lx-cli

LX - LaTeX Notes Manager

A high-performance, opinionated CLI for managing LaTeX notes. Treat your notes as data while abstracting away file management complexity.

Features

Core Functionality

• Note Management - Create, edit, search, and organize LaTeX notes with ease
• Template System - Reusable LaTeX style templates for consistent formatting
• Automated Building - Compile individual notes or entire vault with latexmk
• Knowledge Graph - Interactive graph visualization of note connections
• Link Management - Track backlinks and outgoing connections between notes
• Git Integration - Built-in version control support
• Health Checks - Doctor command for vault diagnostics

Power User Features ⚡

• Smart Entry - Type lx physics instead of lx open physics - the CLI intelligently determines the action
• Interactive Dashboard - Full-screen TUI for browsing, searching, and managing notes without leaving the terminal
• Fuzzy Search - Lightning-fast fuzzy matching that understands abbreviations (e.g., "gth" matches "Graph Theory")
• Syntax Highlighting - Beautiful LaTeX syntax highlighting in preview pane
• User-Defined Aliases - Create custom shortcuts for frequently-used commands or complex workflows
• Scrollable Previews - View full note content in dashboard with smooth scrolling

Search & Discovery

• Full-Text Search - Quick grep-based search across all notes
• Smart Organization - Tag-based filtering and date-based organization
• Statistics - Insights into your note-taking patterns
• Beautiful UI - Clean terminal interface with syntax highlighting

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25.4 or higher
• LaTeX distribution with latexmk (for building notes)
• git (optional, for sync features)

From Source

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/lx-cli.git
cd lx-cli
make build
# or
go build -o lx

Using Go Install

go install github.com/yourusername/lx-cli@latest

Quick Start

1. Initialize the vault:

   lx init
   

   This creates the vault structure at ~/.local/share/lx/:

   • notes/ - Your LaTeX source files
   • templates/ - Your .sty template files
   • cache/ - Compiled PDFs and build artifacts
   • assets/ - Static assets (images, bibliographies, etc.)

2. Create your first note:

   lx new "My First Note"
   

3. List all notes:

   lx list
   

4. Build a note to PDF:

   lx build "my first note"
   

5. Open a note (Smart Entry):

   lx "my first note"    # Smart entry - opens the note
   # or the traditional way:
   lx open "my first note"
   

6. Launch the Interactive Dashboard:

   lx                    # No arguments launches dashboard
   

Smart Entry

LX features intelligent command resolution. Instead of typing explicit commands, just provide the note name:

# These all work:
lx physics              # Opens physics note (default action)
lx "graph theory"       # Opens graph theory note
lx homework assignment  # Searches for "homework assignment"

# Traditional commands still work:
lx open physics
lx edit physics

The default action (open or edit) can be configured in config.yaml:

default_action: open # or "edit"

Interactive Dashboard

Press lx with no arguments to launch a full-screen interactive dashboard:

┌─ LX Notes Dashboard ─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Vault: ~/notes                           15 notes │ Modified     │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                   │
│  >  Calculus III Homework      [calc] [homework]         2h ago  │
│     Linear Algebra Notes       [math]                    1d ago  │
│     Quantum Mechanics          [physics]                 3d ago  │
│                                                                   │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [↑↓/jk] Navigate  [Enter/o] Open  [e] Edit  [/] Search  [q] Quit│
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Dashboard Features

• Fuzzy Search - Press / to search with intelligent fuzzy matching
• Live Preview - See note content with syntax highlighting in split-screen
• Scrollable Preview - Use PgUp/PgDn to scroll through note content
• Quick Actions - Open, edit, build, delete notes with single keystrokes
• Graph View - Toggle graph visualization with v
• Always-On Preview - Preview pane automatically updates as you navigate

Dashboard Hotkeys

Commands

Core Commands

• lx new <title> - Create a new note
• lx list - List all notes in table format
• lx open <query> - Open a note's PDF
• lx edit <query> - Edit a note in your default editor
• lx delete <query> - Delete a note
• lx rename <query> <new-title> - Rename a note

Building

• lx build <query> - Build a specific note to PDF
• lx build-all - Build all notes in parallel
• lx watch <query> - Watch a note and rebuild on changes
• lx clean - Remove all build artifacts

Search & Discovery

• lx grep <pattern> - Search note contents
• lx explore - Interactively browse and search notes
• lx stats - View vault statistics
• lx daily - Create or open today's daily note

Graph & Links

• lx graph - Interactive graph browser
• lx graph <query> - Start graph from a specific note
• lx graph --dot - Export graph in DOT format
• lx links <query> - Show all links for a note
• lx reindex - Rebuild the knowledge graph index

Templates

• lx new template <name> - Create a new template
• lx list --template - List all templates
• lx new --template <name> <title> - Create note from template

Tags

• lx tag add <query> <tag> - Add a tag to a note
• lx tag remove <query> <tag> - Remove a tag from a note
• lx list --tag <tag> - Filter notes by tag

Git Integration

• lx git <command> - Run git commands in vault
• lx clone <url> - Clone a vault from a repository
• lx sync - Pull, commit, and push changes

Assets & Attachments

• lx attach <query> <file> - Attach a file (image, PDF, etc.) to a note
• lx export <query> - Export note and its assets

Utilities

• lx config - View configuration
• lx doctor - Run health checks on the vault
• lx todo - List all TODO items across notes
• lx version - Show version information
• lx dashboard (or lx dash) - Launch interactive dashboard

Aliases

Create custom shortcuts for frequently-used commands:

• lx alias list - List all defined aliases
• lx alias add <name> <command> - Create a new alias
• lx alias remove <name> - Remove an alias

Examples:

# Create shortcuts
lx alias add hw "new -t homework"
lx alias add today "list -s modified -r"
lx alias add backup "export -f json -o ~/backup.json"

# Use them
lx hw assignment3              # Creates homework note
lx today                       # Lists recent notes
lx backup                      # Exports to JSON

# Advanced: Variable substitution
lx alias add note "new -t $1 -n '$2'"
lx note math "calculus"        # Expands to: lx new -t math -n 'calculus'

See Alias Documentation for complete guide.

