otty / apps

All apps/jrnl

jrnl

Collect your thoughts and notes without leaving the command line.

Runs as jrnl|macOS, Linux, Windows|jrnl.sh

Open form in Otty otty.toml

Sync rules

What travels, what stays, what never leaves

jrnl in your home directory Every rule on this page, by file

journals.*.journal

Each machine keeps its own copy of these.

journals.*.journal

Each machine keeps its own copy of these.

Only what the catalog names. A directory that syncs brings everything inside it except what is listed as excluded here.

apps/jrnl/otty.tomlThe file this page is generated from

id = "jrnl"

name = "jrnl"

homepage = "https://jrnl.sh"

description = "Collect your thoughts and notes without leaving the command line."

# The jrnl mark, the favicon the project's documentation theme carries.

icon = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jrnl-org/jrnl/develop/docs_theme/img/favicon.svg"

executables = ["jrnl"]

[dotfiles]

# https://jrnl.sh/en/stable/reference-config-file/ — the config file is

# "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/jrnl/jrnl.yaml", "~/.config/jrnl/jrnl.yaml" when the

# variable is unset, and "%USERPROFILE%\.config\jrnl\jrnl.yaml" on Windows.

# Both spellings are listed because jrnl is one of the few tools where they are

# not the same place: it reads $XDG_CONFIG_HOME on every platform, which is what

# [configHome] means, but on Windows [configHome] resolves to %APPDATA% while

# jrnl keeps the dotted path under the profile root. Naming only one of the two

# would leave either XDG users or Windows users pointed at a file jrnl never

# opens; on a default Unix machine they resolve to the same file, which costs

# nothing.

paths = [

"[configHome]/jrnl/jrnl.yaml",

"~/.config/jrnl/jrnl.yaml",

]

exclude = []

# The journals themselves are text (or encrypted) files elsewhere on disk, at

# whatever path the user chose; this entry names only the config.

secret = []

# https://jrnl.sh/en/stable/encryption/ — "when encrypting a journal, jrnl asks

# whether you would like to store the password in your system's keychain", and

# the config file's `encrypt` key "merely says whether or not your journal is

# encrypted". So there is no password in jrnl.yaml and no secret_paths rule to

# write.

# The same reference page: "journals — Describes each journal used by jrnl. Each

# indented key after this key is the name of a journal", and a journal's

# `journal` key is the absolute path to the file or folder holding it on this

# machine. jrnl also accepts a shorthand where the journal name maps straight to

# the path instead of to a block; that form cannot be told apart from a nested

# block by key path alone, so only the explicit key is named here. Everything

# else in the file — timeformat, tagsymbols, colors, display_format, linewrap,

# default_hour — is a preference the user wants everywhere. The journal path is

# where the user's own writing sits, which is the one thing they would need

# back after rebuilding this machine, so it is kept: backup.

[[dotfiles.machine_lines]]

file = ["[configHome]/jrnl/jrnl.yaml", "~/.config/jrnl/jrnl.yaml"]

match = { key_path = ["journals.*.journal"] }

scope = "backup"

[commands]

format = 1

label = "Write or search journal"

description = "Add an entry with the text field, or read entries back in a chosen format. The single-dash date filters (-from, -to, -on) and encryption commands are left out."

quality = "ai-draft"

parser = { end_of_options = "--", interleave = "permute", long_equals = false, short_attached = false, short_bundles = false }

[[commands.source]]

id = "ref"

kind = "manual"

url = "https://jrnl.sh/en/stable/reference-command-line/"

revision = "2026-10-27"

evidence = """

usage: jrnl [--debug] [--help] [--version] [--list] [--encrypt] [--decrypt]

[--import] [-on DATE] [-today-in-history] [-month DATE]

[-n [NUMBER]] [-not [TAG]] [--edit] [--delete]

[--format TYPE] [--tags] [--short]

[--config-override CONFIG_KEY CONFIG_VALUE]

[--config-file CONFIG_FILE_PATH]

### --edit

Opens the selected entries in your configured editor.

### --delete

Interactively deletes selected entries. You'll be asked to confirm deletion of each entry.

### --format TYPE

Display selected entries in an alternate format.

--file FILENAME

Write output to file instead of STDOUT.

### --tags

Alias for '--format tags'. Returns a list of all tags and the number of times they occur within the searched entries.

### --short

Only shows the date and titles of the searched entries.

### --config-file CONFIG_FILE_PATH

Use the config file at CONFIG_FILE_PATH for this command invocation only.

### --debug

Prints information useful for troubleshooting while `jrnl` executes.

| -n [NUMBER] | Show a maximum of NUMBER entries (note: '-n 3' and '-3' have the same effect) |

"""

[[commands.field]]

id = "text"

label = "Entry text or journal name"

description = "Words after jrnl are written as a new entry; a leading journal name selects that journal."

type = "string"

position = 0

multiple = true

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "limit"

label = "Maximum entries to show"

type = "integer"

option = ["-n"]

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "short"

label = "Dates and titles only"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--short"]

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "tags"

label = "List tags with counts"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--tags"]

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "format"

label = "Output format"

description = "Open set; see the jrnl formats page (for example json, markdown, text)."

type = "string"

option = ["--format"]

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "file"

label = "Write output to file"

type = "path"

path = { kind = "file", role = "output" }

option = ["--file"]

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "edit"

label = "Edit in editor"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--edit"]

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "delete"

label = "Delete entries (interactive)"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--delete"]

effect = "delete"

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "config_file"

label = "Config file"

type = "path"

path = { kind = "file", role = "input" }

option = ["--config-file"]

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.field]]

id = "debug"

label = "Debug output"

type = "boolean"

option = ["--debug"]

sources = ["ref"]

[[commands.task]]

id = "write"

label = "Write an entry"

fields = ["text"]

required = ["text"]

[[commands.task]]

id = "recent"

label = "Show recent entries"

fields = ["limit", "short"]

required = ["limit"]

[[commands.task]]

id = "tag_list"

label = "List tags"

fields = ["tags"]

required = ["tags"]

set = { tags = [true] }

[[commands.group]]

id = "basic"

label = "Basic"

fields = ["text", "limit", "short", "tags", "format", "file"]

[[commands.group]]

id = "advanced"

label = "Advanced"

fields = ["edit", "delete", "config_file", "debug"]

Use it with your dotfile manager

Same data, in the shape your tool already reads

Opens Otty and adds this tool to what it syncs

Opens otty://sync/add/jrnl. Otty ships with this catalog, so the link only has to name the tool — nothing is downloaded.

Every one of these is generated from the same rules as this page. None of them splits journals.*.journal and journals.*.journal for you — that part is Otty’s own sync, or a template you write by hand.