pwdnote 0.1.1

Encrypted, project-local notes for your terminal.

pwdnote

Encrypted, project-local notes for your terminal.

pwdnote keeps project-specific notes — TODOs, deployment notes, AWS account details, session IDs, customer context, reminders — encrypted on disk, right next to your code, without ever exposing plaintext inside the repository.

It is local-first, encrypted-by-default, Git-friendly, and terminal-native. The single encrypted file (.pwdnote.enc) is safe to commit; without your key it is just ciphertext.

pwdnote is not a cloud service, a note-taking app, a password manager, a database, or a sync platform. It does one small thing well.

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Installation

uv tool install pwdnote

That's it — no further setup. The encryption key is generated automatically on first use.

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Quick start

cd my-project
pwdnote init                                  # create .pwdnote.enc
pwdnote edit                                  # open it in your editor
pwdnote                                        # print the decrypted note
pwdnote add "Remember to rotate AWS credentials" # appends a new line

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Commands

Command	Description
pwdnote	Show the decrypted project note.
pwdnote init	Create an encrypted note (# Project Notes).
pwdnote edit	Decrypt, open in $VISUAL/$EDITOR, re-encrypt on save.
pwdnote add "text"	Append - text to the note without opening an editor.
pwdnote status	Show the project root, note file, and encryption status.
pwdnote gitignore	Add recommended ignore entries (.pwdnote.tmp, .pwdnote.cache).

Examples

$ pwdnote
TODO:
- rotate AWS keys
- update deployment docs
Notes:
Client requested staging environment.

$ pwdnote status
Project root:
  ~/projects/example
Note file:
  .pwdnote.enc
Encrypted:
  Yes

If no note exists yet:

No project note found.
Run:
  pwdnote init

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Project root detection

pwdnote does not operate only on the current directory. Starting from your working directory it searches upward:

1. If .pwdnote.enc exists, that location is used.
2. Otherwise, if .git exists, that location is treated as the project root.
3. The search stops at the filesystem root.

So from project/backend/api, running pwdnote finds project/.pwdnote.enc.

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Security model

• Authenticated encryption. Notes are encrypted with Fernet (AES-128-CBC with an HMAC-SHA256 authentication tag) from the well-maintained cryptography library. We do not implement custom cryptography.
• Integrity protection. Tampered or corrupted files fail to decrypt rather than returning garbage.
• Key storage. A single key is generated on first use and stored at ~/.config/pwdnote/key (honouring XDG_CONFIG_HOME) with 0600 permissions inside a 0700 directory.
• No plaintext on disk. pwdnote edit writes to a temporary file with restrictive permissions and always deletes it afterwards.
• Commit-safe. .pwdnote.enc is meant to be committed; it is ciphertext. Do not ignore it. (The temporary/cache artifacts are ignored instead.)

The crypto backend lives behind a small abstraction (encrypt_text / decrypt_text), so it can be replaced later — and future versions may add macOS Keychain, 1Password, age, or GPG key backends.

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Limitations

• The key lives on your machine. If you lose ~/.config/pwdnote/key, encrypted notes cannot be recovered. Back the key up somewhere safe.
• There is no built-in sync. Sharing a note across machines means sharing the same key (e.g. via a secrets manager).
• One note per project root. pwdnote is intentionally simple — no databases, no cloud, no plugins, no AI features.

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Contributing

git clone https://https://github.com/inspiringsource/pwdnote
cd pwdnote
uv sync                 # install deps + dev tools
uv run pytest           # run the test suite
uv run pwdnote --help   # try the CLI from source

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Please keep the tool small and reliable — new storage/key backends should slot in behind the existing abstractions.

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License

MIT