Sidenote

A lightweight, ADHD-friendly todo list that lives right next to your terminal window

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f506c214-92fc-4827-bcfa-19c170bb75f4

Why This Exists

The ADHD Problem: You're coding in your terminal, a task pops into your head, and by the time you open Notepad/Tudo/a new tab, it's gone. That 2-second context switch is enough for ADHD brains to lose the thought entirely.

Every other tool costs you that switch - open an app, run a command, find the window. Sidenote is already there, docked to your terminal. Shift+Tab, type, Enter. Three seconds, without ever looking away from what you were doing.

Why not existing tools

Notepad/Heavy apps: Requires Alt+Tab, finding the window, clicking - thought is gone Tudo/Tuxedo/Rondo: Need to run a command, switch context, navigate UI - thought is gone PowerShell scratchpad: Need to open it, switch focus - thought is gone Other terminal UIs: Require launching a separate app or command - thought is gone

Features

This isn't about rich features but simplicity. It's about zero-friction capture. When you have ADHD, the best todo app is the one that's already open and doesn't make you think.

Install

pip install sidenote
sidenote init
sidenote  

That's it - Shift+Tab toggles it from anywhere.

Optionally, sidenote init adds start-note / stop-note shortcuts to your PowerShell profile.

If sidenote isn't found after installing, your Python Scripts folder isn't on PATH - see Troubleshooting.

Usage

Add - type in the box, press Enter. Timestamped automatically. Check off - double-click a todo. It greys out and shows [x]. Double-click again to uncheck. Copy - right-click a todo to put its text on the clipboard. It flashes to confirm. Edit - select a todo and press Enter. Change the text and press Enter again to save, or Escape to leave it as it was. Reorder - press and drag a todo up or down. Remove - select it and press Delete. Undo a delete - Ctrl+Z brings back the last todo (or Ctrl+Delete batch) you removed. Resize - drag the edge to widen it for longer notes; the width sticks until you restart. Zoom text - Ctrl+ (or Ctrl+=) makes it bigger, Ctrl- makes it smaller. Resets when you restart. Add a tab - click + in the top-left, type a name, press Enter. Up to 5. Switch tabs - click a numbered tab button next to +. Rename a tab - double-click its name in the footer, type a new one, press Enter. Delete a tab - click the × next to its name in the footer, then confirm. Only shows once you have a second tab.

The ? button lists every action, so there's nothing to memorise.

Hotkeys

Commands

sidenote stop only ever terminates its own process - your dev servers, notebooks, and training runs are never touched.

Requirements

Windows 10/11, Python 3.9 or newer (tested on 3.9 and 3.13), and a terminal (PowerShell, CMD, or Windows Terminal). Pulls in two small libraries: keyboard and pywin32.

How Releases Are Made

A release happens when a maintainer pushes a version tag such as v1.5.0. GitHub Actions then checks that the tag matches the package version, builds the package, publishes it to PyPI through trusted publishing (no stored token), and publishes the GitHub Release with generated notes. Merging a pull request never publishes on its own. What shipped in each version is listed in CHANGELOG.md and on the Releases page.

Documentation

Full documentation →

FAQ · Troubleshooting · How it works · Data format · Upgrading · Uninstalling · Development

Contributing

Happy to take PRs for bug fixes, better terminal detection, performance, or cross-platform support. Run pytest first, and add a test if you're fixing a bug. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT - do whatever you want with it.

Built by a developer with ADHD, for developers with ADHD. If this resonates, you get it. If it looks like overkill, it's not for you and that's fine. 🧠⚡