clin-rs 0.3.6

Encrypted terminal note-taking app
clin-rs-0.3.6 is not a library.

clin - Your notes. Encrypted. Instant. Private. Simple.

clin is not a text editor!

clin was originally an app I made when I got into C. It was really rough and basic, so I decided to remake it in Rust with more features and an improved user experience to better fit your workflow!

Highlights

  • Unicode glyphs, requires a Nerd Font
  • ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption (optional)
  • Binary .clin files
  • Full-screen TUI with list + editor + help views
  • Mouse support + bracketed paste
  • Folders & Tags
  • Continuous Auto-save (with panic crash safety logic)

Future Plans

Configuration & Customization

  • Smart folders: Automatic movement of specific tagged notes to specific folders.
  • Custom storage path: Change where the encrypted vault lives.
  • User-defined templates: Boilerplate for new notes.
  • Custom keybinds: Remap controls to fit the user's workflow.
  • Git integration: Automate backups and versioning via Git.

Editor Enhancements

  • Word & Character metrics: Real-time word counts and progress goals.
  • Status line customization: Flexible status_format = "{title} | {word_count} words | {encryption_status}"
  • External editor support: Opening notes in nvim, helix, etc.
  • Improved mouse support: Right-click context menus within the editor.

Note Management & Navigation

  • Batch Tagging: Improve tag manager popup to batch tag multiple notes.
  • Better Templates: Improvements for templates popup with searching, easier template creation, setting up a default template to always use on new notes.
  • Folders & Tags: Hierarchical and metadata-based organization.
  • Mouse Support: Navigation and selection within the notes list.
  • Enhanced UI: Sorting options, pinned notes, confirmation dialogs, and a preview pane.
  • Fast Search: Immediate note discovery using the fd utility. (Implemented without fd for now.)
  • Asset management: Icon rendering and assigning icons to specific notes. DISCONTINUED Reason: implemented using unicode glyphs, users will be able to config their own glyphs via config.
  • Data portability: Easy backup/restore and text file importing by making encryption optional.

Integration & CLI Usage

  • Pre-piping: Routing notes through external tools for custom rendering.
  • Markdown integration: Markdown preview in preview pane and in editor mode as a seperate markdown view readonly mode. Using glow or alternatives.
  • Expanded CLI: More argument options for command-line interactions.

Command Palette

  • Command palette: Implement command palette for doing special actions(OCR, graph view, back/forward-link checks etc. on notes.
  • OCR Paste: Insert text from a copied image at clipboard into a note, should support external editors. Using tesseract.
  • PDF to Text: Insert PDF contents as .md format. Using pdftotext or poppler.
  • Export as PDF: Export as formatted PDF. Using pandoc or weasyprint.
  • CSV to Table: Insert CSV contents as .md table format.
  • URL to Article: Insert article containing URL's as .md. Using ureq or html2md.
  • Linking Notes: Link notes with [[<note_name>]].
  • Backlinks: Related to Linking notes, allow for following backlinks. Using indexing caching.
  • Forwardlinks: Related to Linking notes, allow for following forward links.
  • Sub-notes: Orphan notes, creating virtual sub-notes that are attached to a note without physically existing on the disk. Using backlinks.
  • Graph View: Visual graph of linked notes, related to Linking notes.
  • Insert Date/Time: Insert date/time.
  • Calculator: Simple calculator, inserts the simple mathematical calculations result.
  • Calendar Picker: Calendar UI to pick and insert a specific date.
  • Date/Time Calculator: Inserts results of calculations like now + 2 weeks or 7 pm + 156 minutes or now -t 13.04.2028(results the amount of days), also user defined dates i.e birthdays etc..
  • Timezone Converter: Inserts the converted timezone i.e UTC+3 -> GMT+3.
  • Date/Time Linking: Link the date/time of the created note for graph view.
  • Clipboard History: Access clipboard items and allow for multi-pasting, formatting before pasting, pasting as plain text, pasting as code etc. HIGH SECURITY AND PRIVACY CONCERN MIGHT BE DISCONTINUED.
  • Merge Notes: Merge Two or more notes together.
  • Split Notes: Split notes according to headlines from .md format.
  • Redact Paste: Replace wanted sections of a text with ████ while pasting from clipboard.
  • Tree Outline: Show the note as a treeview with each root being a headling from .md format and notes being branches.
  • Text Search: Search for a specific text. Using ripgrep or grep.
  • Common Words: Extract most used words from a note.

