Managing Apple Notes

Managing Apple Notes with inotes

inotes is a macOS CLI for Apple Notes. It communicates with Notes.app via AppleScript and supports all CRUD operations plus search. Output defaults to a human-readable table; use --json for machine-readable output.

🔒 Privacy & Security

• ✅ Open source: Full source code at https://github.com/wangwalk/inotes
• ✅ Local-only: All operations run locally via AppleScript; no data leaves your machine
• ✅ No network calls: inotes does not connect to any remote servers
• ✅ Auditable install: Binary installed via Homebrew from signed release or GitHub Releases
• ✅ MIT Licensed: Free and open for inspection and contributions
• ⚠️ Requires macOS Automation permission for Notes.app (user grants via System Settings)
• 📦 Universal binary: Supports both Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x86_64)

Prerequisites

System Requirements:

• macOS 14+ (Sonoma or later)
• Apple Notes.app (comes with macOS)

Install via Homebrew (recommended):

brew install wangwalk/tap/inotes

Verify installation:

inotes --version  # Should show: 0.1.2
which inotes      # Should be in /opt/homebrew/bin/ or /usr/local/bin/

Manual installation from GitHub Releases:

Download from GitHub Releases and verify SHA256:

curl -LO https://github.com/wangwalk/inotes/releases/download/v0.1.2/inotes-0.1.2-universal-apple-darwin.tar.gz
# Verify checksum from release notes
tar xzf inotes-0.1.2-universal-apple-darwin.tar.gz
sudo cp inotes /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/inotes

Check permission:

inotes status

If permission is denied, the user must enable Automation access for their terminal in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation > Notes.

Commands

List notes

inotes                            # recent iCloud notes (default)
inotes today                      # modified today
inotes show week                  # modified this week
inotes show all                   # all notes
inotes show --folder Work         # notes in a specific folder
inotes show recent --limit 10    # limit results

List folders

inotes folders

List accounts

inotes accounts

Create a folder

inotes mkfolder "Projects"
inotes mkfolder "Work Notes" --account Exchange

Read a note

inotes read 1        # by index from last show output
inotes read A3F2     # by ID prefix (4+ characters)

Create a note

inotes add --title "Meeting Notes" --body "Action items" --folder Work

Edit a note

inotes edit 1 --title "Updated Title"
inotes edit 2 --body "New content" --folder Projects

Delete a note

inotes delete 1              # with confirmation
inotes delete 1 --force      # skip confirmation

Search notes

inotes search "quarterly review"
inotes search "TODO" --folder Work --limit 10

Multi-account support

By default only iCloud notes are shown. Use --account <name> or --all-accounts to access other accounts.

inotes accounts                    # list available accounts
inotes show all --account Exchange
inotes show all --all-accounts

Output formats

Agent usage guidelines

• Always use --json when you need to parse output programmatically.
• Use --no-input to disable interactive prompts in non-interactive contexts.
• Use --no-color when capturing output to avoid ANSI escape sequences.
• Identify notes by index (from the last show output) or by ID prefix (first 4+ hex characters of the note ID).
• Run inotes status first to verify automation permission before attempting other commands.
• The CLI automatically filters out notes in "Recently Deleted" folders across all supported languages.

Examples for common tasks

Create daily note:

inotes add --title "Daily Notes $(date +%Y-%m-%d)" --body "## TODO\n\n## Done\n"

Export all notes to JSON:

inotes show all --json > notes-backup.json

Find notes with specific tag:

inotes search "#important" --json | jq '.[] | select(.folder == "Work")'

Archive completed notes:

inotes search "DONE" --folder Inbox --json | jq -r '.[].id' | while read id; do
  inotes edit "$id" --folder Archive
done

Troubleshooting

"Automation permission denied"

• Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation
• Find your terminal app (e.g., Terminal.app, iTerm.app)
• Enable access to "Notes"

"Command not found"

• Run which inotes to check if it's in your PATH
• If using Homebrew: brew doctor and check for warnings
• Try brew reinstall wangwalk/tap/inotes

"Note not found" when using index

• Run inotes show again to get fresh indices
• Use ID prefix instead: inotes read A3F2

Performance issues with many notes

• Use --limit flag to reduce result set
• Filter by folder: --folder "Work"
• Use date filters: today, week, recent

Additional resources

• GitHub: https://github.com/wangwalk/inotes
• Releases: https://github.com/wangwalk/inotes/releases
• Issues: https://github.com/wangwalk/inotes/issues
• License: MIT