# Thoth
A terminal scratchpad inspired by [Heynote](https://github.com/heyman/heynote).
## Inspiration
As mentioned on Heynote's GitHub page, it is "a dedicated scratchpad for developers. It functions as a large persistent text buffer where you can write down anything you like."
This app is truly great, and I've quite enjoyed using it as dedicated scratchpad. However, I work in the terminal, and I was finding several workflows
in which having a terminal based scratchpad would be nice. Enter Thoth! Thoth follows the same design philosophy as Heynote in terms of its simplicity, but with some key differences.
### Differences Compared to Heynote
- The persistent buffer in Thoth gets saved as a markdown file in your home directory. I did this since I use [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md) for all of my notes, and I wanted my scratchpad
to also be displayable in the app.
- Blocks are titled and can be selected by title.
- The ability to edit a block using your favorite terminal editor such as Neovim, Helix, Vim, and others via setting the $EDITOR or $VISUAL environment variables.
- A CLI that allows one to pipe information via STDIN into a new block, or use STDOUT to get text out of a block.
## Why the name Thoth?
<img width="160" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e24b51f1-1e07-45c1-973e-321d17b87041">
In Egyptology, Thoth is the god of writing, wisdom, and magic. Thoth was in charge of messenging and recording knowledge and events for the Egyptian deities.
Seems like a fitting name for a persistent scratchpad :).
## Main tools used to build Thoth
- [tui-textarea](https://github.com/rhysd/tui-textarea)
- [ratatui](https://github.com/ratatui-org/ratatui)
- [crossterm](https://github.com/crossterm-rs/crossterm)
- [pulldown-cmark](https://github.com/pulldown-cmark/pulldown-cmark)
- [clap](https://github.com/clap-rs/clap)
## Installation
## Usage
This will show how to use the scratchpad via the CLI or the TUI.
### TUI
To start the TUI, simple type `thoth`. Since it is a persistent buffer, thoth will save when you hit quit using `q`.
#### Commands for main mode
```
q: Quit
<ctrl-n>: Add block in focus
<ctrl-d>: Delete block in focus
<ctrl-y>: Copy the complete block
Enter: Edit block
<ctrl-f>: Full Screen
Esc: Exit
<ctrl-t>: Change title of block
<ctrl-s>: Select block by title
<ctrl-j>: Format json
<ctrl-k>: Format markdown
```
#### Commands for edit mode
```
Esc: Exit edit mode
<ctrl-g>: Move cursor top
<ctrl-b>: Copy highlighted selection
Shift-Up Arrow or Down: Make highlighted selection by line
<ctrl-y>: Copy the entire block
<ctrl-t>: Change title of block
<ctrl-s>: Select block by title
<ctrl-e>: Use external editor
<ctrl-h>: Bring up other commands
```
The other commands are based off of the default keybindings
for editing in `tui-textarea`.
| Ctrl+H, Backspace | Delete one character before cursor |
| Ctrl+K | Delete from cursor until the end of line |
| Ctrl+W, Alt+Backspace | Delete one word before cursor |
| Alt+D, Alt+Delete | Delete one word next to cursor |
| Ctrl+U | Undo |
| Ctrl+R | Redo |
| Ctrl+C, Copy | Copy selected text |
| Ctrl+X, Cut | Cut selected text |
| Ctrl+P, ↑ | Move cursor up by one line |
| Ctrl+→ | Move cursor forward by word |
| Ctrl+← | Move cursor backward by word |
| Ctrl+↑ | Move cursor up by paragraph |
| Ctrl+↓ | Move cursor down by paragraph |
| Ctrl+E, End, Ctrl+Alt+F, Ctrl+Alt+→ | Move cursor to the end of line |
| Ctrl+A, Home, Ctrl+Alt+B, Ctrl+Alt+← | Move cursor to the head of line |
| Ctrl+K | Format markdown block |
| Ctrl+J | Format JSON |
If you would like to use your external editor -- such as NeoVim, Helix, etc. -- Thoth offers that functionality.
### CLI
For accessing the CLI, one can use `thoth` followed by a command.
```
A terminal scratchpad akin to Heynote
Usage: thoth [COMMAND]
Commands:
add Add a new block to the scratchpad
list List all of the blocks within your thoth scratchpad
delete Delete a block by name
view View (STDOUT) the contents of the block by name
copy Copy the contents of a block to the system clipboard
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
Options:
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
```
#### Examples
```nu
# For adding new blocks
thoth add hello_world "Hello, World!";
# For adding new blocks with content from STDIN
thoth view hello_world_stdin | cat
```