clin-rs 0.8.11

Encrypted terminal note-taking app inspired by Obsidian
clin-rs-0.8.11 is not a library.
Visit the last successful build: clin-rs-0.9.0-rc.1

clin

A TUI reimagination of Obsidian — feature-packed note management in your terminal.

CI Release License: GPL-3.0 MSRV: 1.88.0

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!

About

clin is a FOSS, minimal(around 2-5~ megabytes of binary) and TUI alternative for the note management app Obsidian. It mainly provides the biggest features of Obsidian(markdown editing and rendering, .canvas files, graph view etc.) in a extremely compact package and really minimal resource usage, written in Rust at a TUI environment. It's goal to provide you a feature-packed note management app right at your terminal while keeping the UI/UX easy and accessible. It's 90% compatible with Obsidian you can literally copy-paste your Obsidian vault to the clin vault and it just works without a problem, unsupported stuff are image rendering, databases, Obsidian plugins and some small features here and there.

Screenshots

Highlights

  • Notes view — folder tree, tags, markdown preview pane (via glow), search, filter, sort, pin, multi-select, trash management, file management (copy, paste, delete, rename, move).
  • Editor view — built-in text editor with mouse support, line numbers, undo/redo, and external editor integration (VISUAL/EDITOR env or config). Markdown preview pane alongside editor.
  • Graph view — fully integrated force-directed graph visualization of your note corpus. Edges from [[wikilinks]]. Physics simulation, minimap, legend, search, configurable colors and layout. See GRAPH_VIEW.md.
  • Canvas view — Obsidian-compatible .canvas file format. Place text/file/link/group nodes on an infinite 2D canvas, connect them with edges. Right-click context menu, drag, resize, zoom. See CANVAS.md.
  • Draw view — freehand drawing canvas with shapes (rect, ellipse, diamond, line, arrow), text, and eraser tool. .draw file format. See DRAW.md.
  • Content tree view — view to see the content of a .md file as a tree with headers being the parents and content being the children.
  • Git backup — backup system using git as backend, initialize a repository and backup your notes automatically.
  • Command palette (Ctrl+P) — extensible action system with encrypt/decrypt, theme switcher, OCR paste, canvas/draw creation, graph view. See COMMAND_PALETTE.md.
  • Theme system — 11 built-in themes (TokyoNight, CatppuccinMocha, OneDark, Gruvbox, Dracula, Nord, RosePine, Everforest, Kanagawa, Solarized), transparent/solid backgrounds, per-color overrides. See THEME_SYSTEM.md.
  • Encryption — on-demand ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD per-note encryption. .clin files with plaintext frontmatter for fast summary loading. See ENCRYPTION.md.
  • Obsidian .canvas import — existing Obsidian canvas files are read and rendered, except for images.
  • Templates — TOML-based note templates with variable substitution ({date}, {time}, {weekday}, etc.). See TEMPLATES.md.

Dependencies

These are highly recommended for the best experience:

  • A nerd font — required for rendering glyphs which are highly used around the UI.
  • A modern terminal — such as kitty, ghostty etc.

Optional Tools

These tools are optional — clin works without them:

Tool Purpose Package
tesseract OCR paste (clipboard image → text) tesseract-ocr
wl-clipboard Clipboard access (Wayland) wl-clipboard
xclip or xsel Clipboard access (X11) xclip
glow Markdown preview rendering glow

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/reekta92/clin-rs.git
cd clin-rs
cargo build --release

With Cargo

cargo install clin-rs

Debian/Ubuntu (.deb)

Download the latest .deb from the Releases page.

sudo dpkg -i clin-rs_*_amd64.deb

Fedora/RHEL (.rpm)

Download the latest .rpm from the Releases page.

sudo rpm -i clin-rs-*.x86_64.rpm

Arch Linux (PKGBUILD)

A PKGBUILD is included in the root of the repository.

git clone https://github.com/reekta92/clin-rs.git
cd clin-rs
makepkg -si

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S clin-rs-bin

AppImage

Download the latest .AppImage from the Releases page.

chmod +x clin-*-x86_64.AppImage
./clin-*-x86_64.AppImage

Other

Download the latest .tar.gz from the Releases page.

tar -xzf clin-rs-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
chmod +x clin
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv clin ~/.local/bin/

Rust not installed? Run curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh to install Rust.

