Basic Usage

Welcome to Jot! This guide will show you how to use this simple and friendly journaling tool.

Getting Started

First, let's create your journal space:

jot init

This creates a .jot directory in your home folder - your personal journaling sanctuary!

Ready to write? It's as easy as:

jot add "My first journal entry!"

Don't worry about the date and time - Jot handles that automatically.

Want to add some tags? Just use # like this:

jot add "Having a #wonderful day learning to use #jot"

See all your entries with:

jot view

Looking for entries from a specific time? Use the --from (-f) and --to (-t) flags:

jot view --from 2023-01-01 --to 2023-12-31

You can also use these flags separately:

jot view --from 2023-01-01
jot view --to 2023-12-31

Search through your journal:

jot search "wonderful"

You can also filter by tags:

jot search

Tags provide a structured way to organize and search your entries. By using tags, you can easily categorize and find related entries.

For example, if you tag entries with #work and #personal, you can quickly find all work-related entries:

jot search --tags #work

Or all personal entries:

jot search --tags #personal

If you have no where to put your tags, simply append them to the end of your entry:

jot add "This is a journal entry #tag1 #tag2"

Benefits of using tags:

Organization: Keep your journal entries organized by categories.
Efficiency: Quickly find related entries without having to remember specific search terms.
Consistency: Use consistent tags to maintain a structured journal.

Made a typo? Edit any entry using its ID:

jot edit 1

Need to remove an entry? Use:

jot remove 1

Save your entries in different formats:

jot export --format markdown --output ~/Desktop/my-journal.md

Bring in entries from other sources:

jot import --format markdown --input ~/Desktop/old-journal.md

Get help with any command:

jot help add

See all available commands:

jot help

Now that you've got the basics down, check out the Advanced Usage guide to become a Jot power user!