title: Note Basics sidebar_label: Basics description: Creating notes, metadata, and storage model. sidebar_position: 2#

Note Basics#

Creation#

Quick note from command line:

noteleaf note create "Meeting Notes" "Discussed Q4 roadmap and hiring plans"

Interactive creation (opens editor):

noteleaf note create --interactive

From existing file:

noteleaf note create --file ~/Documents/draft.md

Create and immediately edit:

noteleaf note create "Research Notes" --editor

Structure#

Notes consist of:

Title: Short descriptor shown in lists and searches. Can be updated later.

Content: Full markdown text. Supports all standard markdown features including code blocks, lists, tables, and links.

Tags: Categorization labels for organizing and filtering notes. Multiple tags per note.

Dates: Creation and modification timestamps tracked automatically.

File Path: Location of the markdown file on disk, managed by Noteleaf.

Storage#

File Location: Notes are stored as individual .md files in your notes directory (typically ~/.local/share/noteleaf/notes or ~/Library/Application Support/noteleaf/notes).

Naming: Files are named with a UUID to ensure uniqueness. The title is stored in the database, not the filename.

Portability: Since notes are plain markdown, you can read them with any text editor or markdown viewer. The database provides additional functionality like tagging and search, but the files remain standalone.