Is nb a TUI or a CLI?

A CLI. nb has no full-screen interface of its own; it prints lists to the terminal, opens notes in $EDITOR, and nb browse serves a local web app you can read in a terminal browser such as w3m or in a GUI browser. tnotes is both: a TUI editor and a headless CLI on the same files.

No. nb list and nb ls have flags for paths, filenames and excerpts, and nb search prints matches, but there is no JSON format. Scripts parse text. tnotes adds --json to every command and includes links and backlinks in the output.

Can nb and tnotes share a notebook?

Yes, if the notebook is a plain folder of Markdown files. Initialize the folder with nb notebooks init and add it to tnotes' roots. nb's .git and .index are hidden from tnotes, and nb reconciles its index when tnotes adds or removes files. Prefer [[Title]] links and avoid retitling notes in tnotes, since the rename changes the note's nb id.

compare / nb

tnotes vs nb

Single-script Bash CLI for notes, bookmarks and archives with git versioning, [[links]], tags and encryption.

tnotes

terminal app · macOS, Linux · MIT · free · v1.3.0

CLI · Linux, macOS, any Unix; Windows via WSL, MSYS or Cygwin · AGPL-3.0 · Free

nb is a note-taking, bookmarking and archiving tool written as one portable Bash script. It needs Bash, git and a text editor; optional dependencies such as Pandoc, w3m or pdftotext unlock extra features when present. Notes live in notebooks, which are git repositories under ~/.nb by default, or any folder you initialize with nb notebooks init. Every command commits, and a notebook with a remote pushes and pulls automatically.

Items are addressed by numeric id, filename or title, with a notebook:folder/id selector syntax that reaches across notebooks. Ids come from a .index file per folder where the line number is the id, so ids survive a clone. Linking uses [[wiki-style]] syntax that accepts ids, titles and paths, tags are #hashtags including nested ones, and nb browse renders it all as a local website you can open in w3m or a GUI browser. nb also does things tnotes does not attempt: bookmarks with cached page text and Wayback lookups, per-item encryption, todos with tasks, Pandoc import and export, and plugins written in shell.

nb’s strength is breadth in a scriptable shell interface. Its weakness for interactive use is that reading and editing are delegated: you view through a pager or browser and edit in $EDITOR, with no live editor of its own.

Feature comparison

Feature	tnotes	nb
Storage format	✓ plain .md files, folders are directories	✓ plain files (Markdown, Org, LaTeX, AsciiDoc, anything) in git-backed notebooks; a `.index` per folder maps ids to filenames
Runs in the terminal	✓ TUI (ratatui) plus a headless CLI	✓ pure CLI; `nb browse` serves a local web app for terminal or GUI browsers
[[Wikilinks]]	✓ [[Title]] with completion; rewritten on rename	✓ [[123]], [[Title]], [[notebook:folder/Title]], `\|` display text
Backlinks	✓ overlay + `backlinks` in JSON	~ `backlink` plugin appends a Backlinks section to linked files
#tags	✓ #tag and nested #work/project, parsed from text	✓ #tag and nested #project/design/ui
Headless CLI	✓ ls, search, cat, new, append, write, trash, restore	✓ add, edit, list, search, move, delete, pin, todo, bookmark, import, export…
JSON output for scripts / agents	✓ --json on every command	✗ `--paths`, `--filenames`, `--no-id` for plain output; no JSON
Live reload on external edits	✓ file watcher; dirty tabs keep their text	~ no long-running process; `.index` is reconciled with files on disk
Vim keys	✓ vim or emacs keys (edtui)	~ editing happens in your `$EDITOR`
Mouse support	✓ click, double-click, right-click menus, drag	~ keyboard CLI; `nb browse --gui` opens a web browser
Sync	~ any file sync: git, Syncthing, iCloud, Dropbox	✓ automatic git push/pull per notebook; also works under Dropbox or Syncthing
Encryption	~ encrypt the folder: FileVault, gocryptfs	✓ per-item AES-256 via OpenSSL or GPG with `--encrypt`
Mobile app	✗ files sync to any mobile Markdown editor	✗ the git remote or synced folder is reachable from any mobile editor
Plugins	✗	✓ `.nb-plugin` subcommands and `.nb-theme` colour themes in Bash
Open source	✓ MIT, Rust	✓ AGPL-3.0, Bash

✓ yes · ~ partial or via the file system · ✗ no

Choose nb if

You want git history for every change without thinking about it; nb commits on each command and syncs notebooks to a remote.
You store more than notes: bookmarks with cached page content, PDFs, images, encrypted items, todos.
Your editor is the point. nb hands files to Vim, Emacs, VS Code or whatever $EDITOR says, so you keep your full editing setup.
You need Org, LaTeX or AsciiDoc alongside Markdown, or Pandoc conversion on export.
You want a shell-scriptable tool with plugins written in the same language.

Choose tnotes if

You want an editor in the terminal: live Markdown highlighting, [[ and # completion, backlinks overlay, tabs, mouse selection, all inside one binary.
Scripts and agents need structured output; tnotes ls --json returns id, path, title, folder, tags, links, backlinks and timestamps, while nb prints text lists.
Retitling a note should rewrite [[links]] in other notes; tnotes does that, and nb’s docs describe id and title links but no rewriting on rename.
You want a running UI that picks up external changes live; nb has no long-running process and tnotes reloads clean tabs when files change.
You prefer plain files with no index: tnotes derives everything from the .md files and the directory tree, so there is nothing to reconcile.

Using nb and tnotes together

Both tools work on plain files, so a directory can be an nb notebook and a tnotes root at the same time. nb needs a .git directory and a .index file; tnotes ignores dot-prefixed entries, so neither shows up in its tree.

nb notebooks init ~/notes         # git repo + .index in an existing folder
tnotes ~/notes                    # add it as a tnotes root
cd ~/notes                        # inside the folder, nb uses it as the "local" notebook
nb add --title "Standup" --content "- [ ] slides"   # nb writes standup.md, tnotes shows it live
tnotes new "Retro" --stdin < retro.md                # tnotes writes retro.md, nb indexes it
nb list                                              # .index reconciled with the new file

Rules that keep the two consistent. Create nb notes with --title: it writes a # Title first line and names the file after it, whereas a bare nb add names the file by datetime and tnotes would show the first line of content as the title. Use [[Title]] links rather than [[123]]; both resolve titles, only nb resolves ids. Avoid changing a title in tnotes: tnotes renames the file, nb’s .index reconciles that as a delete plus an add, and the note gets a new id. Both tools read the same #tags, including nested ones. If nb has a remote configured, run any nb command after editing in tnotes to commit and push; tnotes never touches git. See /docs/cli and /for/sysadmins.

FAQ

? Is nb a TUI or a CLI?: A CLI. nb has no full-screen interface of its own; it prints lists to the terminal, opens notes in $EDITOR, and nb browse serves a local web app you can read in a terminal browser such as w3m or in a GUI browser. tnotes is both: a TUI editor and a headless CLI on the same files.
? Does nb output JSON?: No. nb list and nb ls have flags for paths, filenames and excerpts, and nb search prints matches, but there is no JSON format. Scripts parse text. tnotes adds --json to every command and includes links and backlinks in the output.
? Can nb and tnotes share a notebook?: Yes, if the notebook is a plain folder of Markdown files. Initialize the folder with nb notebooks init and add it to tnotes’ roots. nb’s .git and .index are hidden from tnotes, and nb reconciles its index when tnotes adds or removes files. Prefer [[Title]] links and avoid retitling notes in tnotes, since the rename changes the note’s nb id.

Sources

nb facts checked on 2026-09-22 against: