Notes and folders

This page helps you bring your notes into Memo and keep your own notes there. You can add a folder of Markdown files or an Obsidian vault, search its documents, and write notes about people, messages and projects. Memo only reads your folders: it writes a file only when you export your notes.

There are two kinds of notes:

• Notes from your files. Memo reads them from a folder you choose. To change one, edit the file and import again. Their references look like document:3.
• Notes you write in Memo. They live in the local store and can be about a person, a message, a project or another note. Their references look like note:12.

Add a folderCopy Anchor Link

A folder can be any folder of notes on your computer: project notes, a folder of documents or an Obsidian vault. Memo reads the folder and all the folders inside it.

The easiest way: ask your agent.

Use memo CLI to add my notes folder at /path/to/notes and import it.
Tell me how many notes it found and which files it could not read.

Or run the commands yourself. Replace /path/to/notes with the full path of your folder.

For a folder of ordinary Markdown files:

memo folders add /path/to/notes --format markdown
memo notes import --no-embed

For an Obsidian vault:

memo folders add /path/to/vault --format obsidian
memo notes import --no-embed

memo folders add prints the folder's ID, for example 1. memo notes import reads the notes and reports how many it found:

/path/to/notes: 24 notes, 24 changed, 0 moved, 0 gone

--no-embed skips the preparation for search by meaning, so you do not need the search model to start. Run memo notes import again after you add or edit files; only the changes are read.

You can add more than one folder. memo folders list shows them all.

Markdown or ObsidianCopy Anchor Link

The format tells Memo how links and tags are written in your notes. You do not need Obsidian to use Memo, and Obsidian does not need to be open.

A link in a markdown folder looks like this:

[label](other-note.md)

In a markdown folder, a #word in the text is not a tag. Both formats understand links written as references, such as [Kai](person:7) or a bare msg:telegram/1/77/42.

An Obsidian vault is a folder of Markdown notes that Obsidian opens as one workspace. Memo skips hidden folders such as .obsidian.

Files Memo can readCopy Anchor Link

To read PDF and Word files, install the two optional readers next to Memo:

npm install -g unpdf mammoth

Some files cannot be read: scanned PDFs (pictures of pages, with no text in them), old .doc and .xls files, and files larger than 50 MB. Memo keeps up to 200,000 characters of each file. The import report lists every file it could not read, and why, so a missing file is never silently left out of search.

Skip some filesCopy Anchor Link

To keep some files out of Memo, list them under notes.ignore in the config file. A rule is a path inside the folder, a folder (everything in it is skipped) or a pattern:

{ "notes": { "ignore": ["Journal/Private.md", "Archive", "**/Private*"] } }

memo notes import --ignore Drafts skips a folder for one import only.

Find your notesCopy Anchor Link

memo search notes 'budget'
memo search notes 'budget' --tag work
memo notes show document:3

Each result shows the file and the first matching line. memo notes show shows one note with its tags, the notes it links to and the notes that link to it. See Search for more search words.

Write your own notesCopy Anchor Link

A note you write in Memo can be about a person, a message, a project or another note. Writing it does not send anything to anyone and does not change the message it is about.

Use memo CLI to save a note that Kai Sample prefers morning meetings, linked to Kai on Telegram.
Show me the saved note.

Or yourself:

memo notes add 'Prefers morning meetings' --about telegram:'Kai Sample'
memo notes list --about telegram:'Kai Sample'

--about says what the note is about. Use it more than once for several subjects:

Copy references from search results; do not type them from memory. The person, message or note must already be in the local store.

Read, edit and remove a noteCopy Anchor Link

memo notes show note:12
memo notes edit 12 --revision 1 --text 'Prefers early morning meetings'
memo notes remove 12

Each note has a revision number that goes up with every edit. memo notes edit asks for the current revision, which memo notes show note:12 --json gives you. If someone or something edited the note in the meantime, the numbers do not match and Memo refuses the edit, so no change is lost. Read the note again and retry.

A note from a file is edited in the file, not with memo notes edit.

Save your notes as filesCopy Anchor Link

memo notes export --to /path/to/vault/memo --format obsidian

Export writes the notes you wrote in Memo as Markdown files in the folder you choose. Use --format markdown for plain Markdown. Each file gets a memo-id and a memo-hash at the top, so importing that folder does not create the same note twice. If you edited an exported file yourself, Memo does not overwrite it and tells you. To export one note when you write it, add --export to memo notes add or memo notes edit.

The note about a personCopy Anchor Link

You can tell Memo which file is the main note about a person, for example People/Kai.md in your vault:

memo note telegram:'Kai Sample' /path/to/vault/People/Kai.md
memo note telegram:'Kai Sample'           # shows which note it is
memo note telegram:'Kai Sample' --clear   # forgets it

The file must be imported first. After this, the note and the notes that link to it appear in the person's context. If two people share the name, Memo refuses and lists their IDs so you can choose.

Use the same notes on another computerCopy Anchor Link

If your notes are synchronised to another computer, connect the same folder ID there instead of adding a new folder:

memo folders list                                  # shows the folder IDs the local store has
memo folders attach 1 /other/path/to/notes

With the same ID, the notes keep their links and tags on both computers.

Next: label your notes with tags, or search them.