catcher

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.

Background: Sanford Robinson Gifford, A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove), 1862. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.

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

Install

brew install gautham-v/tap/catcher

or cargo install catcher. Then run catcher.

Using it

• ^K is the command palette: new, new from template, set templates folder, set attachments folder, insert template, open, delete, rename, move to folder, trash, extract to new note, merge into note, reading view, find in note, bookmark, open vault, help, settings, quit.
• ^O opens a note: every folder, most recently opened first, fuzzy-searched by filename. Tab steps through its tabs: recent, a folder tree, contents, tags and bookmarks.
• ⇧^F searches in all files: every line that has every word you type, grouped by note. ⏎ opens the note at that line. Obsidian's operators work: "a phrase", /regex/, -not, path:journal, file:plan, tag:work, line:(a b).
• Find in note in the palette (unbound, key_find) is find and replace within the open note: ⏎ steps forward, ⇧⏎ back, Tab moves to the replace field, where ⏎ replaces the match and ⌥⏎ replaces all.
• ⌥⏎ on a row in ^O or ⇧^F opens that note in a terminal split to the right and leaves this one where it is; ⌥⇧⏎ splits below, ⌘⏎ opens a tab, and ⌥click does the same as ⌥⏎. The palette has open in split right / down / new tab for the note you are in. Catcher asks the terminal: Ghostty 1.3+ (through AppleScript; macOS asks once whether catcher may control it), tmux, kitty and WezTerm. Elsewhere the status bar says so.
• ^N makes a note. The filename follows its first line until you rename the file yourself. Either way, [[links]] to the old name in other notes are rewritten to the new one.
• ⌥D opens today's note, journal/2026-09-01.md, made from journal/template.md the first time ({{title}}, {{date}}, {{date:FMT}}, {{time}}, {{yesterday}}, {{tomorrow}}) and never rewritten after. daily_format names the file with Obsidian's tokens (YYYY, MM, DD, MMMM, ddd, Do, HH, mm, A, [literal]); a / in it is a subfolder.
• Insert template in the palette (unbound, key_template) puts a template in at the cursor as one undo step: the .md files under templates_dir (templates, or the folder a vault's .obsidian/templates.json names), one a row by name, ⏎ picks and Esc leaves the note as it was. The daily note's placeholders fill in, {{title}} being the note you are in. New from template makes a note out of one instead. Set templates folder… in the palette lists every folder in the vault and writes the one you pick to templates_dir, live. A template is an ordinary note: it still shows in ^O.
• Typing [[ suggests notes, [[note# its headings, [[^ this note's paragraphs and list items and [[note#^ another's (a block without an id gets one written onto it, Obsidian's way), and # the vault's tags; ⏎ or Tab takes one, Esc dismisses. autocomplete: no turns it off.
• The palette also has editing commands, unbound until you give them a key: toggle checkbox (- item → - [ ] → - [x] → - item, numbered lists too), move line up / down, toggle heading (#, ##, ###, none), insert today's date, copy path, reveal in Finder. Each takes the selection when there is one, and undoes as one step.
• ^P flips between the live-preview editor and the rendered page. Images draw inline in Ghostty, kitty and iTerm2, whether written ![alt](path) or as an Obsidian embed, ![[path]], ![[path|alt]] or ![[path|300]] for a width in pixels. A picture or attachment is looked for beside the note, in its attachments folder, in attachments_dir, then anywhere in the vault by name; a vault's .obsidian/app.json sets the attachments folder when the settings do not, and Set attachments folder… in the palette picks one out of the vault and writes it to attachments_dir. A folder either names is only taken if it is there; the default stands when it is not. In the reading view a click on a picture takes the whole terminal with it; ← / → step between the note's pictures, and any other key or a click puts the page back.
• [[wikilinks]] work like Obsidian's. ⌥⏎ follows one, ⌥P peeks at it, ^B / ^F go back and forward. A link to a note that does not exist yet is grey; following it makes the note beside the one you are in. [[Note#Heading]] reads as Note › Heading and lands on that heading; [[Note#^id]] lands on the line ending in ^id; [[#Heading]] jumps within the note. [text](note.md) links open, count and get rewritten the same way. Renaming a heading fixes the [[Note#Heading]] links to it. [[report.pdf]] opens the file with the desktop. Links resolve through a note's front matter aliases: (or alias:) too. The reading view lists the notes that link here at the bottom, and the notes that mention this one's title without linking it.
• ![[Note]], ![[Note#Heading]], ![[Note#^id]] or ![[Note|label]] on a line of its own embeds the note: a card with its title, the first lines of its body or of that section, and how many more there are. In a sentence it is a link.
• #tags are coloured, inline or as front matter tags: (or tag:). ⌥⏎ or a click on one opens ^O cut to the notes that carry it; #work lists the #work/projects notes too. Tags in the palette (key_tags) lists every tag in the vault with its note count.
• Unresolved links in the palette lists every [[link]] to a note that is not there; ⏎ goes to it. Bookmark note keeps the note in the bookmarks tab of ^O (seeded from the vault's .obsidian/bookmarks.json). Open vault… switches to another folder for the session.
• Extract to new note in the palette (unbound, key_extract) takes the selection, or the section under the cursor's heading, out into a note beside this one. The prompt offers the first heading in it as the name and Tab picks what stays behind — a [[link]], an ![[embed]] or nothing; ⏎ makes it, as one undo step.
• Merge into note… in the palette folds this note into another one: its body arrives at the end of that note under a heading of its own (one level under the target's top one), its tags: and aliases: join the target's front matter, its title becomes an alias so old links still resolve, every [[link]] to it in the vault becomes [[Target#This note]], and the file moves to .trash.
• Delete note moves the file to .trash at the top of the vault, Obsidian's own folder, rather than off the disk; the confirmation says how many notes link here first. Trash in the palette lists what is in there, most recently deleted first: ⏎ puts one back in the folder it came from and opens it, ⌥⌫ deletes it for good. Attachments are never moved, and a trashed note is out of everything else — ^O, the tree, the mentions, the recents — with the [[links]] to it grey like any other missing note.
• 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.
• A fenced block reads as a band in both views: the code background runs the full width of the column, with two columns either side, line numbers down the left in a dim gutter, and a thin rule every fourth column of a line's indent. On the page a blank row of that ground sits above and below it; in the editor the rows are the band's own top and bottom, kept as typed and dim. `code_numbers: no` drops the numbers and the rules. A fence that names a language — `rust , sh `, ` python — has its words coloured by role in both views, eight of them: keywords, strings, numbers, comments, type names, function names, operators and punctuation. A language nothing knows, or none at all, still gets the band and the gutter and none of the colour, andcode_colors: no` turns the colour off everywhere.
• Callouts, front matter, tables wider than the page (they pan sideways), checkboxes and ==highlights== all render. Callouts fold (> [!kind]- Title starts folded, ⌥← / ⌥→ or a click toggles) and nest. The reading view draws front matter as a properties box, tags clickable and dates with a relative hint; a click on the box's edge folds it to one line and a click on the line opens it again. Toggle properties in the palette cycles box, line and hidden, and Hide properties goes straight to hidden (properties: box · line · hide in the settings); in the editor they flip front_matter between dim and hide.
• Tasks: 1. [ ] numbered tasks get a checkbox, and the [/] in progress, [-] cancelled, [>] forwarded and [?] question states draw as glyphs. Nested bullets alternate •, ◦, ▪.
• Also rendered, both views: %% comments %% (dimmed in the editor, gone from the page), inline footnotes ^[text] numbered with [^n] references, and the HTML notes actually use — <kbd>, <sub>, <sup>, <u>, <mark>, <br>, <!-- comments -->. The editor shows backslash escapes literally, a dim ↵ for a hard line break, setext headings and indented code.
• Outline in the palette (rebindable as key_outline) lists the note's headings: type to filter, ⏎ jumps, ⌥⏎ folds the section.
• Sections fold. On a heading, ⌥← folds everything under it down to the next heading of the same or a higher level, ⌥→ opens it again; a folded heading shows ▸ and how many lines it hides. Folds are per note and last for the session, and the reading view keeps them: a click on a heading there folds or unfolds it, and ⌥← / ⌥→ take the heading the selection is on, or the first one on screen.
• On start the note decodes out of noise for half a second; any key cuts it short. Toggle opener in the palette turns it off and on (opener: yes · no).
• Notes autosave. Edit a note in another program and catcher takes what is on disk: the buffer reloads, the cursor stays on its line, and ^Z brings the old buffer back. A file deleted from under it is said so in the status bar and recreated on the next save.
• 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 whose title best matches; an error if none does
catcher new groceries    create a note titled "groceries" and open it
catcher today            open today's note in `journal/`, creating it from the template
catcher add "buy milk"   write a new note and print its path
catcher ~/vault          open the TUI rooted at that folder
catcher ~/vault/a.md     open that note, rooted at its folder
catcher path             print the notes directory
catcher --version        print the version

