How do I install the Notes Export skill?

Run npx skillmds add terrylica/notes-export in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Notes Export safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: docs only. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Notes Export?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Notes Export free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Notes Export?

terrylica (@terrylica) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Notes Export by terrylica — Agent Skill

Name: Notes Export
Rating: 4.666666666666667 (3 reviews)
Author: terrylica

Notes Export

Export/back up EVERY macOS Notes note (all accounts, all folders) to local storage as markdown files plus a JSON manifest — the safety net to run BEFORE any reorganization, and the corpus the notes-audit skill analyzes. Read-only against Notes; writes only to ~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/. TRIGGERS - export my notes, back up notes, notes snapshot, dump notes to disk, notes backup before reorganizing.

terrylica 7defa05 3.7 KB Updated Sep 9, 2026

File contents

notes-export — full local snapshot of Apple Notes

Self-Evolving skill — if export behavior drifts (AE size caps, chunk failures, encoding), fix this SKILL.md and scripts/notes.ts OSA_EXPORT (+ a test in notes-core.test.ts for any pure helper change); see the Post-Execution Reflection at the bottom.

One command captures everything Notes holds into a timestamped local snapshot:

NC="$HOME/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/cc-skills/plugins/notes-commander/scripts/notes.ts"
bun "$NC" export                     # → ~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/<stamp>/
bun "$NC" export --out /path/to/dir  # explicit destination

What a snapshot contains:

One markdown file per note, under <account>/<folder>/… mirroring the Notes hierarchy. Each file has YAML frontmatter (account, folder, id, modified) and the note body as plain text (decoded via textutil, UTF-8-safe, CJK-safe).
manifest.json — every folder (with counts) and every note (id, name, modified, relative file path, char count). This is the machine-readable index for audits and diffs.
Filenames are sanitized (safeFilename) and suffixed with the note's core-data id (.p1234.md), so same-titled notes never collide.

Rules

Run this before any notes-organize operation — it is the undo story. Notes has no API-level undo; a snapshot does.
The default root (~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/) is deliberately OUTSIDE any git repo so note content can never be accidentally committed. Don't redirect --out into a repo.
Snapshots are full (not incremental); each run creates a new timestamped dir. Old snapshots are plain dirs — delete them manually when no longer wanted.
Recently Deleted is deliberately skipped (restore a note in the Notes UI first if you want it captured).

MemPalace bridge (if `mempalace` is on PATH)

After a successful export, re-mine the snapshot into the local MemPalace semantic index so the notes are searchable by meaning (multilingual — verified on 中文 content):

command -v mempalace >/dev/null && mempalace mine "<snapshot-dir>" --wing apple-notes --agent terry

Idempotent (unchanged notes are skipped). Recall then works via mempalace search "<query>" --wing apple-notes. Skip silently when mempalace isn't installed — the bridge is an enhancement, not a dependency.

A large library takes a few minutes (verified live: 400 notes ≈ 2.5 min) — bodies are fetched in chunks of 20 because one giant Apple Event reply blows the AE size cap (-1741). A failed chunk degrades to per-note fetches; a still-failing note becomes a warning + exit code 3 (partial export is LOUD, never silent). Transient -600/-1712 launch races retry automatically.

Post-Execution Reflection

After an export, check: (1) exit code 0 and note count ≈ live inventory total? Exit 3 means some notes were skipped — read the ⚠ lines and investigate before trusting the snapshot as a backup. (2) Spot-check one CJK/emoji-titled file — mojibake means the <meta charset="utf-8"> textutil prefix or safeFilename drifted. (3) New -1741s despite chunking → shrink the chunk size in OSA_EXPORT. Update this SKILL.md only for real, reproducible drift.

---name: notes-exportdescription: Export/back up EVERY macOS Notes note (all accounts, all folders) to local storage as markdown files plus a JSON manifest — the safety net to run BEFORE any reorganization, and the corpus the notes-audit skill analyzes. Read-only against Notes; writes only to ~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/. TRIGGERS - export my notes, back up notes, notes snapshot, dump notes to disk, notes backup before reorganizing.--- # notes-export — full local snapshot of Apple Notes > **Self-Evolving skill** — if export behavior drifts (AE size caps, chunk failures, encoding), fix this SKILL.md and `scripts/notes.ts` `OSA_EXPORT` (+ a test in `notes-core.test.ts` for any pure helper change); see the Post-Execution Reflection at the bottom. One command captures everything Notes holds into a timestamped local snapshot: ```bash NC="$HOME/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/cc-skills/plugins/notes-commander/scripts/notes.ts" bun "$NC" export # → ~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/<stamp>/ bun "$NC" export --out /path/to/dir # explicit destination ``` What a snapshot contains: - **One markdown file per note**, under `<account>/<folder>/…` mirroring the Notes hierarchy. Each file has YAML frontmatter (`account`, `folder`, `id`, `modified`) and the note body as plain text (decoded via `textutil`, UTF-8-safe, CJK-safe). - **`manifest.json`** — every folder (with counts) and every note (id, name, modified, relative file path, char count). This is the machine-readable index for audits and diffs. - Filenames are sanitized (`safeFilename`) and suffixed with the note's core-data id (`.p1234.md`), so same-titled notes never collide. ## Rules - **Run this before any `notes-organize` operation** — it is the undo story. Notes has no API-level undo; a snapshot does. - The default root (`~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/`) is deliberately OUTSIDE any git repo so note content can never be accidentally committed. Don't redirect `--out` into a repo. - Snapshots are full (not incremental); each run creates a new timestamped dir. Old snapshots are plain dirs — delete them manually when no longer wanted. - `Recently Deleted` is deliberately skipped (restore a note in the Notes UI first if you want it captured). ## MemPalace bridge (if `mempalace` is on PATH) After a successful export, re-mine the snapshot into the local MemPalace semantic index so the notes are searchable by meaning (multilingual — verified on 中文 content): ```bash command -v mempalace >/dev/null && mempalace mine "<snapshot-dir>" --wing apple-notes --agent terry ``` Idempotent (unchanged notes are skipped). Recall then works via `mempalace search "<query>" --wing apple-notes`. Skip silently when mempalace isn't installed — the bridge is an enhancement, not a dependency. - A large library takes a few minutes (verified live: 400 notes ≈ 2.5 min) — bodies are fetched in chunks of 20 because one giant Apple Event reply blows the AE size cap (`-1741`). A failed chunk degrades to per-note fetches; a still-failing note becomes a warning + exit code 3 (partial export is LOUD, never silent). Transient `-600`/`-1712` launch races retry automatically. ## Post-Execution Reflection After an export, check: (1) exit code 0 and note count ≈ live inventory total? Exit 3 means some notes were skipped — read the `⚠` lines and investigate before trusting the snapshot as a backup. (2) Spot-check one CJK/emoji-titled file — mojibake means the `<meta charset="utf-8">` textutil prefix or `safeFilename` drifted. (3) New `-1741`s despite chunking → shrink the chunk size in `OSA_EXPORT`. Update this SKILL.md only for real, reproducible drift.

Frequently asked questions