Apple Notes Hello World

Apple Notes Hello World

Overview

Create, read, search, and delete Apple Notes using JXA (JavaScript for Automation) via osascript. All examples work from the command line on macOS.

Prerequisites

• Completed apple-notes-install-auth (permissions granted)
• macOS with Notes.app

Instructions

Step 1: Create a Note

# JXA: Create a note in the default folder
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const defaultFolder = Notes.defaultAccount.folders[0];
  const newNote = Notes.Note({
    name: "Hello from Automation",
    body: "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This note was created via JXA at " + new Date().toISOString() + "</p>"
  });
  defaultFolder.notes.push(newNote);
  newNote.id();
'

# AppleScript equivalent:
osascript -e '
  tell application "Notes"
    tell account "iCloud"
      make new note at folder "Notes" with properties {name:"Hello AppleScript", body:"<p>Created via AppleScript</p>"}
    end tell
  end tell
'

Step 2: List All Notes

# List notes with title and creation date
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const notes = Notes.defaultAccount.notes();
  notes.slice(0, 10).map(n =>
    `${n.name()} | Created: ${n.creationDate().toISOString().split("T")[0]}`
  ).join("\n");
'

Step 3: Read a Note's Content

# Read note body (returns HTML)
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const notes = Notes.defaultAccount.notes();
  const target = notes.find(n => n.name() === "Hello from Automation");
  if (target) {
    `Title: ${target.name()}\nBody: ${target.body()}\nModified: ${target.modificationDate()}`;
  } else {
    "Note not found";
  }
'

Step 4: Search Notes

# Search by keyword in note name
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const query = "Hello";
  const results = Notes.defaultAccount.notes().filter(n =>
    n.name().toLowerCase().includes(query.toLowerCase())
  );
  results.map(n => n.name()).join("\n") || "No results";
'

Step 5: Create Note in Specific Folder

# Create a folder and add a note to it
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const account = Notes.defaultAccount;

  // Create folder if it does not exist
  let folder = account.folders().find(f => f.name() === "Automation");
  if (!folder) {
    folder = Notes.Folder({ name: "Automation" });
    account.folders.push(folder);
  }

  // Add note to folder
  const note = Notes.Note({
    name: "Organized Note",
    body: "<p>This note lives in the Automation folder.</p>"
  });
  folder.notes.push(note);
  `Created in folder: ${folder.name()}`;
'

Step 6: Delete a Note

# Delete by name (moves to Recently Deleted)
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const notes = Notes.defaultAccount.notes();
  const target = notes.find(n => n.name() === "Hello from Automation");
  if (target) {
    Notes.delete(target);
    "Note deleted";
  } else {
    "Note not found";
  }
'

Note Properties

Output

• Created a note via JXA and AppleScript
• Listed, searched, and read note content
• Organized note into a folder
• Deleted a note

Examples

Create one synthetic note in a pre-created, test-only local folder, read only that note back by its returned identifier, and remove it after verifying the exercise. Do not list all notes, search a live account, or create folders implicitly as part of a permission smoke test.

Error Handling

Resources

• AppleScript Notes Dictionary
• JXA Examples
• osascript Manual

Next Steps

Proceed to apple-notes-local-dev-loop for development workflow setup.