Create and Read Apple Notes via CLI

• Reads Markdown from --text, --file, or stdin
• Converts it to HTML
• Creates a new note in Apple Notes (background-only) via osascript
• Derives the note title from the first non-empty line (prefers # H1)

cd notescli
bun install
bun run build

Run directly:

node dist/index.js create --help

Once you have a tap repo with Formula/notescli.rb (see homebrew/notescli.rb), install with:

brew install <owner>/<tap>/notescli

To cut a release artifact for Homebrew:

bun run package:release

Create a note from piped Markdown (defaults to folder Quick Notes):

echo "# Hello\n\nFrom an agent." | notescli create

Create a note from a file:

notescli create --file ./agent-output.md

Machine-readable output:

echo "# Hello" | notescli create --json

Dry run:

echo "# Hello" | notescli create --dry-run

Read a note by id and output Markdown:

notescli read --id "x-coredata://..."

• --folder is a single folder name (no nesting). Default: Quick Notes.
• If the folder does not exist (or is localized differently), the command fails with Folder not found: ....
• If --account is omitted, the tool uses the first account returned by Notes’ AppleScript API (no UI scripting).

Config is loaded via cosmiconfig for the module name notescli (e.g. .notesclirc, .notesclirc.json, notescli.config.json, etc.).

Supported keys:

• folder (string)
• account (string, optional)

Environment variables:

• NOTESCLI_FOLDER
• NOTESCLI_ACCOUNT

Precedence:

1. CLI flags
2. Env vars
3. Config file
4. Defaults

On first run, macOS may prompt you to allow automation control (e.g., “notescli would like to control Notes”).

If note creation fails due to permissions, check:

• System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation → allow your terminal (or Node) to control “Notes”.