denotecli

name	denotecli
description	Search, read, and analyze 3,000+ Denote/org-mode notes. Supports title/tag search, full-text search, heading search, outline extraction, and content reading. Use when working with ~/org/, Denote files, org-mode knowledge bases, or when user asks about notes, journal entries, or bibliography.

denotecli — Denote Knowledge Base CLI

Binary: {baseDir}/denotecli. All output is JSON. Default --dirs: ~/org.

Commands

Command	Args	Description
search	QUERY [--tags T] [--title-only] [--max N]	Find notes by title/tag/ID. Multiple words = AND
search-content	QUERY [--tags T] [--max N] [--matches M]	Full-text grep across all files (~300ms)
search-headings	QUERY [--level N] [--tags T] [--max N]	Find org headings across all files
read	ID [--offset N --limit N]	Read note content + frontmatter + links
read --outline	ID [--level N]	Heading structure with line numbers → use for offset/limit
day	DATE [--years-ago N] [--days-ago N]	Journal/diary/notes for a date (notes_created + notes_modified)
timeline-journal	--month YYYY-MM	Monthly journal activity overview
graph	ID	Outgoing + incoming links (backlinks)
tags	[--top N] [--pattern PAT] [--suggest]	Tag stats, duplicate detection
keyword-map	[QUERY]	Korean↔English keyword mapping
create	--title T --tags T [--dir D] [--content C]	Create new Denote note
rename-tag	--from T --to T [--dry-run]	Batch rename tag across all files

Examples

{baseDir}/denotecli search "에릭 호퍼" --max 5
{baseDir}/denotecli search-content "양자역학 관찰자" --max 10
{baseDir}/denotecli search-headings "창조" --level 1 --tags bib
{baseDir}/denotecli read 20250314T152111 --outline --level 2
{baseDir}/denotecli read 20250314T152111 --offset 40 --limit 30
{baseDir}/denotecli day --years-ago 3
{baseDir}/denotecli graph 20250314T125213
{baseDir}/denotecli tags --suggest
{baseDir}/denotecli keyword-map "이맥스"
{baseDir}/denotecli create --title "새 노트" --tags llmlog,topic --dir ~/org/llmlog
{baseDir}/denotecli rename-tag --from llms --to llm --dry-run

Workflow

1. search or search-headings → find note ID
2. read ID --outline         → see structure + line numbers
3. read ID --offset N --limit M → read specific section
4. graph ID                  → explore connections

For date queries: day + gitcli + lifetract = full daily view (see day-query skill).

Key Flags

Flag	Commands	Description	Default
--dirs D,...	most	Search directories	~/org
--max N	search*	Max result files	20
--matches N	search-content	Max matches per file	3
--tags T,...	search*, create	Filter/assign by tag (OR). Reads filename slots ∪ #+filetags: header (union)	all
--level N	search-headings, read --outline	Max heading level (0=all)	0
--offset N	read	Start line (1-indexed)	0
--limit N	read	Lines to read (0=all)	0
--title-only	search	Title field only	false

Output Contract

• Empty result = [] (JSON array), never null. Applies to all search-like commands (search, search-content, search-headings, tags, keyword-map, graph outgoing/incoming, read --outline, rename-tag, day entries). Safe to call len(json.load(...)) directly. New in e0a6c52 (2026-05-12).
• Unknown flag = fatal. error: unknown flag: --X → exit 1. No silent ignore. Typos like --tag (vs --tags) or --limit (vs --max) are caught immediately. Applies to all 11 commands. New in e0a6c52.
• Header-aware indexing. search and --tags index #+title: and #+filetags: headers (top 30 frontmatter lines) in union with the filename slots. Previously filename-only — 6.4% of corpus (192/3,505 notes) had header-only words that silently missed. Each result carries header_title field when present. Added 2026-05-12.

Notes

Denote filename format

YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS[==SIGNATURE]--title__tag1_tag2.org

Knowledge base: ~/org/

notes/ (800+), bib/ (900+), journal/ (700+), llmlog/ (300+), meta/, archives/

Why not rg/fd?

Structured JSON output (ID, tags, links parsed), heading-aware navigation, Korean↔English bridging, tag governance.