diaryctl

diaryctl

A powerful command-line diary management tool with pluggable storage backends and an elegant TUI.

Features

• Pluggable Storage: Choose between Markdown files or SQLite/Turso database
• Rich CLI: Full-featured commands for creating, editing, listing, and managing diary entries
• Interactive TUI: Beautiful terminal user interface built with Bubble Tea
• Context Tracking: Automatic context detection from git branches, manual context tagging
• Template Support: Create and use custom entry templates
• Shell Integration: Export environment variables for shell prompts
• Daily Summaries: View entries by date range with filtering

Installation

From Source

go install github.com/chris-regnier/diaryctl@latest

Building Locally

git clone https://github.com/chris-regnier/diaryctl.git
cd diaryctl
go build -o diaryctl

Quick Start

First-Time Setup

diaryctl automatically creates necessary directories and configuration on first use. No initialization command is required.

Configuration is optional - defaults work out of the box with markdown storage in ~/.diaryctl/.

Basic Usage

# Create a new entry interactively
diaryctl create

# Quick jot down a thought
diaryctl jot "Had a great idea for the project"

# List recent entries
diaryctl list

# Show today's entries
diaryctl today

# Launch interactive TUI
diaryctl

Storage Backends

Markdown (Default)

Stores entries as individual markdown files with YAML frontmatter:

---
id: 01HQXYZ...
created: 2026-02-04T10:30:00Z
contexts:
  - feature/auth
  - sprint:23
template: daily
---

Entry content goes here...

SQLite/Turso

Stores entries in a SQLite database compatible with Turso for remote sync.

Context Tracking

diaryctl automatically tracks context from:

• Git branches: Current branch becomes a context
• Manual tags: Set custom contexts with diaryctl context set project:auth
• Date/time: Automatic datetime context provider

Filter entries by context:

diaryctl list --context feature/auth

Templates

Create reusable entry templates:

# Create a new template
diaryctl template create standup

# Use template when creating entry
diaryctl create --template standup

Configuration

Configuration file locations (searched in order):

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/diaryctl/config.toml (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)
• ~/.diaryctl/config.toml

storage = "markdown"  # or "sqlite"
data_dir = "~/.diaryctl/data"
editor = "hx"  # or vim, nano, etc.
context_providers = ["git", "datetime"]
context_resolvers = ["git"]

Commands

Development

Running Tests

go test ./...

Project Structure

diaryctl/
├── cmd/              # Cobra commands
├── internal/
│   ├── config/       # Configuration management
│   ├── context/      # Context providers and resolvers
│   ├── daily/        # Daily view logic
│   ├── editor/       # Editor integration
│   ├── entry/        # Entry domain model
│   ├── shell/        # Shell integration
│   ├── storage/      # Storage interface
│   │   ├── markdown/ # Markdown backend
│   │   └── sqlite/   # SQLite backend
│   ├── template/     # Template management
│   └── ui/           # TUI components
└── main.go

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines.

Security

See SECURITY.md for security policy and vulnerability reporting.