Quick Notes

A note-taking tool for people who think in the terminal - write it down in seconds, find it on any device.

Built by @bkrisa12.

What is this?

Quick Notes is a tiny CLI note-taking app. You open it, jot down whatever's on your mind - a quick thought, a shopping list, a snippet - and it's instantly saved locally and quietly synced to your own server in the background. No cloud account, no third-party service: just your own VPS, reachable only through your private Tailscale network.

Installation

Requirements

• Go 1.25 or later
• Tailscale installed and connected on every device you want to sync (laptop, VPS, phone)

Linux (client)

git clone https://github.com/bkrisa/notes.git
cd notes
go build -o note main.go
sudo mv note /usr/local/bin/

VPS (server)

Clone and build the same way as above, then set it up as a background service.

Note: unlike the client install, don't move the binary to /usr/local/bin - leave it in place, since the systemd service below expects it at this path.

Create /etc/systemd/system/note.service:

[Unit]
Description=Note App Server
After=network.target tailscaled.service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=note-user
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/notes
Environment=QNOTE_LISTEN=<your-vps-tailscale-ip>:8080
ExecStart=/path/to/notes/note --server
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now note

Run a dedicated, unprivileged user for this (not root) - see Security below.

Termux (Android)

pkg install golang git
git clone https://github.com/bkrisa/notes.git
cd notes
go build -o note main.go
cp note $PREFIX/bin/

Termux's golang package can lag behind the latest Go release. If tailscale.com refuses to build due to a Go version mismatch, try a slightly older tailscale.com version: go get tailscale.com@v1.100.0 && go mod tidy.

Connect a client to your server

On each client device, point it at your VPS:

echo 'export QNOTE_SERVER="http://<your-vps-tailscale-ip>:8080"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Usage

Run note with no arguments to start a new note:

note> milk
note> eggs
note> bread
note> :wq

While writing:

Command	Action
:w	Save and keep adding lines
:wq	Save and quit
:q	Quit without saving
:u	Undo the last line

From the command line:

Command	Action
note :ls	List all notes
note :find <term>	Search by note ID or content
note :date <query>	Search by creation date (e.g. 2026-08-06)
note :edit <id>	Edit a note line by line (Enter keeps a line, typing replaces it, then continue writing new lines)
note :d <id>	Delete a note

Notes save locally instantly and sync to your server automatically and silently in the background — no manual sync command needed. If you're offline, the note just stays local until the next save attempt succeeds.

Security

• The server only listens on its Tailscale IP - it's never exposed to the public internet, even if the VPS also hosts other public sites.
• Requests from 127.0.0.1 (loopback) are explicitly rejected, closing a local-bypass loophole.
• Every request is verified against Tailscale's WhoIs, so only recognized, authenticated devices on your Tailnet can read, write, or delete notes.

License

MIT