Your notes, from the terminal
The Notate CLI is a command-line client for your workspace. Capture, search, script, and ask questions across your notes without leaving the shell.
npm install -g @notatemd/cli Requires Node.js 20 or newer.
Included with the Sync plan. See pricing.
Pure REST client
Talks straight to the Notate API. No local database and no sync engine to set up, just the notate command.
End-to-end encryption
When encryption is on, the CLI encrypts your notes on your machine before they are sent and decrypts them on read. Your key never leaves your device.
Full note and folder control
Create, edit, search, move, tag, favorite, restore, import, and export, plus version history and trash.
AI from the terminal
Ask questions across your notes, summarize, suggest tags, and rewrite text, streamed straight to stdout.
Scriptable and pipe-friendly
Pipe content in over stdin, get structured JSON out. Compose Notate with git, cron, and the rest of your shell.
Cross-platform
Sign in with your Notate account and create against the same notes as desktop, mobile, and web.
Get going
Install once,
capture from anywhere
Install from npm, sign in with your Notate account, and you are writing. New notes land in your workspace and show up on every device.
Content can come from a flag, a file, or straight off stdin, so quick capture is one command away.
Private by choice
Encrypted, even
from the terminal
If your account uses end-to-end encryption, the CLI honors it. Your notes are encrypted on your machine before they are sent, and decrypted locally when you read them, so the server only ever stores ciphertext.
The CLI checks your encryption state on every run, so it never writes plaintext to an encrypted account. Your key stays on your device.
Ask
Query your notes
without leaving the shell
Ask questions in plain language and Notate answers from your own workspace using semantic search, streaming the reply to your terminal.
Summarize a note, suggest tags, or rewrite a paragraph, all from the command line.
AI workflows
Wire your notes into
any AI pipeline
Because the CLI reads stdin and writes stdout, your notes flow through any AI tool or agent you already run. Pull a note out, send it through a model, and file the result straight back.
Structured JSON output makes notate a clean tool for agents and pipelines, so an assistant can capture, search, and organize your notes for you.
Automate
Pipe it into the rest
of your workflow
The CLI reads from stdin and prints plain markdown or JSON, so it composes with everything else in your shell.
Log a daily standup from git, feed a note to another tool, or wire capture into a cron job. It is just text in and text out.
Common questions
What can the Notate CLI do?
Most of what the apps can. Create, edit, search, move, tag, and favorite notes, manage folders and workspaces, work with trash and version history, import and export, and run AI queries against your notes. It reads from stdin and writes structured output, so it composes with the rest of your shell.
Which plan includes the CLI?
The Sync plan and above. The CLI works against the same account as the apps, so notes you create in the terminal appear everywhere else.
Does the CLI work with end-to-end encryption?
Yes. Unlike the AI features, the CLI runs on your own machine, so it can encrypt notes before sending them and decrypt them when you read. Your key never leaves your device. It checks your encryption state on every run, so it will not write readable notes to an encrypted account by mistake.
Bring your notes to the terminal.
Install the CLI and sign in to your Notate account. The same notes, now a command away.
npm install -g @notatemd/cli