building a tiny terminal journal

Apr 24, 2026

Sometimes I just want to write inside my terminal. No editor, no switching windows — just the terminal.

Maybe I want to save a note. Or a thought that suddenly comes to mind. Or maybe I’m working on something and want to log a quick comment — like a memory for the day.

Just a quick thing. Write and exit — all inside the terminal.

And when I want to look back, I just type a command and read it — like it’s being typed out again.

Maybe I want to search a word — so I type a command and a keyword.

So I built a small CLI tool.


And those quick commands are:

cliary write
cliary read
cliary search <keyword>

the idea

type in the terminal save thoughts read them back later

that’s it

no ui no distractions

each day becomes a file like a small memory capsule


how it feels

you stay in the terminal you don’t break your flow

you write something small and it stays there

cliary write
>> today I learned about pathlib
>> built my first CLI tool
>> exit

and later

cliary read

it types back slowly like the machine is remembering with you


what it does


try it

uv tool install cliary

or

pip install cliary

links


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