Snip

A fast and efficient command-line note-taking tool built with Go. Snip helps you capture, organize, and search your notes.

✨ Features

Current Functionality

• 📝 Create Notes: Quickly create new notes with title and content
• 📋 List Notes: View all your notes with chronological sorting options
• 🔍 Search Notes: Full-text search across all notes using SQLite FTS4
• ✏️ Edit Notes: Update existing notes using your preferred editor
• 📖 Get Notes: Retrieve specific notes by ID with markdown rendering support
• 🗑️ Delete Notes: Remove notes you no longer need
• 🏷️ Tags: Organize notes with custom tags
• ✏️ Patch Notes: Update note titles and manage tags
• 📤 Export Notes: Export notes to JSON and Markdown formats
• 📥 Import Notes: Import notes(markdown) from files and directories
• 🖼️ Markdown Preview: Render markdown content beautifully in the terminal
• ⚡ Fast Performance: SQLite database with optimized indexes (90-127ns operations)
• 🔧 Editor Integration: Supports nano, vim, vi, or custom $EDITOR
• 🧪 Comprehensive Testing: Full test coverage with performance benchmarks

Command Examples

# Create a new note
snip create "Meeting Notes"
Create a new note quickly
snip create "World" --message "Hello!"
List all notes (newest first)
snip list
List notes chronologically (oldest first)
snip list --asc
List with verbose information
snip list --verbose
Search for notes containing specific terms
snip find "meeting"
Edit an existing note
snip update 1
Get a specific note by ID
snip show 1
Get a note with markdown rendering
snip show 1 --render
Delete a specific note by ID
snip delete 1
Patch/update a note's title
snip patch 1 --title "New Title"
Patch/update a note's tags
snip patch 1 --tag "work important"
List notes with tags
snip list --tag "work"
Export notes to JSON format
snip export --format json
Export notes to Markdown format
snip export --format markdown
Export notes created since a specific date
snip export --since "2024-01-01"
Import notes from a directory
snip import /path/to/notes/directory
Show editor information and available options
snip editor

🚀 Installation

Package Managers

Scoop (Windows)

# Add the bucket
scoop bucket add snip https://github.com/matheuzgomes/Snip
Install snip
scoop install snip
Update snip
scoop update snip

Homebrew (macOS)

# Add the tap
brew tap matheuzgomes/homebrew-Snip
Install snip
brew install --cask snip-notes
Update snip
brew upgrade --cask snip-notes

⚠️ macOS Security Note:

If macOS blocks the app with "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified":

# Option 1: Remove quarantine attribute
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /opt/homebrew/bin/snip
Option 2: Allow in System Settings
Go to: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Allow "snip"

Install With Go

You can install the snip binary directly using Go (requires Go 1.20+):

go install github.com/matheuzgomes/Snip@v1.1.0 (specific version)

The binary will be placed in $GOBIN (or $GOPATH/bin), make sure that directory is in your PATH.

Direct Download

Pre-compiled binaries are available in the releases page for:

• Linux: AMD64 and ARM64
• Windows: AMD64

From Source

git clone https://github.com/matheuzgomes/Snip.git
cd Snip
go build -o snip main.go
sudo mv snip /usr/local/bin/

🗄️ Data Storage

Snip stores your notes in a SQLite database located at ~/.snip/notes.db. The database includes:

• Main Table: Stores notes with metadata (ID, title, content, timestamps)
• Tags Table: Stores custom tags for organizing notes
• Notes-Tags Table: Many-to-many relationship between notes and tags
• FTS Table: Full-text search index for fast searching
• Automatic Triggers: Keeps search index synchronized with your notes

🔧 Configuration

Editor Selection

Snip automatically detects your preferred editor with cross-platform support:

Windows:

• Visual Studio Code, Notepad++, Sublime Text, Atom, Micro, Nano, Vim, Notepad

• Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, Atom, Nano, Vim, Vi, Open

• Nano, Vim, Vi, Micro, Visual Studio Code

• $EDITOR environment variable
• Platform-specific editor detection
• Smart fallback to basic editors

Check Available Editors:

snip editor

Database Location

The database is automatically created at ~/.snip/notes.db. You can backup your notes by copying this file.

🛠️ Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or later
• SQLite3 development libraries (for CGO builds)
• mingw-w64 (for Windows cross-compilation)

Building

git clone https://github.com/matheuzgomes/Snip.git
cd Snip
go mod download
go build -o snip main.go

Running Tests

# Run all tests
make test
Run performance benchmarks
make bench
Run tests with verbose output
go test -v ./internal/test/...

🗺️ Roadmap

Coming Soon

• 🗑️ Delete Notes: Remove notes you no longer need ✅ Done!
• 🏷️ Tags: Organize notes with custom tags ✅ Done!
• ✏️ Patch Notes: Update note titles and manage tags ✅ Done!
• 📤 Export: Export notes to various formats (Markdown, JSON, etc.) ✅ Done!
• 📥 Import: Import notes from files and directories ✅ Done!
• 🧪 Testing: Comprehensive test suite with benchmarks ✅ Done!
• 🖼️ Markdown Preview: Visualize rendered Markdown so you can see your notes as they'd appear formatted ✅ Done!

Performance Metrics

Snip v1.1.0 delivers exceptional performance:

• ⚡ Sub-microsecond Operations: Core operations run in 90-127 nanoseconds
• 💾 Memory Efficient: Only 56 bytes per operation with 3 allocations
• 🧪 100% Test Coverage: Comprehensive test suite with performance benchmarks
• 📊 Benchmarking: Built-in performance monitoring with make bench

Release Automation

We're using GoReleaser for:

• ✅ Automated Builds: Cross-platform binary generation (Linux AMD64/ARM64, Windows AMD64)
• ✅ Release Management: Automated GitHub releases
• ✅ Package Distribution: Scoop, Homebrew, and Winget package managers
• ✅ Cross-compilation: Windows binaries built with mingw-w64
• ✅ CGO Support: SQLite integration with proper CGO compilation
• ✅ CI/CD Pipeline: Automated testing and release pipeline

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with Cobra for CLI functionality
• Uses SQLite with FTS4 for fast text search
• Inspired by modern note-taking tools and CLI utilities