ideajar 1.0.0

💡 A simple CLI tool to capture and store your brilliant ideas in a snap

IdeaJar 💡

A simple, fast command-line tool for capturing and storing your sudden flashes of inspiration and ideas.

💭 Why do you need IdeaJar?

Have you ever experienced moments like these:

• While programming, suddenly thinking of a brilliant project idea
• Having a flash of inspiration while working in the terminal, wanting to quickly record a thought
• Needing a simple tool to collect your creative ideas

IdeaJar was created to solve these problems! It allows you to quickly record any idea without leaving the terminal.

🚀 Installation

pip install ideajar

📖 Usage

After installation, you can use the idea command anywhere!

📝 Record an idea

idea "Create a CLI tool for recording ideas"

Output:

💡 Idea saved to March 2024: "Create a CLI tool for recording ideas"

👀 View ideas

View current month's ideas (default)

idea

View all historical ideas

idea --all

View ideas from a specific month

idea --month 2024-03

Example output:

🎯 Ideas from March 2024:
==================================================
--- Ideas from March 2024 ---
💡 Monthly inspiration record

[2024-03-15 14:30:15] Create a CLI tool for recording ideas
[2024-03-15 14:32:22] Add dark mode to blog website
[2024-03-15 14:35:10] Learn Rust programming language
==================================================

🔍 Search ideas

idea --search "CLI tool"

Output:

🔍 Search keyword: "CLI tool"
==================================================

📅 March 2024:
  [2024-03-15 14:30:15] Create a CLI tool for recording ideas

✅ Found 1 related idea.
==================================================

📊 Statistics and Management

View month list

idea --months

Count ideas

idea --count

Output:

📊 Ideas Statistics:
==============================
📝 March 2024: 3 ideas
📝 April 2024: 5 ideas
==============================
🎯 Total: 8 ideas

Clear all ideas (with enhanced safety)

idea --clear

⚠️ Enhanced Safety Features: The clear command includes multiple confirmation steps to prevent accidental deletion:

• Shows detailed statistics of ideas to be deleted
• Requires typing "DELETE" to proceed
• Requires confirming the exact number of ideas
• Requires typing a random safety phrase as final confirmation
• Cannot be undone once completed

📋 View all commands

idea --help

📁 Data Storage

🗂️ New Version Storage Structure (v0.2.0+)

Ideas are now stored by month in the ~/.ideajar/ directory:

~/.ideajar/
├── 2024-03.txt        # Ideas from March 2024
├── 2024-04.txt        # Ideas from April 2024  
├── 2025-09.txt        # Ideas from September 2025
└── all_ideas.txt      # Summary of all ideas (legacy compatibility)

Format of each monthly file:

--- Ideas from March 2024 ---
💡 Monthly inspiration record

[2024-03-15 14:30:15] Create a CLI tool for recording ideas
[2024-03-15 14:32:22] Add dark mode to blog website
[2024-03-15 14:35:10] Learn Rust programming language

🔄 Automatic Migration

If you previously used an older version (stored in ~/.ideas.txt), the new version will automatically migrate your data:

• Old data migrated to new directory structure
• Original file backed up as ~/.ideas.txt.backup
• Seamless upgrade, no ideas lost!

✨ Features

• 🚀 Extremely Simple & Fast: One command, instantly record ideas
• 📅 Monthly Organization: Ideas automatically organized by month, well-structured
• 🔍 Powerful Search: Quickly find keywords across all historical ideas
• 💾 Local Storage: All data stored in your home directory, completely private
• ⏰ Automatic Timestamps: Each idea comes with precise time recording
• 🎨 Friendly Interface: Uses emoji and colors to make terminal more vivid
• 🔄 Automatic Migration: Seamless upgrade from old versions, no data loss
• 🔧 Multiple Operations: Record, view, search, count, monthly management
• 📱 Cross-platform: Supports Linux, macOS, and Windows

🎯 Use Cases

Developers

idea "Refactor user authentication module"
idea "Try using GraphQL to replace REST API"
idea "Add Docker support to the project"

Creative Workers

idea "Write a blog post about remote work"
idea "Design a minimalist style logo"
idea "Create a programming tutorial video series"

Daily Life

idea "Go hiking on the weekend"
idea "Learn to make Italian pasta"
idea "Finish reading 'Sapiens'"

🛠️ Technical Details

• Language: Python 3.8+
• Dependencies: Only uses Python standard library
• Storage: Plain text files (~/.ideajar/*.txt)
• Encoding: UTF-8 supports Chinese and emoji

🤝 Contributing

Issues and Pull Requests are welcome!

Development Environment Setup

git clone https://github.com/ideajar/ideajar.git
cd ideajar
poetry install
poetry shell

Run Tests

python -m pytest tests/

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

🙋‍♀️ FAQ

Q: Where are idea files stored? A: Stored in the .ideajar/ directory in your home directory, organized by month.

Q: Can I backup my ideas? A: Yes! Just copy the entire ~/.ideajar/ directory.

Q: How to search ideas? A: Use the built-in search feature: idea --search "keyword"

Q: What if I have too many ideas? A: The new version automatically categorizes by month, you can:

• Use idea --months to view all months
• Use idea --month 2024-03 to view a specific month
• Use idea --search to search for specific content
• Use idea --clear to clear all ideas (use with caution)

Q: Will upgrading from an old version lose data? A: No! The new version will automatically migrate old data to the new structure and backup the original file.

Q: How to check the number of ideas in a specific month? A: Use idea --count to see monthly statistics and totals.

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💡 Start recording your ideas! Every great project begins with a simple idea.