ops-bear

name

ops-bear

description

Use Bear App's local `bear` / `bearcli` command-line interface to read, search, create, append, edit, overwrite, tag, pin, archive, trash, restore, open, or manage attachments for Bear notes on this Mac. Use whenever the user mentions Bear App, Bear notes, Bear CLI, `bear`, `bearcli`, `bear help`, the local Bear database, Bear tags, pins, attachments, note capture, updating/retrieving notes from Bear, Bear MCP server setup, or checking this skill against current local CLI behavior. Do not use for Obsidian, generic Markdown files, web articles, or cloud note services; use the relevant local skill or tool instead.

Bear CLI

Goal

Use Bear's local CLI to operate on Bear notes while preserving note data and making mutations auditable.

The CLI reads and writes the local Bear database in place. Treat Bear content as private local user data: retrieve only the fields needed for the request, avoid broad dumps, and verify mutations with the smallest useful follow-up read.

If the user asks whether this skill is still accurate, or asks to update the skill against the local CLI, follow evaluate.md.

Compatibility

Requires Bear App installed on macOS. Prefer invoking bear; the underlying binary may be named bearcli.

If the user has asked to use Bear and bear is not on PATH, make the bundled CLI discoverable when Bear is installed:

if ! command -v bear >/dev/null 2>&1 && [ -x "/Applications/Bear.app/Contents/MacOS/bearcli" ]; then
  mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin"
  ln -s "/Applications/Bear.app/Contents/MacOS/bearcli" "$HOME/.local/bin/bear" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
fi

Then verify availability:

bear help
bear help all

If neither bear nor /Applications/Bear.app/Contents/MacOS/bearcli exists, report that Bear CLI is unavailable and stop unless the user wants installation help.

Start Bear First

Before any Bear CLI command or bear mcp-server operation, make sure the Bear app is running. The CLI operates on Bear's local database; running it while the app is closed can leave the agent working against stale local state and increase the risk of note version conflicts.

Use a background launch so ordinary CLI tasks do not unexpectedly steal focus:

if ! pgrep -x Bear >/dev/null; then
  open -g -a Bear
  for _ in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10; do
    pgrep -x Bear >/dev/null && break
    sleep 0.5
  done
fi
pgrep -x Bear >/dev/null

If Bear cannot be launched or the process check still fails, report that Bear is not running and stop before reading or mutating notes.

Load Bear AGENTS Context

Before reading any requested file, note, or attachment content through this skill, first try to find and read an AGENTS note in Bear. Treat it as local operating context for the requested read. If no relevant AGENTS note is found, continue with the user's requested read.

bear search AGENTS --limit 10 --format json --fields id,title,tags,modified
bear cat <agents-note-id> --format json

Prefer an exact AGENTS title match when the search returns multiple notes. If there is no exact match, use the closest project- or task-relevant AGENTS note only when its title or tags make that relevance clear.

Operating Rules

• Prefer --format json for read commands when output will be parsed, summarized, or used by another command. Default TSV has no header.
• Do not add --format json to mutating commands. They are silent on success and use the exit code as the success signal.
• Prefer note IDs from list, search, or create over case-insensitive --title lookups when mutating notes.
• Bound broad reads with --limit, --fields, --count, and specific Bear search syntax.
• Use cat for raw note content and show for structured metadata.
• --fields all excludes content; use --fields all,content only when the note body is needed.
• Use stdin for long or multiline content instead of forcing fragile shell escaping through --content.
• Use --no-update-modified only when the user explicitly wants to preserve the note's modification timestamp.
• Locked or encrypted notes may expose metadata but reject content reads.
• Mutating commands should be tied to a direct user request. Read enough current state first to identify the target note and preserve title, tags, attachments, and concurrent edits.

Output And Errors

Common read output formats:

• --format json: structured JSON for read commands and JSON error objects.
• --format csv: RFC 4180 CSV with a header row.
• default TSV: tab-separated output with no header.

Useful JSON shapes:

• list, search, tags list, pin list, attachments list, search-in: arrays.
• show, create: one object.
• cat: {"content":"..."}.
• --count: {"count":N}.
• errors from commands that accept --format json: {"error":{"code":"...","message":"..."}}.

Mutating commands such as append, edit, overwrite, archive, restore, trash, open, tags add/remove/rename/delete, pin add/remove, and attachments add/delete produce no stdout on success and do not accept --format.

Exit codes are 0 for success, 1 for business errors, and 64 for usage errors. Empty list or search results are still success: [] in JSON mode.

