HeyNoterm

HeyNoterm is a scratch pad for the terminal, designed to help you quickly jot down notes, commands, and ideas while working in the command line.

What is HeyNoterm?

• A minimalistic, terminal-based scratch pad.
• Organize your thoughts in discrete blocks of text.
• Syntax highlighting for code snippets (Python, Markdown, etc.).
• Math evaluation mode for quick calculations.
• Persistent JSON storage (saved by default to ~/.heynoterm.json; see Custom State File Location below) so your notes survive restarts.
• Context-aware block operations: add, delete, move, split, and change language on the fly.
• Dark-mode toggle and on-screen help overlay.

Features

• Add new blocks (Ctrl+N), delete blocks (Ctrl+D), split blocks (Ctrl+T).
• Navigate between blocks (Ctrl+J / Ctrl+K).
• Change block language (Ctrl+L): Python, Markdown, Math.
• Real-time math evaluation in math mode.
• Persistent storage of all blocks in a state file, by default ~/.heynoterm.json.

• On-screen help (Ctrl+/) listing all keybindings.

Installation

We recommend using uv to install and manage HeyNoterm, but you can also use uvx, pipx, or pip. Homebrew is not supported.

1. Using uv (recommended)

   uv install heynoterm
   

2. Using uvx

   uvx heynoterm
   

3. Using pipx

   pipx install heynoterm
   

4. Using pip

   pip install heynoterm
   

After installation, run HeyNoterm with:

heynoterm
# or via uv:
uv heynoterm
# or via uvx:
uvx heynoterm

Usage

1. Launch the app: heynoterm
2. Type freely to add content in the current block.
3. Use keybindings to manage blocks and switch modes.
4. Press Ctrl+C to exit.

All your blocks are automatically saved to a state file (by default ~/.heynoterm.json). See Custom State File Location below to change the storage location.

Custom State File Location

By default, HeyNoterm stores its state in ~/.heynoterm.json. You can override this behavior using command-line options:

• -l, --local: Use ./.heynoterm.json in the current working directory.
• -s <path>, --state <path>: Specify a custom path for the state file.

Examples:

heynoterm -l
heynoterm --state /path/to/my_notes.json

If you install via uvx, pass options after --:

uvx heynoterm -- -l
uvx heynoterm -- --state /path/to/my_notes.json

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request on the HeyNoterm GitHub repository.

License

TBD