better-bear

Add a tag to an existing Bear note. The tag is inserted into the note's markdown. Hierarchical tags like 'parent/child' also index every ancestor — so the note becomes discoverable under both #parent and #parent/child in Bear's sidebar.

Archive a Bear note. Archived notes are hidden from the main list but not deleted. Use 'undo' to unarchive.

Attach a file or image to an existing Bear note. The file is uploaded to iCloud and embedded in the note's markdown. Supports common image formats (jpg, png, gif, webp, heic) and other file types (pdf, zip, etc.). By default the attachment is appended to the end. Use 'after' or 'before' to place it relative to text in the note, or 'prepend' to put it right after the title.

Add a Bear note to the context library by tagging it with #context. Optionally specify a subtag for grouping (e.g., subtag 'jira' → #context/jira). Triggers a sync after tagging.

Load the full content of specific files from the context library. Pass relative paths like 'bear/arch-overview.md' or 'external/jira-ticket.md'. Use after reading the index to load only relevant files — never load everything.

Import external content into the context library. Content is written to the external/ directory with YAML front matter (source, group, summary, date). Use this to add non-Bear content like Jira tickets, Slack threads, API docs, or any markdown. The content is passed via stdin and a filename must be provided.

Get the context library index — a structured table of contents of all files (Bear notes, external files, inbox). Read this FIRST before answering questions from context. Use it to identify which files to fetch, rather than loading everything. Includes cache freshness metadata.

Scan the inbox/ directory and list all untriaged files. Returns filename, size, content preview (first 500 chars), and any detected YAML front matter for each file. Does NOT modify anything — use bear_context_triage to act on files.

Push an external file to Bear as a new note. Creates a Bear note from the file content, tags it with #context (+ optional subtag), and removes the original external file. Use when external content has matured enough to become a permanent Bear note.

Remove a Bear note from the context library by removing its #context tag. Triggers a sync to delete the local file.

Remove a file from the external/ directory in the context library. Deletes the file and regenerates the index. Use when external content is no longer needed.

Full-text search across the entire context library (Bear notes + external files + inbox). Returns matching snippets with filenames and origin labels. Use when the index alone isn't enough to find the right file.

Change the context library's tag prefix and re-tag every Bear note that currently uses the old prefix. Sub-tags are preserved — `#context/research` becomes `#<new>/research`. Updates both the markdown body and the CloudKit tag index, and persists the new prefix to the context config. Useful when aligning the qualifier tag with a broader naming scheme like Johnny Decimal (e.g. '10-projects'). Run `bear_context_sync` afterwards to refresh the library.

Initialize a context library — a curated, synced folder of Bear notes optimized for LLM consumption. Creates the directory structure and config. After setup, tag Bear notes with #context (or a custom prefix) and use bear_context_sync to pull them in. One-time operation.

Get context library health and stats: Bear note count, external file count, inbox count, total tokens, last sync time, group breakdown, and warnings (stale cache, expired externals, oversized files, untriaged inbox items).

Sync qualifying Bear notes to the local context library. Adds new notes, updates changed notes, and removes notes that no longer qualify (tag removed, trashed, etc.). Regenerates the index. Only touches the bear/ directory — external/ and inbox/ are untouched. Call this when the user asks to sync, refresh, or update their context.

Triage a file in the inbox. Three actions: 'keep' moves it to external/ with optional group/summary metadata. 'push_to_bear' creates a Bear note tagged #context (+ optional subtag) and deletes the inbox file. 'discard' deletes the file. All actions regenerate the index.

Create a new Bear note with a title, optional body text, tags, and YAML front matter. Hashtags written inline in the body (e.g. '#my_tag' or '#parent/child') are extracted and registered as real tags on the note, matching Bear's desktop-app behaviour. Tags from the 'tags' array are indexed regardless of whether they appear in the body. Hierarchical tags like '#parent/child' also index every ancestor (so they show up under #parent in Bear's sidebar). Front matter is stored as a collapsed metadata block at the top of the note. Returns the new note's ID.

Delete a tag from all Bear notes. The tag text is removed but notes are preserved.

Edit an existing Bear note. Provide 'append_text' to add text, 'body' to replace content, or 'set_frontmatter'/'remove_frontmatter' to edit YAML front matter fields. Front matter edits can be combined with each other but not with body/append.

Find notes with duplicate titles. Returns groups of notes sharing the same title with their IDs and modification dates. Useful for cleaning up after imports or sync conflicts.

List Bear notes that have no tags assigned.

Get a single Bear note's full content and metadata by ID. Returns the note title, tags, full markdown text, and dates. The response includes 'tags' (CloudKit index, may contain ancestor tags like 'parent' for a note tagged '#parent/child') and 'attached_tags' (leaves only). If the note is locked/private, 'locked: true' will be included in the response. Use the 'raw' option to get just the markdown without metadata.

Get the full tag hierarchy from Bear. Returns all tags with their note counts and pin status. Useful for understanding how notes are organized.

Get all TODO items from a specific Bear note. Returns each item's text, completion status, and index number (use the index with bear_toggle_todo to toggle items).

Run a health check on the Bear notes library. Reports duplicate titles, empty notes, notes stuck in trash, sync conflicts, orphaned tags, untagged notes, and oversized notes. Use this to identify cleanup opportunities or diagnose sync issues.

List Bear notes with optional tag filtering. Returns an array of notes with IDs, titles, tags, pin status, and modification dates. Each note includes two tag fields: 'tags' mirrors Bear's CloudKit index verbatim (includes ancestor expansions — a note tagged #parent/child will show both 'parent' and 'parent/child'); 'attached_tags' shows only leaf tags (the most-specific tag on each branch). Notes with 'locked: true' are private/encrypted in Bear and their body content is not searchable — if a search returns no results, check whether the relevant note is locked. Use bear_get_note to read the full content of a specific note.

List Bear notes that have incomplete TODO items (markdown checkboxes like '- [ ]'). Returns each note's title, tags, and counts of complete/incomplete items.

Get statistics about the Bear notes library: total notes, words, tags, pinned, archived, trashed, notes with TODOs, oldest/newest dates, and top 10 tags by note count.

Remove a tag from a specific Bear note. Works on any tag visible in 'tags' on the note — including ancestor tags like 'parent' that exist only as hierarchical expansions. Removing a hierarchical leaf like 'parent/child' also drops orphaned ancestors from the tag index.

Rename a tag across all Bear notes. Every note containing the old tag will be updated.

Full-text search across Bear note titles, tags, and body content. Returns matching notes ranked by relevance (title matches first, then tag, then body). Body matches include a text snippet with surrounding context. Locked/private notes will match by title but may not match body searches — results include 'locked: true' for these notes. If you can't find content you expect, try listing notes to check if the relevant note is locked.

Trigger a sync of Bear notes from iCloud. Normally an incremental sync fetching only changes. Use 'full' to force a complete re-sync. Most read operations auto-sync when the cache is stale, so manual sync is rarely needed.

Toggle a specific TODO item in a Bear note between complete and incomplete. The item_index is 1-based — use bear_get_todos first to see the list with index numbers.

Move a Bear note to the trash. This is a soft delete — the note can be recovered from Bear's trash. The note is identified by its ID.