Read And Search

Use these commands for retrieval before considering mutation:

bear list --limit 20 --format json --fields id,title,tags,modified
bear list --tag work --format json --fields id,title,tags,modified
bear search "@today @todo meeting" --limit 20 --format json --fields id,title,tags,matches,modified
bear search --query "- [ ]" --format json --fields id,title,matches
bear show <note-id> --format json --fields id,title,tags,hash,created,modified
bear cat <note-id> --format json
bear search-in <note-id> --string "TODO" --context 120 --format json

Bear search supports text terms, exact phrases, negation, tags, dates, created dates, task status, title-only search, pinned notes, content filters such as @images / @files / @attachments / @code, state filters such as @locked, and link filters such as @wikilinks and @backlinks. Use --query when the query starts with -.

Create And Edit Notes

Use create for new notes. Capture the returned ID for follow-up commands.

bear create "My Note" --content "Body text" --tags "work,draft" --format json --fields id,title,tags,hash
printf "%s" "$CONTENT" | bear create "My Note" --format json --fields id,title,tags,hash

When a title is provided, Bear auto-generates the heading. If --content starts with a matching heading, Bear strips it to avoid duplication. Prefer --tags for tag placement because Bear inserts tags according to the user's Bear settings.

Use append for additive updates:

bear append <note-id> --content "New paragraph"
printf "%s" "$CONTENT" | bear append <note-id> --position end
bear append --title "Mars" --content "Update" --position beginning

Use edit only for exact string replacement or insertion. Run search-in first when the target string might be ambiguous.

bear search-in <note-id> --string "TODO" --format json
bear edit <note-id> --find "TODO" --replace "DONE"
bear edit <note-id> --find "## Notes" --insert-after "\nNew line"
bear edit <note-id> --find "## Notes" --insert-before "Intro paragraph\n\n"
bear edit <note-id> --find "cat" --replace "dog" --all --word

Use overwrite only when the user wants to replace the whole note. Preserve the first heading, tags, and inline attachment references unless the user explicitly wants them removed. Protect full-note writes with the current hash via --base:

bear show <note-id> --format json --fields hash,content
printf "%s" "$NEW_CONTENT" | bear overwrite <note-id> --base <hash>

Without --base, overwrite is unconditional and can overwrite changes made in Bear or another client. Use --force only after the user explicitly approves removing attachments that the safety gate reports would be dropped.

Organize Notes

Tag commands:

bear tags list --format json
bear tags list <note-id> --format json
bear tags add <note-id> work "work/meetings"
bear tags remove <note-id> draft
bear tags rename --from draft --to published
bear tags delete --name "work/old"

tags rename and tags delete affect all notes. Ask for explicit confirmation before running them. Use --force for tag merges only when the user has approved the merge.

Pin commands:

bear pin list --format json
bear pin list <note-id> --format json
bear pin add <note-id> global work
bear pin remove <note-id> global

Pin operations are atomic for tag-specific pins: if any target tag does not exist, no pins are applied or removed.

Location commands:

bear trash <note-id>
bear archive <note-id>
bear restore <note-id>

trash is a soft delete, archive hides a note from active notes, and restore returns a trashed or archived note to active notes. Identify the note clearly before moving it.

Attachments

Use attachment commands when the user asks to inspect, add, export, or delete files attached to a Bear note:

bear attachments list <note-id> --format json
bear attachments add <note-id> --filename photo.jpg < photo.jpg
bear attachments save <note-id> --filename photo.jpg > photo.jpg
bear attachments save <note-id> --filename photo.jpg --format json
bear attachments delete <note-id> --filename photo.jpg

attachments save writes raw bytes to stdout by default; redirect it to a file. Use JSON mode when the caller needs base64 data instead of a file.

Open Bear Or Use MCP

Open a note in the Bear app only when the user asks for UI navigation or manual editing:

bear open <note-id>
bear open --title "Mars" --header "Moons" --edit
bear open <note-id> --new-window

open brings Bear to the foreground. Treat it as a visible local side effect.

bear mcp-server exposes an MCP server over stdio with tools mirroring the CLI. Use it only when the user asks to configure an MCP-aware client or a persistent tool interface; prefer the CLI for one-off Bear tasks.

Validation

After a mutating command, run a targeted verification:

• create: inspect the returned ID with show or cat.
• append, edit, overwrite: read the changed note or use search-in for the changed text; for overwrite, include the resulting hash when useful.
• tags add/remove: run tags list for the note.
• tags rename/delete: run tags list globally, and spot-check affected notes if the user requested a broad change.
• pin add/remove: run pin list for the note.
• trash, archive, restore: run show --fields id,title,location or a bounded list --location all.
• attachments add/delete: run attachments list.
• attachments save: verify the destination file exists and has a plausible size when saved to disk.

Report the command class used and the observed result. Do not paste full private note content unless the user asked for the raw content.

Stop Rules

Stop when the Bear task is complete, the relevant command result has been validated, and any unperformed broader Bear operations are clearly outside the request.

If a requested operation would overwrite a full note, merge tags globally, delete attachments, move notes to trash, or expose a broad set of private notes, narrow the target and confirmation before running the command.