single-plugin/commands/notes-search.md

Search Apple Notes

Find notes by title patterns or content keywords.

Instructions

1. Get search query - Ask what the user is looking for:

   • Specific note title
   • Topic or keyword
   • Date range
   • Category or tag

2. Search by title - First search note titles:

   notes list | grep -i "[query]"
   

3. Search by content - If title search insufficient, search note contents:

   # Get all notes and search each one
   for title in $(notes list); do
     content=$(notes show "$title" 2>/dev/null)
     if echo "$content" | grep -qi "[query]"; then
       echo "Found in: $title"
     fi
   done
   

4. Display results - Show matching notes with context:

   • List matching note titles
   • Optionally show preview of content
   • Highlight the matching terms

5. Offer next actions:

   • View full content of a specific note
   • Narrow search with additional terms
   • Export results

Search Patterns

Case-insensitive title search

notes list | grep -i "keyword"

Multiple keywords (AND)

notes list | grep -i "keyword1" | grep -i "keyword2"

Date-based search

# Notes from January 2024
notes list | grep "2024-01"

# Notes from this year
notes list | grep "$(date +%Y)"

Pattern matching

# Notes starting with "Meeting"
notes list | grep "^Meeting"

# Notes containing a project name
notes list | grep -i "\[ProjectName\]"

Full-text Search Script

For comprehensive content search:

#!/bin/bash
query="$1"
echo "Searching for: $query"
echo "========================"

notes list | while read -r title; do
  content=$(notes show "$title" 2>/dev/null)
  if echo "$content" | grep -qi "$query"; then
    echo ""
    echo "📝 $title"
    echo "---"
    echo "$content" | grep -i "$query" | head -3
  fi
done

Important Notes

• Title search is fast; content search examines each note
• Use specific keywords for better results
• Regex patterns are supported in grep
• Consider case sensitivity when searching