Notes on getting started with command-line dendron

cli-start-dendron.md

Getting Started

So you want to write notes in dendron without installing [[Visual Studio Code]]? Me too! I love [[vim]], so I wanted to be able to use dendron from there. Here's how I did it with [[node]] from the [[command line]].

Prerequisites

• patience
• node.js and npm
• vim (or your preferred editor.)

Installing

1. I can't install patience for you, try working with [[Windows]] for years.

2. Assuming you have a recent version of node/npm installed, get dendron:

    npm install -g @dendronhq/dendron-cli
   

3. Once the software is in place, we can get going.

Workspace Setup

1. Create an empty workspace directory, e.g. notes.

    mkdir notes
   

2. Run the workspace init command, specifying the path to wsRoot.

    dendron workspace init --wsRoot notes/
   

   The CLI will create the necessary configuration files in notes:

    $ ls -la notes/
    total 344
    drwxrwxr-x  2 user user   4096 Nov 20 11:08 .
    drwx------ 85 user user 307200 Nov 20 11:08 ..
    -rw-rw-r--  1 user user      5 Nov 20 11:08 .dendron.port
    -rw-rw-r--  1 user user     57 Nov 20 11:08 .dendron.ws
    -rw-rw-r--  1 user user   1905 Nov 20 11:08 dendron.yml
   

   .dendron.port ...

   .dendron.ws ....

   dendron.yml contains lots of configuration details, we'll skip that for now.

   At this point, we are ready to create a vault that stores our notes.

Vault Setup

Dendron stores notes in vaults, so you will have to create one yourself.

1. Create an empty vault directory inside the workspace, e.g. topic.

    cd notes
    mkdir topic
   

2. Run the vault create command, specifying the path to wsRoot.

    dendron vault create --vaultPath topic --wsRoot notes
   

   The CLI will create the necessary configuration files in topic:

    $ ls -la topic/
    total 32
    drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 Nov 20 13:45 .
    drwxrwxr-x 3 user user 4096 Nov 20 13:44 ..
    -rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  318 Nov 20 13:45 root.md
    -rw-rw-r-- 1 user user   95 Nov 20 13:45 root.schema.yml
   

   Here we can start writing notes. About time!

Creating a Note

Within a vault, e.g. notes/topic/, you should see a root.md as above. Now you just need to create a note and ...

1. Inside a vault, create the note.

    dendron note lookup --query ${note_title}
   

   NOTE (heh): the first time you do this from command line, it is hella spammy. Be prepared to see lots of JSON, as it shows you full context of where the note is, and tries to find a workspace file in the current directory.

2. Once it's done, you can edit the note in your favourite editor:

    vim $(note_title}.md
   

   When you next call dendron note lookup --query ${note_title}, the updated note content is shown in a JSON object.

Need to update this because vault create --vaultPath topics does both the directory creation and initialization when inside a workspace.