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. ⇧^F needs a terminal that tells shift+ctrl apart (Ghostty, kitty, WezTerm); elsewhere it arrives as ^F and the palette is the way in. The editing commands ship with no key: key_checkbox, key_line_up, key_line_down, key_heading, key_date, key_copy_path, key_reveal, key_outline, key_tags, key_find, key_properties, key_hide_properties, key_opener, key_template, key_extract bind them, and key_split_right, key_split_down, key_new_tab the open-beside ones.

Settings

^, opens ~/.config/catcher/settings.md as a note; ^S applies it. It covers the notes, attachments and templates folders, the daily note's folder, file name format and template, theme (auto, dark, light) and colours, syntax colour in fenced code (code_colors, code_numbers, and code_keyword, code_string, code_number, code_comment, code_type, code_function, code_operator, code_punctuation, with code_gutter and code_guide for the ruling), page width, borders, status bar (status_words adds a word and character count), the start-up animation (opener), autosave delay, tab width, front matter, table style, wikilinks, whether a rename updates links, linked mentions, autocomplete, how far ^O looks, and every key binding (key_fold, key_unfold, and the unbound key_fold_all / key_unfold_all among them). Each line has a one-line hint beside it. CATCHER_DIR overrides the notes folder.

Obsidian's colours, if you would rather have them than catcher's: paste these into the settings file and ^S.

- code_keyword: #f07ab8
- code_string: #9ece6a
- code_number: #7aa2f7
- code_comment: #6b6b6b
- code_type: #7dcfff
- code_function: #e0c26a
- code_operator: #f07ab8
- code_punctuation: #b4b4b4

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/app.rs the app state and key/mouse handling (with table editing in src/app/table_edit.rs and link peeks in src/app/peek.rs), src/md.rs live-preview styling, src/render.rs the reading view, src/highlight.rs the syntect pass over a fence, 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