Quick Start

# Launch the interactive TUI
clin

# Create a quick note
clin -q "Meeting notes from today" "standup-2026-06-13"

# Create a note from a template
clin -n --template diary

# Open a specific note
clin -e "my-note"

Once inside the TUI: navigate with j/k, open notes with Enter, open the command palette with Ctrl+P, and view the graph with Ctrl+G. Press ? for the full keybind reference.

Features

View Purpose Key Actions
List / Notes Browse, search, filter, manage notes Folders, tags, sort, pin, glow preview, search, trash, copy/move/delete
Editor Write and edit notes Title + body, undo/redo, mouse support, line numbers, markdown preview pane, external editor
Graph Visualize note connections Force-directed layout, [[wikilinks]] edges, physics, minimap, legend, search, grid, configurable colors
Canvas Obsidian-compatible node/edge canvas Text/file/link/group nodes, edges, drag/resize, context menu, raw JSON editor
Draw Freehand drawing and shapes Stroke, rect/ellipse/diamond/line/arrow, text, eraser, pan/zoom
Feature Description
Command Palette (Ctrl+P) Extensible action system: encrypt, decrypt, theme switch, OCR paste, create canvas/draw, open graph
Encryption Per-note ChaCha20-Poly1305, .clin files, on-demand encrypt/decrypt, zero-knowledge
Templates TOML-based with {date}, {time}, {weekday} variables
Themes 11 built-in themes, transparent/solid backgrounds, per-color overrides
Keybinds Fully customizable via keybinds.toml
OCR Clipboard image to text via tesseract (optional dependency)

Configuration

~/.config/clin/config.toml -> main configuration file (includes theme, graf settings, etc.) ~/.config/clin/keybinds.toml -> keybind configuration file

See the full configuration reference for all available options.

config.toml example

# Custom vault storage path (default: ~/.local/share/clin)
storage_path = "/path/to/your/vault"

# External editor command (e.g. "nvim", "code", "nano")
external_editor = "nvim"
external_editor_enabled = false

# Show the preview pane by default
preview_enabled = true

# Show markdown preview in editor by default
editor_preview_enabled = false

# Show line numbers
show_line_numbers = true

# Confirm before deleting
confirm_on_delete = true

# Default sort
# default_sort_field = "title"   # "title" or "modified"
# default_sort_order = "ascending"  # "ascending" or "descending"

[theme]
theme = "tokyo_night"
background = "transparent"
# accent = "#ff6600"
# background_color = "#1a1a2e"

See THEME_SYSTEM.md for theme options and CONFIG_REFERENCE.md for all graf sections.

keybinds.toml example

See the full keybinds reference for all available actions and defaults.

[list]
move_up = ["Up", "k"]
move_down = ["Down", "j"]
open = ["Enter"]
delete = ["d", "Delete"]
quit = ["q"]
help = ["?", "F1"]
open_command_palette = ["Ctrl+p", "Shift+Enter"]
# ... see CONFIG_REFERENCE.md for full list

[edit]
back = ["Esc"]
cycle_focus = ["Tab"]
copy = ["Ctrl+c", "Ctrl+Insert"]
# ... see CONFIG_REFERENCE.md

[graph]
quit = ["Esc"]
pan_up = ["Up", "k"]
# ... see CONFIG_REFERENCE.md

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

Documentation

Full technical documentation lives in docs/:

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for planned features and progress.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Credits

Built with Ratatui, Crossterm, and fdg-sim. Markdown preview powered by glow.