Configuration

Configuration is stored at ~/.config/lx/config.yaml.

A sample configuration file with all available options is provided in config.sample.yaml. Copy it to your config directory and customize as needed:

cp config.sample.yaml ~/.config/lx/config.yaml

Basic Configuration

# Default template to use when creating new notes
default_template: ""

# Default editor (uses $EDITOR environment variable if not set)
editor: ""

# Number of concurrent jobs for build-all
max_workers: 4

# Default action for smart entry (open or edit)
default_action: open

# User-defined command aliases
aliases:
    hw: new -t homework
    today: list -s modified -r
    backup: export -f json -o ~/backup.json

See config.sample.yaml for the complete list of configuration options including:

• LaTeX compiler settings
• Git integration options
• Graph visualization settings
• UI customization
• Search preferences
• Export settings
• And more

Vault Structure

~/.local/share/lx/
├── notes/              # Your LaTeX notes (.tex files)
│   ├── 20240115-my-first-note.tex
│   ├── 20240116-graph-theory.tex
│   └── .latexmkrc     # LaTeX build configuration
├── templates/         # Style files (.sty)
│   ├── article.sty
│   └── notes.sty
├── cache/             # Build artifacts
│   ├── 20240115-my-first-note.pdf
│   ├── index.json     # Knowledge graph index
│   └── *.aux, *.log   # LaTeX temporary files
└── assets/            # Static files
    ├── images/
    └── bibliography/

Note Format

Notes are created with metadata:

%% title: Graph Theory Basics
%% date: 2024-01-15
%% tags: [math, graph-theory]

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{notes}  % Your custom template

\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}

Graph theory is the study of graphs...

% Link to another note
\input{../notes/discrete-math.tex}

\end{document}

Fuzzy Search

LX features intelligent fuzzy search that understands:

• Abbreviations - "gth" matches "Graph Theory"
• Word boundaries - "gtb" matches "Graph Theory Basics"
• Non-consecutive characters - "tpa" matches "Topology and Algebra"
• Case-insensitive - Works regardless of capitalization
• Relevance ranking - Best matches appear first

Available in:

• Dashboard search (press /)
• Smart entry
• All search commands

Knowledge Graph

The graph feature analyzes links between notes and provides:

• Interactive terminal-based graph browser
• Backlink tracking (which notes link to this one)
• Outgoing link tracking (which notes this one links to)
• DOT format export for visualization with Graphviz

# Interactive graph browser
lx graph

# Start from a specific note
lx graph "graph theory"

# Export to image
lx graph --dot > graph.dot
dot -Tpng graph.dot -o graph.png

Workflow Examples

Daily Workflow with Dashboard

# Launch dashboard
lx

# Press '/' to search, type "homework"
# Press Enter to open
# Press 'e' to edit
# Press 'b' to build
# Press 'q' to quit

Quick Note Creation with Aliases

# Define your workflow
lx alias add qp "new -t quick-note -e"
lx alias add hw "new -t homework"
lx alias add today "daily"

# Use shortcuts
lx qp idea           # Quick note + auto-edit
lx hw assignment3    # Homework note
lx today             # Open today's note

Smart Entry Workflow

# Just type what you want
lx physics           # Opens physics note (smart!)
lx graph theory      # Opens graph theory note
lx "homework 3"      # Searches and opens

# Configure default action
# Edit ~/.config/lx/config.yaml:
# default_action: edit    # Now 'lx physics' edits instead

Environment Variables

• EDITOR - Default text editor for lx edit
• XDG_DATA_HOME - Override vault location (default: ~/.local/share)
• XDG_CONFIG_HOME - Override config location (default: ~/.config)

Important Files

• LICENSE - MIT License file
• README.md - This file
• config.sample.yaml - Sample configuration file with all available options
• docs/ALIASES.md - Complete alias feature documentation
• .latexmkrc - LaTeX compilation settings (auto-generated in notes directory)
• .gitignore - Git ignore patterns (auto-generated in vault root)
• ~/.config/lx/config.yaml - User configuration file
• ~/.local/share/lx/cache/index.json - Knowledge graph index

Development

Project Structure

lx-cli/
├── cmd/                    # CLI commands
├── internal/
│   ├── adapters/          # External adapters (compiler, repos)
│   ├── core/
│   │   ├── domain/        # Domain models
│   │   ├── ports/         # Interfaces
│   │   └── services/      # Business logic
├── pkg/
│   ├── ui/                # Terminal UI components
│   └── vault/             # Vault management
└── main.go

Build

# Build binary
make build

# Run tests
make test

# Install locally
make install

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

Contributing

Note: This is a personal project that I created for my own use. You’re welcome to fork the repository and modify it however you like, but I won’t be accepting pull requests. I’m sharing the project publicly in case it’s useful to others.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Built with:

• Cobra - CLI framework
• Bubble Tea - TUI framework
• Lipgloss - Terminal styling
• Bubbles - TUI components
• Chroma - Syntax highlighting
• go-fuzzyfinder - Fuzzy finding

LX - Manage your LaTeX notes like a pro