notes-export git:20260719.383c24bA

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/c8c2b87fe6798a98.

---
name: notes-export
description: Export/back up EVERY macOS Notes note (all accounts, all folders) to local storage as markdown files plus a JSON manifest — the safety net to run BEFORE any reorganization, and the corpus the notes-audit skill analyzes. Read-only against Notes; writes only to ~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/. TRIGGERS - export my notes, back up notes, notes snapshot, dump notes to disk, notes backup before reorganizing.
allowed-tools: Bash, Read
---

# notes-export — full local snapshot of Apple Notes

One command captures everything Notes holds into a timestamped local snapshot:

```bash
NC="$HOME/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/cc-skills/plugins/notes-commander/scripts/notes.ts"
bun "$NC" export                     # → ~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/<stamp>/
bun "$NC" export --out /path/to/dir  # explicit destination
```

What a snapshot contains:

- **One markdown file per note**, under `<account>/<folder>/…` mirroring the Notes hierarchy. Each file has YAML frontmatter (`account`, `folder`, `id`, `modified`) and the note body as plain text (decoded via `textutil`, UTF-8-safe, CJK-safe).
- **`manifest.json`** — every folder (with counts) and every note (id, name, modified, relative file path, char count). This is the machine-readable index for audits and diffs.
- Filenames are sanitized (`safeFilename`) and suffixed with the note's core-data id (`.p1234.md`), so same-titled notes never collide.

## Rules

- **Run this before any `notes-organize` operation** — it is the undo story. Notes has no API-level undo; a snapshot does.
- The default root (`~/.local/share/notes-commander/export/`) is deliberately OUTSIDE any git repo so note content can never be accidentally committed. Don't redirect `--out` into a repo.
- Snapshots are full (not incremental); each run creates a new timestamped dir. Old snapshots are plain dirs — delete them manually when no longer wanted.
- `Recently Deleted` is deliberately skipped (restore a note in the Notes UI first if you want it captured).
- A large library takes a few minutes (verified live: 400 notes ≈ 2.5 min) — bodies are fetched in chunks of 20 because one giant Apple Event reply blows the AE size cap (`-1741`). A failed chunk degrades to per-note fetches; a still-failing note becomes a warning + exit code 3 (partial export is LOUD, never silent). Transient `-600`/`-1712` launch races retry automatically.