CLI (pnote)

pnote is the PromptNote CLI. Search notes, copy snippets to clipboard, create content from stdin, and pipe output to other tools.

Installation

Requires Node.js 18 or later.

npm install -g pnote

Authentication

Generate an API token from the web app, then:

pnote auth token pn_your_token_here

# Verify
pnote auth whoami

Or set the environment variable:

export PNOTE_TOKEN=pn_your_token_here

Commands

Notes

pnote notes                    # List all notes
pnote notes --tag "AI/art"     # Filter by tag
pnote notes --archived         # Show archived
pnote notes --pinned           # Show pinned only
pnote notes --protected        # Show only PIN-protected notes
pnote notes get <id>           # Get note details
pnote notes get <id> --latest  # Get note with latest snippet only
pnote notes create "Title"     # Create new note
pnote notes update <id> --title "New Title"
pnote notes update <id> --tags a b c
pnote notes archive <id>       # Archive note
pnote notes pin <id>           # Toggle pin
pnote notes delete <id>        # Soft delete

Snippets

pnote notes snippet <note-id>                        # Show latest snippet (pipe-friendly)
pnote notes snippet list <note-id>                   # List all versions
pnote notes snippet copy <note-id>                   # Copy to clipboard
echo "content" | pnote notes snippet add <note-id>      # Add version from stdin
echo "updated" | pnote notes snippet update <snippet-id> # Update existing
pnote notes snippet favorite <snippet-id>                 # Toggle favorite

Tags

pnote tags                             # List all tags with counts
pnote tags rename "old" "new"          # Rename tag (includes children)
pnote tags merge "a" "b" --into "c"    # Merge tags

Sharing

pnote share tags                       # List shared tags
pnote share tags <id>                  # View notes in shared tag
pnote share notes                      # List public share links
pnote share notes --include-revoked    # Include revoked links

Search

pnote search "query"              # Full-text search
pnote search "query" --notes-only # Notes only
pnote search "query" --limit 50   # Limit results

PIN protection

Notes can be PIN-protected (encrypted server-side). The PIN is set in the PromptNote web app under Settings.

pnote pin status                   # Check PIN configuration and cache status
pnote pin list                     # List protected notes (metadata only)

# Access protected notes
PNOTE_PIN=1234 pnote notes --protected
PNOTE_PIN=1234 pnote notes get <protected-note-id>
echo "1234" | pnote notes get <id> --pin-stdin

PIN resolution order: -p flag → --pin-stdin → PNOTE_PIN env var (recommended for automation) → 5-min session cache → interactive prompt (TTY only).

Agent skills sync

Sync agent skill files between PromptNote cloud and your local agent directories.

pnote skills                          # List skills in cloud
pnote skills pull                     # Pull all globally (~/.agents/skills/ + symlinks)
pnote skills pull <name>              # Pull a specific skill globally
pnote skills pull --project           # Pull project-level (.agents/skills/ + symlinks)
pnote skills pull --dry-run           # Preview without writing files
pnote skills push <dir>               # Upload local skill directory to cloud

Skills are written to .agents/skills/<name>/ (canonical) and symlinked into .claude/skills/, .windsurf/skills/, and other installed agent directories automatically.

Workflow examples

Pipe search results through jq to extract titles:

pnote search "system prompt" --json | jq '.[].title'

Create a note from a file:

cat my-prompt.txt | pnote notes snippet add <note-id>

Back up all notes as JSON:

pnote notes --json > my-notes-backup.json

Global options

Option	Description
--json	Output as JSON (machine-readable)
--no-color	Disable colors
--plain	Plain text output (no formatting)
-p, --pin <pin>	PIN for accessing protected notes
--pin-stdin	Read PIN from stdin (first line)
-h, --help	Show help
-V, --version	Show version

Environment variables

Variable	Description
PNOTE_TOKEN	API token (overrides stored credentials)
PNOTE_PIN	PIN for accessing protected notes (recommended for automation)
NO_COLOR	Disable colors (standard convention)

Unix conventions

pnote follows Unix philosophy:

• stdout for data, stderr for status messages
• Exit codes: 0 success, 1 general error, 2 auth error, 3 not found, 4 network error
• Supports piping: pnote search "x" --json | jq '.[] | .title'
• --json for programmatic consumption

Configuration

Credentials stored in ~/.config/pnote/credentials.json (XDG-compliant).