orca-note-cli

A CLI wrapper around the Orca Note MCP server. The published executable name is orcanote.

This fork keeps the upstream Dart CLI and adds a local Python companion under extras/apply-template that can apply Orca Note #Template pages by driving the official tool surface.

Configuration

If you are using macOS, remove the quarantine attribute from the downloaded orcanote binary before running it:

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine orcanote

Orca Note MCP uses Streamable HTTP with a Bearer token.

Configure the token once:

orcanote config set-token <token>

The token is stored in:

~/.config/orcanote/config.json

On Windows the CLI falls back to APPDATA\orcanote\config.json.

Security note: never commit tokens, real repository IDs, or personal journal content. Local wrapper config should stay in an ignored orcanote-template.json file.

Usage

Repository-scoped tools use this form:

orcanote <tool-name> --repo <repoId> --input '<json object>' [--json]

• --repo or -r: repository ID, mapped to the MCP argument repoId
• --input: JSON object string with the rest of the tool arguments
• --json: print the raw JSON payload instead of formatted text

Date/time helper tools do not require --repo:

orcanote <tool-name> --input '<json object>' [--json]

Examples:

orcanote get_journal --repo my-repo
orcanote get_blocks_text --repo my-repo --input '{"blockIds":[12345]}'
orcanote parse_datetime --input '{"text":"next friday 9am"}'
orcanote query_blocks --repo my-repo --input '{"description":{"q":{"kind":100,"conditions":[{"kind":8,"text":"deadline"}]}}}' --json

Apply Template Companion

Orca Note currently has no official MCP/CLI apply_template command. The in-app slash action (for example typing /Daily Review and pressing Enter) still lives only inside the desktop app.

This fork adds a project-local Python wrapper that approximates that behavior:

cd extras/apply-template
python orcanote_template.py --repo my-repo doctor
python orcanote_template.py --repo my-repo list
python orcanote_template.py --repo my-repo preview "Daily Review" --journal 2026-07-15
python orcanote_template.py --repo my-repo apply "Daily Review" --journal 2026-07-15

What it does:

1. Find blocks tagged with Template
2. Read the full template tree via get_blocks_text
3. Expand <% date:... %> / <% time:... %> with parse_datetime
4. Recursively insert each node with insert_markdown so hierarchy is preserved
5. Roll back with delete_blocks if insertion fails mid-way

See extras/apply-template/README.md for setup, limitations, and tests.

What this commit adds

Compared with upstream sethyuan/orca-note-cli, this fork currently adds:

• extras/apply-template/orcanote_template.py — template apply/list/preview CLI
• extras/apply-template/orcanote-template.cmd — Windows launcher
• extras/apply-template/orcanote-template.example.json — safe example config only
• unit tests for template discovery, hierarchy preservation, and rollback
• README documentation for the companion CLI

It does not change the upstream Dart MCP tool surface.

Help

Show root help and the available tools:

orcanote --help

Show detailed help for a specific tool:

orcanote get_blocks_text --help
orcanote query_blocks --help

Available Tools

• get_tags_and_pages
• get_page
• get_blocks_text
• get_journal
• parse_datetime
• query_blocks
• insert_markdown
• move_blocks
• create_page
• delete_blocks
• insert_tags
• remove_tags
• create_tags

Orca Note

Click here to visit Orca Note

Upstream CLI repository: sethyuan/orca-note-cli