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# medi ✒️
[](https://crates.io/crates/medi)
[](https://crates.io/crates/medi)
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## `medi`, a speedy CLI driven Markdown manager
**A fast, editor-centric, command-line notes manager.**
`medi` is a simple and powerful tool for creating and managing your notes, articles, and documentation directly from the terminal. It's built for developers, writers, and anyone who loves the speed and focus of a command-line workflow.
## Core Philosophy
`medi` is built on a few guiding principles:
- **CLI-first**: Everything is done through the terminal. No GUIs or TUIs, no distractions.
- **Editor-centric**: Your text editor (`$EDITOR`) is where you write. `medi` gets you there quickly and saves your work securely.
- **Local & private**: All content is stored on your local machine in a high-performance embedded database. No cloud services, no network access.
- **Zero-config start**: Install it and start writing immediately.
## Features ✨
* **Speed**: Instant access to any note, no matter how large your collection grows, thanks to an embedded database index.
* **Focused Workflow**: A command-line hub for your writing. Create or edit notes from any directory without needing to `cd` first.
* **Flexible Input**: Create notes in the way that suits your workflow:
* Interactively in your favorite editor for long-form content.
* Instantly with a one-liner using the `-m` flag for quick thoughts.
* Powerfully by piping from other commands for scripting.
* **Safe Deletion**: An interactive confirmation prompt on `delete` prevents you from accidentally losing work.
* **Colorful & Clear Output**: Uses colored output to clearly distinguish between success messages, information, warnings, and errors.
## How It Works, DB as Source-of-Truth
`medi` uses a database-first approach. All your notes are stored in a `sled` key-value database, making access fast and reliable. This database is the single source of truth.
To version control your work with Git, `medi` provides a simple and deliberate workflow:
- **Write**: Use `medi new` and `medi edit` to manage your notes.
- **Export**: Run `medi export ./my-notes` to write all your notes to a local directory as `.md` files.
- **Commit**: Use Git to commit the exported directory, giving you a complete, version-controlled snapshot of your work.
---
## ⚠️ Breaking Change (for versions >= 0.6.0)
The default database location has been updated to follow standard conventions for each operating system. If you are updating from an older version of `medi`, you **must manually move your database** to the new location to keep your existing notes.
**To migrate your data:**
1. **Find your old database folder** at `~/.medi/medi_db`.
2. **Move it** to the new standard location for your OS:
* **macOS:** Move it to `~/Library/Application Support/medi/`
```bash
mv ~/.medi/medi_db ~/Library/Application\ Support/medi/
```
* **Linux:** Move it to `~/.local/share/medi/`
```bash
mv ~/.medi/medi_db ~/.local/share/medi/
```
* **Windows:** Move it to `%APPDATA%\medi\` (usually `C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\medi\`)
This one-time move will ensure `medi` is a good citizen on your filesystem. New installations will automatically use the correct path.
---
### Installation
You need [Rust and Cargo](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install) installed.
#### Installing from crates.io
The easiest way to install `medi` is to download it from [crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/medi). You can do it using the following command:
```bash
cargo install medi
```
If you want to update `medi` to the latest version, execute the following command:
```bash
medi update
```
#### Building from source
Alternatively you can build `medi` from source using Cargo:
```bash
git clone https://github.com/cladam/medi.git
cd medi
sudo cargo install --path . --root /usr/local
```
## Configuration
On the first run, `medi` will automatically create a default configuration file at the standard location for your operating system:
* **macOS**: `~/Library/Application Support/medi/config.toml`
* **Linux**: `~/.config/medi/config.toml`
* **Windows**: `C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\medi\config.toml`
You can edit this file to customize `medi`'s behaviour.
### Example `config.toml`
```toml
# Path to the database file.
# You can change this to store your notes in a different location,
# for example, inside a cloud-synced folder like Dropbox.
db_path = "/Users/cladam/Library/Application Support/medi/medi_db"
# Default directory for the `medi export` command.
# If this is set, you can run `medi export` without specifying a path.
# Leave it as an empty string ("") if you don't want a default.
default_export_dir = "/Users/cladam/Documents/medi_backups"
```
## Usage
### Creating and Editing Notes
* **Create a new note**
`medi` provides three ways to create a new note:
1. **Interactively (default)**: Opens your default editor for long-form content.
```bash
medi new "my-long-article"
medi new "my-long-article" --tag tag1 --tag tag2
medi new "my-long-article" --title "My Long Article"
```
2. **With a direct message**: Perfect for quick, one-line notes.
```bash
medi new quick-idea -m "Remember to buy milk"
```
3. **From a pipe**: Use the output of other commands as your note content.
```bash
echo "This is a note from a pipe" | medi new piped-note
```
* **Edit an existing note**
```bash
medi edit "my-long-article"
medi edit "my-long-article" --add-tag tag1 --add-tag tag2
medi edit "my-long-article" --rm-tag tag1 --rm-tag tag2
```
### Viewing and listing notes
- **Get a note's content**
Prints the note directly to the console. This is perfect for piping to other tools.
```bash
medi get "my-first-article"
medi get "my-first-article" | mdcat
medi get "my-first-article" --json
medi get --tag my-tag
```
* **List all notes**
The `list` command provides a rich overview of your notes, including their keys and tags.
```bash
medi list
```
*Output:*
```
Notes:
- medi-readme [#medi #README]
- tbdflow-readme [#tbdflow #README]
- tbdflow-gif-post [#blog]
```
* **Sort your notes**
You can sort the list by creation or last modification date using the `--sort-by` flag. The default is to sort alphabetically by key.
```bash
medi list --sort-by modified
medi list --sort-by created
```
### Deleting a Note
- **Delete a note**
You will be prompted for confirmation.
```bash
medi delete "my-first-article"
medi delete "my-first-article" --force
```
### Versioning with Export/Import
- **Export all notes to a directory**
Creates a version-controllable snapshot of your database.
```bash
medi export ./my_notes_backup
cd my_notes_backup
tbdflow init
```
- **Export all notes to a Json document**
```bash
medi export medi-export --format json
```
- **Export notes via a tag**
```bash
medi export medi-export --tag my-tag
```
- **Import notes from a directory**
Restores notes from a directory of .md files.
```bash
medi import --dir /path/to/notes
medi import --file /path/to/note.md --key my-note
medi import --file /path/to/note.md --key my-note --overwrite
```
### Shell Completion
To make `medi` even faster to use, you can enable shell completion. Add one of the following lines to your shell's configuration file.
For Zsh (`~/.zshrc`):
```bash
eval "$(medi generate-completion zsh)"
```
For Bash (`~/.bashrc`):
```bash
eval "$(medi generate-completion bash)"
```
For Fish (`~/.config/fish/config.fish`):
```bash
## Project Roadmap 🗺️
This section tracks the implementation status of `medi`'s features. Contributions are welcome!
- [x] All core commands (new, get, list, edit, delete, import, export).
- [x] Configuration file for settings (e.g., database path).
- [x] Support for note metadata (tags, creation dates).
- [x] `export` notes by tag.
- [ ] Full-text search over note content.
- [ ] Implement a `task` command for tracking the status of notes.