catcher

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5a060469-40c5-4fd8-a17c-cab2e60b6f96

A minimal note-taking app for the terminal. Local-first, no accounts, no sync: your notes are a folder of .md files in ~/catcher, so grep, git and Obsidian work on them too.

Called tinynote until 0.9. Existing ~/tinynote and ~/.config/tinynote folders are still picked up.

Install

brew install tinycomputer-io/tap/catcher

or cargo install catcher. Then run catcher.

Using it

• ^K is the command palette: new, open, delete, rename, move to folder, reading view, help, settings, quit.
• ^O opens a note: every folder, most recently opened first, fuzzy-searched by filename. Tab flips it to a folder tree.
• ^N makes a note. The filename follows its first line until you rename the file yourself.
• ^P flips between the live-preview editor and the rendered page. Images draw inline in Ghostty, kitty and iTerm2.
• [[wikilinks]] work like Obsidian's. ⌥⏎ follows one, ⌥P peeks at it, ^B / ^F go back and forward. The reading view lists the notes that link here at the bottom.
• A ```mermaid fence is drawn as text: flowcharts and sequence diagrams, in box-drawing characters, no images and no network. Other kinds keep their source under a label.
• Callouts, front matter, tables wider than the page (they pan sideways), checkboxes and ==highlights== all render.
• Notes autosave. Mouse works: click, drag to select and copy, scroll. ^V pastes a clipboard image as a PNG.

CLI

catcher                  open the note you last had open
catcher groceries        open the note that best matches; create it if none does
catcher add "buy milk"   write a new note and print its path
catcher ~/vault          open the TUI rooted at that folder
catcher path             print the notes directory
catcher --keys           show what your terminal sends for each key

Keys

Editing is macOS-style: ⌘←/⌘→ line ends, ⌥←/⌥→ by word, ⇧ to extend a selection, ⌘A select all. Every key is rebindable in the settings; ^K answers to ctrl or cmd.

Settings

^, opens ~/.config/catcher/settings.md as a note; ^S applies it. It covers the notes and attachments folders, theme (auto, dark, light) and colours, page width, borders, status bar, autosave delay, tab width, front matter, table style, wikilinks, linked mentions, how far ^O looks, and every key binding. Each line has a one-line hint beside it. CATCHER_DIR overrides the notes folder.

Development

cargo run      # against ~/catcher (set CATCHER_DIR to test elsewhere)
cargo test
cargo clippy

Rust, ratatui + crossterm. src/editor.rs is the buffer, src/md.rs live-preview styling, src/render.rs the reading view, src/mermaid/ the diagram renderer, src/config.rs the settings note. Every colour lives in the theme module at the top of src/md.rs.

License

MIT