Experimental & Advanced

  • Canvas Alternative: An alternative way to manage notes as canvases inspired by Obsidian.
  • AOW Pinning: Pin notes as a seperate window to always display on other windows.
  • Lua Scripting: Allowing users to write scripts to extend app functionality.
  • Steganography: Hiding encrypted vaults inside other file types.
  • History: Access change history of a note. Using git2, crate. Will conflict with auto-save.

Configuration

clin uses ~/.config/clin/config.toml for app configuration and ~/.config/clin/keybinds.toml for custom keybinds.

App Configuration (config.toml)

This file is generated automatically. You can edit it to change your settings:

storage_path = "/custom/path/to/vault" # Optional: Change where notes are stored
external_editor = "nvim" # Optional: Command to use for the external editor
external_editor_enabled = false
encryption_enabled = true # Whether new notes should be encrypted by default

Custom Keybinds (keybinds.toml)

You can fully customize clin's keybindings! To get started, generate the default configuration using the CLI:

clin --export-keybinds > ~/.config/clin/keybinds.toml

Then, edit the file to change bindings for the list, editor, or help menus.

User Defined Templates

Template popup can be accessed with the default t key.

You can create your own templates in ~/.local/share/clin/templates folder with .toml format to quickly use in your editor! Template format should simply be:

name = "<TEMPLATE_NAME>"
[title]
template = "<TEMPLATE_TITLE>"
[content]
template = """
<TEMPLATE_CONTENT>

Folders

You can move files in folders using the default m key via it's popup!

Tags

You can add tags to the files using the default . key via it's popup!

Right-Click Context Menu

In editor mode, right-click context menu has basic features such as Copy, Paste, Cut, Select All. For now system clipboard doesn't integrate with this system. This will be changed in the future as a config option!

Optional Encryption Using ChaCha20-Poly1305

Encryption can be toggled with selecting it with Tab and pressing Enter to turn it on/off.

Encryption ON

  • Created notes will be .clin files, encrypted and assigned to [ENC] tag(invisible when encryption is on).
  • When trying to open an unencrypted note ([UENC]), the app will require confirmation since it will overwrite the original file and encrypt it! This behaviour will be changed to create an encrypted copy of the original file instead, and it will be a config option to customize its behaviour.

Encryption OFF

  • Created notes will be .md files and assigned to [UENC] tag.
  • Encrypted notes will be shown with their [ENC] tag and they will be inaccessible.

Installation

Debian/Ubuntu (.deb)

Download the latest .deb from the Releases page.

sudo dpkg -i clin-rs_0.3.4-1-1_amd64.deb

Fedora/RHEL (.rpm)

Download the latest .rpm from the Releases page.

sudo rpm -i clin-rs-0.3.4-1-1.x86_64.rpm

Arch Linux (PKGBUILD)

A PKGBUILD is included in the root of the repository.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/reekta/clin-rs.git
cd clin

# Install
makepkg -si

Other

Download the latest .tar.gz from Releases page for manual installation.

# Extract the archive
tar -xzf clin-rs-0.3.4-1-x86_64.tar.gz
cd clin-rs-0.3.4-1-x86_64.tar.gz

# Give executable permission
chmod +x clin
./clin

# Install
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin # If not exists
mv clin ~/.local/bin/

From Source (Cargo)

# Install Rust
curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

# Build & run
cargo run

# Install globally
cargo install --path .

With Cargo

# Install Rust
curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

# Install clin
cargo install clin-rs

CLI Commands

NOTE OPERATIONS:
  clin                        Launch interactive app
  -n [TITLE]                Create a new note and open it
  -n -t, --template <NAME> [TITLE]
                              Create a new note from a template
  -q <CONTENT> [TITLE]      Create a quick note and exit
  -e <TITLE>                Open a specific note by title
  -l                        List note titles
  -h, --help                Show this help message

CONFIGURATION:
  --storage-path            Show current storage path
  --set-storage-path <PATH> Set custom storage path
  --reset-storage-path      Reset to default storage path
  --migrate-storage         Migrate data from previous storage location

KEYBINDS:
  --keybinds                Show current keybindings
  --export-keybinds         Export keybinds as TOML
  --reset-keybinds          Reset keybinds to defaults

TEMPLATES:
  --list-templates          List available templates
  --create-example-templates Create example templates