cornell note tool

Manage Cornell Method notes as Markdown files using the bundled cornell.py CLI script. Use this skill whenever the user wants to take notes, create a new note, view, list, search, edit, or delete Cornell-style notes. Trigger on phrases like "take a note", "create a note", "show my notes", "list notes", "search notes", "open my note on X", "delete note", "edit my note", or any request involving personal notes or note-taking. Also trigger when the user says things like "save this as a note" or "what did I write about X". Always prefer this skill over ad-hoc solutions for anything note-related.

Notes Skill

Manage Cornell Method notes stored as Markdown files in ~/cornell-notes/. One .md file per note. Uses the bundled scripts/cornell.py CLI tool.

Script location

scripts/cornell.py

Always run it with:

python scripts/cornell.py <command> [args]

The script path must be relative to the skill root, or use the absolute path once you know it. Copy the script to /tmp/cornell.py for convenience if needed:

cp <skill_root>/scripts/cornell.py /tmp/cornell.py

Commands

Command	What it does
new [title]	Create a new Cornell note (opens in $EDITOR / micro)
list / ls	List all notes with title and date
view [note]	Pretty-print a note in two-column Cornell layout
search [query]	Search all notes by keyword, highlights matches
edit [note]	Open a note in $EDITOR for editing
delete [note] / rm	Delete a note (asks for confirmation)

Notes can be referenced by number, title, or slug. If ambiguous, the script shows an interactive picker.

Note structure (auto-generated)

Each note has YAML frontmatter + three Cornell sections:

---
title: <Title>
date: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM>
tags: []
---

## Notes
<!-- Raw lecture / reading notes -->

## Cues
<!-- Keywords, questions, main ideas — filled in after studying -->

## Summary
<!-- 2-3 sentence synthesis in your own words -->

Workflow

Creating a note

1. Ask the user for the note title if not provided.
2. Run: python /tmp/cornell.py new "<title>"
3. Tell the user the file was created at ~/cornell-notes/<slug>.md and that it opened in their editor (micro by default). Remind them to fill in the three sections.

Viewing / listing

• For a quick overview: python /tmp/cornell.py list
• To read a specific note: python /tmp/cornell.py view "<title or number>"
• Render the output in the conversation so the user can read it.

Searching

• Run: python /tmp/cornell.py search "<keyword>"
• Present the matching notes and highlighted lines to the user.

Editing

• Run: python /tmp/cornell.py edit "<title or number>"
• Confirm which note was opened.

Deleting

• Run: python /tmp/cornell.py delete "<title or number>"
• The script will ask for confirmation — relay that to the user if running non-interactively.

Tips

• Notes are stored in ~/cornell-notes/ — the directory is created automatically.
• The script uses $EDITOR or $VISUAL env var, falling back to micro.
• Slugs are auto-generated from titles (lowercased, spaces → hyphens).
• When the user asks to "take a note now", offer to capture their content directly and write it into the appropriate Cornell sections yourself, then save the file.