Nb

Manage notes, bookmarks, and notebooks using the nb CLI. Create, list, search, and organize notes across multiple notebooks with Git-backed versioning.

Security Scan

The skill is an instruction-only wrapper for the nb CLI and its requirements and instructions are consistent with a local, Git-backed note tool; nothing requested or described is disproportionate to that purpose.

Purpose & Capability

The skill requires the nb binary and the SKILL.md consistently documents nb usage and the ~/.nb notebook directory — this matches the described purpose. Minor inconsistency: the registry metadata lists no required config paths even though the instructions repeatedly reference and operate on ~/.nb/.

Instruction Scope

Instructions stay within the scope of a local note manager (running nb, git, cp, editing files under ~/.nb). One small contradiction: the file warns 'Never edit files in nb git repos by hand!' but the 'Common Patterns' section shows a manual cp into ~/.nb/ followed by git add/commit and an index rebuild. This is not a security red flag by itself but is confusing and could lead to accidental data loss or indexing issues.

Install Mechanism

Instruction-only skill with no install spec or downloads — lowest-risk footprint. It simply requires the nb CLI to already be present on PATH.

Credentials

The skill declares no required environment variables or credentials, which is appropriate. Reminder: git-based operations (nb sync, nb git) will use the user's existing Git/SSH/credential-helper configuration to reach remotes, so network transmission of notes depends on your git remotes and credentials rather than this skill declaring secrets.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill does not request always:true or other elevated persistence. It is user-invocable and can be invoked autonomously per platform defaults — expected behavior for skills. No evidence it modifies other skills or global agent settings.

Assessment

This SKILL.md is an instructions-only wrapper around the nb CLI and appears internally consistent. Before installing or using it: 1) Ensure the nb binary you have on PATH is from the official project (review the GitHub repo/releases) because the skill will invoke that binary directly. 2) Understand that your notes live under ~/.nb/ and Git remotes used by nb sync will transmit data to whatever remotes you have configured — confirm those remotes are trusted. 3) Be cautious about the contradictory guidance: the doc warns not to edit files by hand but also shows a manual cp/git workflow; prefer using the nb CLI for changes to avoid indexing or commit issues and back up ~/.nb before trying manual operations. 4) No environment variables are required by the skill itself, but git operations will use your existing git/SSH credentials — review your git credential helpers and remotes if you have privacy concerns.

nb - Command Line Note-Taking

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Never edit files in nb git repos (~/.nb/*) by hand! Always use the nb CLI to ensure proper indexing and Git commits.

A command line and local web note-taking, bookmarking, and archiving tool with plain text data storage, Git-backed versioning, and wiki-style linking.

Quick Reference

Notebooks

# List all notebooks
nb notebooks

# Switch to a notebook
nb use <notebook>

# Create a new notebook
nb notebooks add <name>

# Show current notebook
nb notebooks current

Adding Notes

# Add a note with title
nb add -t "Title" -c "Content here"

# Add note to specific notebook
nb <notebook>: add -t "Title" -c "Content"

# Add note with tags
nb add -t "Title" --tags tag1,tag2

# Add note from file content
nb add <notebook>:filename.md

Listing Notes

# List notes in current notebook
nb list

# List all notes (no limit)
nb list -a

# List notes in specific notebook
nb <notebook>: list

# List with excerpts
nb list -e

# List with tags shown
nb list --tags

Showing Notes

# Show note by ID or title
nb show <id>
nb show "<title>"

# Show note from specific notebook
nb show <notebook>:<id>

# Print content (for piping)
nb show <id> --print

Searching Notes

# Search across all notebooks
nb search "query"

# Search in specific notebook
nb <notebook>: search "query"

# Search with AND/OR/NOT
nb search "term1" --and "term2"
nb search "term1" --or "term2"
nb search "term1" --not "exclude"

# Search by tag
nb search --tag "tagname"

Editing Notes

# Edit by ID
nb edit <id>

# Edit by title
nb edit "<title>"

# Append content
nb edit <id> -c "New content to append"

# Prepend content
nb edit <id> -c "Content at top" --prepend

# Overwrite content
nb edit <id> -c "Replace all" --overwrite

Deleting Notes

# Delete by ID (will prompt)
nb delete <id>

# Force delete without prompt
nb delete <id> -f

Moving/Renaming

# Move note to another notebook
nb move <id> <notebook>:

# Rename a note
nb move <id> new-filename.md

Todos

# Add a todo
nb todo add "Task title"

# Add todo with due date
nb todo add "Task" --due "2026-01-15"

# List open todos
nb todos open

# List closed todos
nb todos closed

# Mark todo as done
nb todo do <id>

# Mark todo as not done
nb todo undo <id>

Bookmarks

# Add a bookmark
nb bookmark <url>

# Add with comment
nb bookmark <url> -c "My comment"

# Add with tags
nb bookmark <url> --tags reference,dev

# List bookmarks
nb bookmark list

# Search bookmarks
nb bookmark search "query"

Git Operations

# Sync with remote
nb sync

# Create checkpoint (commit)
nb git checkpoint "Message"

# Check dirty status
nb git dirty

# Run any git command
nb git status
nb git log --oneline -5

Folders

# Add folder to notebook
nb folders add <folder-name>

# List folders
nb folders

# Add note to folder
nb add <folder>/<filename>.md

Common Patterns

Adding Note with Full Content

For longer notes, create a temp file and import:

# Write content to temp file first, then copy to nb
cp /tmp/note.md ~/.nb/<notebook>/
cd ~/.nb/<notebook> && git add . && git commit -m "Add note"
nb <notebook>: index rebuild

Searching Across All

# Search everything
nb search "term" --all

# Search by type
nb search "term" --type bookmark
nb search "term" --type todo

Data Location

Notes are stored in ~/.nb/<notebook>/ as markdown files with Git versioning.

~/.nb/
├── notebook-name-1/ # Your first notebook
├── notebook-name-2/ # Your second notebook
└── ...

Tips

1. Use nb <notebook>: prefix to work with specific notebooks
2. IDs are numbers shown in nb list
3. Titles can be used instead of IDs (quoted if spaces)
4. All changes are automatically Git-committed
5. Use nb sync to push/pull from remote repos