nota.nvim

Nota -- from Latin, meaning "note" or "mark". Short, universal, and to the point. Much like the plugin itself.

A lightweight Neovim plugin for structured daily note-taking. Designed as a terminal-native alternative to heavier note-taking tools with complex UIs. No databases, no web views, no background processes -- just markdown files in a git repo.

Create dated notes with a single command, organized into year/month/day directories. Search existing notes with Telescope, fzf-lua, or a built-in fallback.

Installation

lazy.nvim

{
  "kmgrime/nota.nvim",
  config = function()
    require("nota").setup({
      notes_path = "~/notes/journal",
    })
  end,
}

packer.nvim

use({
  "kmgrime/nota.nvim",
  config = function()
    require("nota").setup({
      notes_path = "~/notes/journal",
    })
  end,
})

Configuration

The setup() function accepts a table with the following options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
notes_path	string	nil (required)	Absolute or ~-relative path to your notes directory
date_format	string	"%Y-%m-%d"	Date format used in filenames and directory structure
separator	string	"_"	Character used to replace spaces in subject names

Usage

:nota

Prompts you for a subject name and creates a new note for today.

For example, entering meeting notes on 2026-04-15 creates:

~/notes/journal/2026/04/15/2026-04-15-meeting_notes.md

With the following template:

---
Date: 2026-04-15
Subject: meeting notes
Description: 
---

### Note1

- 

The cursor is placed on the bullet point, ready for input.

If a note with the same subject already exists for today, you are prompted to either open the existing file or cancel.

:notasearch

Opens a fuzzy finder to browse and open existing notes. The plugin checks for available search providers in this order:

1. Telescope (telescope.nvim) -- uses find_files scoped to your notes path
2. fzf-lua (fzf-lua) -- uses files scoped to your notes path
3. Fallback -- uses vim.ui.select with a flat list of all notes

No additional configuration is needed. Whichever picker is installed gets used with its default settings.

Keymaps

The plugin does not set any keymaps by default. You can add your own:

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>nn", "<cmd>nota<cr>", { desc = "New note" })
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>ns", "<cmd>notasearch<cr>", { desc = "Search notes" })

Directory Structure

Notes are organized by year, month, and day. Each day gets its own directory, allowing multiple notes per day:

notes_path/
  2026/
    04/
      14/
        2026-04-14-standup.md
      15/
        2026-04-15-meeting_notes.md
        2026-04-15-project_ideas.md

Requirements

• Neovim >= 0.8
• Optional: telescope.nvim or fzf-lua for fuzzy search (falls back to vim.ui.select)

License

MIT