an instant, focused note-taking tool that actually makes sense.

tired of complex note apps that get in your way? stash is a minimal, keyboard-driven cli tool that lets you capture, organize, and find your thoughts instantly. think of it as your digital brain's cache layer.

stash is a command-line note-taking tool built in rust that combines:

• ⚡ instant note capture from anywhere in your terminal
• 🔍 powerful search with tags, projects, and fuzzy matching
• 🤖 ai-powered natural language search
• 📝 beautiful terminal ui for browsing and editing
• 🏷️ automatic tag and project extraction
• 💾 markdown files stored locally (your data, your control)

no cloud. no electron. no subscriptions. just fast, local notes that sync however you want.

when you need to capture a thought quickly - in a meeting, while coding, during research - you don't want to break flow by opening another app or hunting through browser tabs.

your terminal is always there, always fast. stash add "quick idea" and you're back to what you were doing instantly. no context switching, no waiting, no app sprawl.

terminal means keyboard-driven, actually fast, and integrates with however you work. just like git stash for code, but for thoughts.

stash isn't for everybody. it's for people who like to move fast and keep things tidy. it runs in the terminal, so if you're comfortable with keyboard shortcuts and minimal interfaces, you'll feel right at home. no distractions, just a clean, frictionless way to capture your thoughts.

cargo install --git https://github.com/danielarbabian/stash

git clone https://github.com/danielarbabian/stash
cd stash
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/stash /usr/local/bin/

add this to your shell config (.zshrc, .bashrc, etc):

alias s="stash"
alias sa="stash add"
alias sn="stash new"
alias ss="stash search"

now you can just type s to open stash, sa "quick note" to add something, etc.

stash add "the key insight from that design talk: start with the problem, not the solution #design"
stash add "check out that paper on distributed systems someone mentioned" --title "to read"

# basic text search
stash search "rust async"

# search by tags and projects
stash search "#rust +webapp"

# exclude stuff you don't want
stash search "javascript -#old"

# natural language with ai
stash ai "show me all my rust learning notes from last week"

# launches the full interactive interface
stash

navigate with vim keys, edit notes in place, and see everything organized exactly how you think.

• #tags get extracted automatically from your notes
• +projects too
• links between notes work like you'd expect
• search everything instantly with fuzzy matching

stash

stash will create ~/stash/ for your notes automatically. that's it.

1. open the tui with stash
2. press s for settings
3. add your openai api key
4. enjoy natural language search like "find my notes about that bug from yesterday"
5. use ai rewriting in the tui editor - let ai clean up your thoughts

the ai stuff is completely optional - stash works great without it.

# add a note
stash add "learned about rust's ownership model today #rust #learning"

# search for rust notes
stash search "#rust"

# search in a specific project
stash search "+webapp auth"

# ai search (if configured)
stash ai "what did i learn about databases last month?"

# open the full ui
stash

# get help
stash --help

run stash to open the full interface:

• j/k or ↑/↓ - navigate notes
• enter - view/edit note
• / - search
• n - new note
• d - delete note
• t - filter by tag
• p - filter by project
• s - settings
• q - quit

notes are just markdown files with yaml frontmatter. you can edit them in any editor:

---
id: 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000
title: 'my awesome note'
tags: ['rust', 'programming']
projects: ['webapp']
created: 2025-07-02T11:38:47Z
---

# my note content

this is where your actual note content goes. you can use all the markdown you want.

reference other notes, add code blocks, whatever. stash will automatically:

- extract #hashtags as tags
- recognize +project references
- index everything for search

the search is powerful:

# text search
stash search "async await"

# tag search
stash search "#rust"
stash search "#rust #async"

# project search
stash search "+webapp"
stash search "+webapp +backend"

# combinations
stash search "error handling #rust +webapp"

# exclusions
stash search "#javascript -#old -#deprecated"

# case sensitive
stash search --case-sensitive "API"

# list everything
stash search --list-tags
stash search --list-projects

if you've set up an openai api key:

stash ai "show me notes about rust error handling"
stash ai "what did i write about databases last week?"
stash ai "find my todos for the webapp project"
stash ai "notes about that authentication bug"

it translates your human language into proper search queries automatically.

stash stores config at ~/.stash/config.json:

{
  "openai_api_key": "your-key-here",
  "ai_enabled": true,
  "ai_prompt_style": "custom",
  "custom_ai_prompt": "prompt"
}

you can edit this directly or use the tui settings (s key).

~/.stash/
├── notes/
│   ├── 20240115-1030-my-note.md
│   ├── 20240115-1145-another-note.md
│   └── ...
└── config.json

notes are stored as individual markdown files. you can:

• edit them in your favorite editor
• version control with git
• sync with dropbox/icloud/etc
• backup however you want

it's just files. no lock-in, no proprietary formats.

set up shell aliases for instant note taking:

alias idea="stash add"
alias todo="stash add --title todo"
alias til="stash add --title 'today i learned'"

use +project syntax in your notes:

working on the +webapp authentication flow.
need to check the +database schema for user roles.

stash automatically extracts these as projects for filtering.

stash add "$(date +%Y-%m-%d) daily standup notes" --title "daily-$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"

cd ~/.stash
git init
git add .
git commit -m "initial stash"

now your notes are version controlled.

since it's just markdown files:

• use git for version control sync
• dropbox/icloud for simple sync
• or whatever floats your boat

because every other note-taking app is either:

• too complex
• too simple (plain text files with bad search, organisation, etc)
• too cloudy
• too slow
• too mouse-heavy (keyboard >> mouse)

stash is built by someone who actually takes notes for a living. it's fast, local, keyboard driven, and gets out of your way.

found a bug? have an idea?

1. check if there's already an issue
2. if not, open one with details
3. or better yet, send a pr

this is a small project but contributions are welcome.

mit license

make sure ~/.cargo/bin is in your $PATH, or copy the binary to /usr/local/bin/

run stash add "first note" to initialize, or just run stash and it'll create the directory

1. check you have an openai api key set (stash -> s -> add key)
2. make sure you have internet connection
3. verify your api key has credits

stash doesn't sync by default - it's just local files. set up git, dropbox, or whatever sync solution you prefer

built with ❤️ and redbull. if this saves you time, consider starring the repo.