Logbook

Write journal entries, search history, and export your personal log digitally. Use when journaling thoughts, searching past entries, exporting notes.

LogBook is a data processing and analysis toolkit for querying, importing, exporting, transforming, validating, and visualizing datasets from the terminal. It provides 10 core commands for working with structured data, plus built-in history logging and a quick dashboard view. All operations are local — no external APIs, databases, or network connections required.

Commands

Command	Description
logbook query <args>	Query data from the local data store. Logs the query action to history for auditing.
logbook import <file>	Import a data file into the local store. Accepts any file path as input.
logbook export <dest>	Export processed results to a specified destination (defaults to stdout).
logbook transform <src> <dst>	Transform data from one format or structure to another.
logbook validate <args>	Validate data against the built-in schema. Reports schema compliance status.
logbook stats <args>	Display basic statistics — total record count from the data log.
logbook schema <args>	Show the current data schema. Default fields: id, name, value, timestamp.
logbook sample <args>	Preview the first 5 records from the data store, or "No data" if the store is empty.
logbook clean <args>	Clean and deduplicate the data store, removing redundant entries.
logbook dashboard <args>	Quick dashboard showing total record count and summary metrics.
logbook help	Show help with all available commands and usage information.
logbook version	Print version string (logbook v2.0.0).

Data Storage

All data is stored locally in ~/.local/share/logbook/ (override with LOGBOOK_DIR or XDG_DATA_HOME environment variables).

Directory structure:

~/.local/share/logbook/
├── data.log         # Main data store (line-based records)
└── history.log      # Unified activity log with timestamps

Every command logs its action to history.log with a timestamp (MM-DD HH:MM) for full traceability. The main data file data.log holds all imported and processed records.

Requirements

• Bash (with set -euo pipefail)
• Standard Unix utilities: date, wc, head, du, echo
• No external dependencies, databases, or API keys required
• Optional: Set LOGBOOK_DIR environment variable to customize the data directory location

When to Use

1. Importing and querying datasets — Pull in CSV, log, or structured data files and run quick queries against them from the terminal without needing a full database setup.
2. Data validation workflows — Validate incoming data against the built-in schema (id, name, value, timestamp) before processing to catch format issues early.
3. Data transformation pipelines — Transform data between formats or structures as part of an ETL-like workflow, all within a lightweight bash script.
4. Quick dashboard and statistics — Get instant record counts and summary metrics via dashboard or stats without writing custom aggregation scripts.
5. Data cleanup and deduplication — Use clean to remove duplicate records and normalize the data store before exporting or feeding into downstream analysis.

Examples

# Import a data file
logbook import transactions.csv

# Query the data store
logbook query "status=active"

# View the data schema
logbook schema

# Preview first 5 records
logbook sample

# Get basic statistics (record count)
logbook stats

# Transform data between formats
logbook transform raw.csv cleaned.csv

# Validate data integrity against schema
logbook validate

# Quick dashboard view
logbook dashboard

# Export results
logbook export results.json

# Clean and deduplicate the data store
logbook clean

# Show version
logbook version

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
LOGBOOK_DIR	Custom data directory path	~/.local/share/logbook
XDG_DATA_HOME	XDG base data directory (fallback)	~/.local/share

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