CLI cheatsheet

akb is Alexandria's command-line interface. Build it from the repository root:

cargo build --release
./target/release/akb --help

The release binary is ./target/release/akb. The examples below use akb; run the release binary directly or copy it somewhere on your PATH.

Identifiers can be full titles, partial title matches, full UUIDs, or partial UUIDs. Matching is case-insensitive; if multiple notes or tags match, Alexandria asks you to disambiguate.

Notes

akb create "My Important Note"
akb create "Chapter 2" --parent "Book Draft"

akb update "My Important Note" --title "Renamed Note"
akb update "My Important Note" --body "New Markdown body."
akb update "My Important Note" --title "Renamed Note" --body "New Markdown body."

Properties

akb set-property "Product Ideas" "Task" "priority" "high"
akb set-property "Product Ideas" "Task" "completed" "true"
akb set-property "Product Ideas" "Task" "due_date" "2025-08-15"

Property types are boolean, select, multi-select, date, number, money, and string.

Search and list

akb search "meeting"
akb search "title:meeting"
akb search "body:quarterly"
akb search "priority:high"
akb search "title:meeting priority:high"

akb list notes
akb list notes --sort-by created
akb list notes --sort-by modified
akb list tags

Property searches use the <property>:<value> form, such as priority:high.

Every akb list is paginated: 10 entries by default, with --limit and --offset to page through the rest. --sort-by applies to notes and tags only — the other listings below have exactly one meaningful order.

akb list notes --limit 25
akb list notes --limit 10 --offset 10

Trash

akb trash "Old Meeting Notes"
akb list trashed
akb restore-from-trash 3f3fbf69
akb delete-from-trash 3f3fbf69
akb empty-trash --yes

Trashing a note takes its children with it, and restoring brings the whole subtree back. empty-trash deletes everything for good, so it refuses to run without --yes. See Trash.

Favorites and recents

akb add-favorite "Project Roadmap"
akb list favorites
akb remove-favorite "Project Roadmap"

akb show "Project Roadmap"
akb list recent --limit 20

Favorites and recents live in the synced preferences.json, so they are the same lists the desktop and Android sidebars show. akb show records the note in recents by default; pass --skip-record-access to look without touching the list.

Tables from a domain

akb domain list
akb domain enable expenses
akb domain inspect expenses

akb rows Expenses
akb rows Purchases --where "title~pizza" --sort unit_price
akb rows Expenses --where "total>=EUR 30" --sort total

A domain is a ready-made set of tables; enabling one is idempotent, and is also how a damaged table is repaired. --where is repeatable, a money column takes its currency inline, and a relation column matches the note id it points at.

Receipts

akb receipts commit draft.json --image IMG_1234.jpg
akb receipts commit draft.json --image IMG_1234.jpg --force

Stores one receipt as an expense, the place it was incurred at and the items purchased. source + external_id in the draft are its identity, so committing the same pair again updates those rows instead of filing a second copy. --force overwrites a field you have since edited by hand. See Expenses & receipts for the draft format.

Media

akb create-media "/path/to/image.jpg" "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"

The first argument is the file path. The optional second argument associates the media item with a note ID. See Media for the mental model.

Encryption

akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault create --name mykb
akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault unlock
akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault status
akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault ttl 12h
akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault lock

Encryption works with no server configured. Sync borrows the key from the unlocked vault.

The vault also stores secrets — API keys and similar values — encrypted alongside the workspace, and syncs them to your other devices:

akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault secret set azure_ocr --description "receipt OCR"
akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault secret get azure_ocr
akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault secret list
akb --root ~/akb/mykb vault secret rm azure_ocr

The value is typed at a hidden prompt or piped in, never passed as an argument, and list prints names and descriptions only.

Sync

akb --root ~/akb/mykb sync clone mykb http://HOST:4000
akb --root ~/akb/mykb sync
akb --root ~/akb/mykb sync watch
akb --root ~/akb/mykb sync status
akb sync list

Sync is end-to-end encrypted and self-hostable. See Sync for setup and security details.

Full reference

This page is a quick reference. The full CLI reference lives in the project at docs/cli-reference.md.