hey
A Unix-inspired personal knowledge retrieval tool for programmers.
Motivation
I take notes while learning and working on projects. Over time, finding the right note became increasingly tedious:
- Navigating to the correct directory
- Finding the correct file
- Opening the file in an editor
- Reading the contents
hey aims to reduce this friction by making notes retrievable through keyword-based search.
Philosophy
- Local-first
- Plain text files
- Human-readable storage
- Unix-inspired workflow
- No AI or machine learning
- Deterministic behavior
- Simple and composable
The original note files remain accessible without hey.
Current Features
Note Creation
Create a new note by providing a title.
The title acts as a collection of search keywords that can later be used to retrieve the note.
Editor Integration
hey respects standard Unix editor variables:
VISUALEDITOR
If neither is set, a fallback editor is used.
Keyword Search
Search for notes using one or more keywords.
Results are ranked according to title matches.
Example:
hey rust traits
hey asm directives
Storage
Notes are stored locally under:
~/.local/share/hey
Current versions store notes directly within hey-managed storage.
Roadmap
Planned
- Note preview during search
- Improved search result interaction
- Linking external notes through symbolic links
- Importing existing notes into hey
Possible Future Improvements
- Better note organization
- Additional retrieval workflows
- Performance improvements where justified by real usage
Non-Goals
At present, hey is not intended to be:
- A general-purpose note-taking platform
- A cloud service
- An AI assistant
- A collaborative knowledge base
Installation
Project Status
Current version: 0.1.0
hey is a personal project built as part of learning Rust, systems programming, and software architecture.
Feedback
Discussions, ideas, and design feedback are welcome.
Pull requests are currently not accepted.
License
MIT