
default_format = '%Y%m%d%H%M.md'

# 2021-02-Feb.md
monthly_format = "%Y-%m-%b.md"
# monthly_path = '/full/path/to/monthly/notes'

# 2021-week-08.md
weekly_format = "%Y-week-%U.md"
# weekly_path = '/full/path/to/weekly/notes'

# 2021-02-25.md
daily_format = "%Y-%m-%d.md"
# daily_path = '/full/path/to/daily/notes'

# 20210225153423.md
new_format = "%Y%m%d%H%M%S.md"
# new_path = '/full/path/to/new/notes'

Errata

Syncing data - You can use a cloud or sync provider to keep your notes in-sync across computers. I'm happy with the open-source Syncthing to keep my Documents folder in sync across computers. I hear Google Drive, Dropbox, and others might be able to do the same.

History

A bit of a toy project, a place to apply programming languages I'm learning, so it has gone through a couple iterations. It was first created in Python and then rewritten in Go. Now, it is Rust's turn.

License

Jot is open-source and free to use, it is licensed under a MIT License

I welcome contributions, but as a side project I may not always respond promptly. Please feel free to open an issues to report a bug, submit a feature, or even a pull request.

mkaz/jot

jot