CLI-first plain-text bookmarks manager.
Over the years I've accumulated over 10k bookmarks in Pocket. Navigating that amount of items is slow, and incredibly hard to maintain. Being a CLI-first person, I've decided to create a simple bookmarks manager that will allow me to quickly search and open bookmarks from the terminal.
To make it work, I've created a custom protocol handler for bookmarks://... uri scheme, and a bookmaklet that will allow me to quickly add bookmarks to the database from the browser. I've later made a Firefox Add-On to make things even more seamless.
A really handy feature of bash-bookmarks is the ability to bookmark local files or filepaths. This is especially useful when you have a lot of projects and you want to quickly navigate to a specific file.
For an example, I have a bookmark called bash-bookmarks which points to the README.md file in this repository. To open that file, I simply type be bash-bookmarks in the terminal and the file will open in my default editor.
ba --uri ../bash-bookmarks/README.md --title "bash-bookmarks"
# opens the URI using the system handler
bo bash-bookmarks
# Bookmark Documents folder
cd ~/Documents
ba .
# Bookmark project folder
cd ~/code/github/bash-bookmarks
ba .
# quickly cd into ~/Documents
b Doc
# come back to bash-bookmarks
b bash-b
You can export your browser bookmarks to a bookmarks HTML file and then import the bookmarks to bash-bookmarks.
b import bookmarks.html
It is good idea to first do a dry run
b --dry-run import bookmarks.html
Or to import it to a completely separate bookmarks directory
b --dir some_temp_dir import bookmarks.html
You can create an .env file in $HOME/.bookmarks.env where you can specify your prefered configuration:
# Specify the directory where you want to store your bookmarks
BOOKMARKS_DIR="${HOME}/bookmarks"
# Specify the editor that you want to use to edit your bookmarks
MARKDOWN_EDITOR="vim"
# Specify the viewer that you want to use to view your bookmarks
MARKDOWN_VIEWER="glow"
# Specify the browser that you want to use to open your bookmarks
BOOKMARKS_BROWSER="firefox-nightly"
You can have multiple .env files and pass the one that you want to use via the --env param:
b --env ~/bookmarks-work.env
b --env ~/bookmarks-local.env
Be sure to source the .bookmarksrc file in your .bashrc or .zshrc file. This will define some handy aliases and functions.
To quickly bookmark the current directory by typing ba . or ba $(pwd).
You can export your Pinterest pins to a bookmarks.html file using a script like PinBack, and then import it to bash-bookmarks.
sudo make install
Go to about:config
Search for network.protocol-handler.expose.bookmarks
Select boolean, add it, and set it to false.
Firefox should now delegate this protocol handler to the system handler.
Go to chrome://settings/handlers
Search for bookmarks
Select bookmarks:// protocol handler and set it to Always allow
sudo make uninstall
To add a bookmarklet to your browser, simply create a new bookmark and paste the following code into the URL field:
javascript:(function()%7Bfunction%20d(a%2Cc%2Cg)%7Bvar%20e%3Ddocument.createElement(a)%2Cb%3Bfor(b%20in%20c)if(%22style%22%3D%3Db)for(var%20f%20in%20c%5Bb%5D)0%3D%3Df.indexOf(%22--%22)%3Fe.style.setProperty(f%2Cc%5Bb%5D%5Bf%5D)%3Ae.style%5Bf%5D%3Dc%5Bb%5D%5Bf%5D%3Belse%20if(%22events%22%3D%3Db)for(var%20h%20in%20c%5Bb%5D)e.addEventListener(h%2Cc%5Bb%5D%5Bh%5D)%3Belse%22innerHTML%22%3D%3Db%3Fe.innerHTML%3Dc%5Bb%5D%3A!0%3D%3D%3Dc%5Bb%5D%7C%7C!1%3D%3D%3Dc%5Bb%5D%3Fc%5Bb%5D%26%26e.setAttribute(b%2C%22%22)%3Ae.setAttribute(b%2Cc%5Bb%5D)%3Bg%26%26g.forEach(function(n)%7Breturn%20n%26%26e.appendChild(n)%7D)%3Breturn%20e%7Dfunction%20m()%7BsetTimeout(function()%7Bdocument.addEventListener(%22keydown%22%2Cp)%3Bdocument.body.removeChild(q)%7D%2C1E3)%7Dfunction%20k(a)%7Bvar%20c%3Da.name%2Cg%3Da.label%2Ce%3Da.value%2Cb%3Da.placeholder%2Cf%3Dvoid%200%3D%3D%3Da.type%3F%22text%22%3Aa.type%2Ch%3Dvoid%200%3D%3D%3Da.required%3F!1%3Aa.required%3Ba%3Dvoid%200%3D%3D%3Da.hidden%3F!1%3Aa.hidden%3Breturn%20d(%22div%22%2C%7B%7D%2C%5Ba%26%26d(%22label%22%2C%7B%22for%22%3Ac%2CinnerHTML%3Ag%7C%7Cc%7D)%2C!a%26%26d(%22label%22%2C%7B%22for%22%3Ac%2CinnerHTML%3Ag%7C%7Cc%7D)%2C!a%26%26d(%22input%22%2C%7Btype%3Af%2Cname%3Ac%2Cvalue%3Ae%2Cplaceholder%3Ab%2Crequired%3Ah%2Cstyle%3Ar%7D)%5D)%7Dfunction%20p(a)%7B%22Escape%22%3D%3Da.key%26%26m()%7Dvar%20r%3D%7Bpadding%3A%228px%22%2Ccolor%3A%22var(--fg)%22%2CbackgroundColor%3A%22var(--bg2)%22%2Cwidth%3A%22100%25%22%7D%2Cl%3D%7Bpadding%3A%228px%22%2Ccolor%3A%22var(--fg)%22%2CbackgroundColor%3A%22var(--bg3)%22%7D%3Bl%3Dd(%22form%22%2C%7Baction%3A%22bookmarks%3A%2F%2F%22%2Cmethod%3A%22get%22%2Ctarget%3A%22_blank%22%2Cevents%3A%7Bsubmit%3Am%7D%2Cstyle%3A%7Bpadding%3A%2232px%22%2Ccolor%3A%22var(--fg)%22%2CbackgroundColor%3A%22var(--bg)%22%2CborderRadius%3A%2210px%22%2Cwidth%3A%22400px%22%2Cheight%3A%22auto%22%2Cdisplay%3A%22flex%22%2CflexDirection%3A%22column%22%2CjustifyContent%3A%22space-around%22%2CalignItems%3A%22left%22%2CboxShadow%3A%220%200%2010px%20rgba(0%2C0%2C0%2C0.5)%22%7D%7D%2C%5Bd(%22h2%22%2C%7BinnerHTML%3A%22Add%20Bookmark%22%2Cstyle%3A%7Bcolor%3A%22var(--fg)%22%7D%7D)%2Ck(%7Blabel%3A%22Title%22%2Cname%3A%22title%22%2Cvalue%3Adocument.title%2Crequired%3A!0%7D)%2Ck(%7Blabel%3A%22URI%22%2Cname%3A%22uri%22%2Cvalue%3Adocument.URL%7D)%2Ck(%7Blabel%3A%22Category%22%2Cname%3A%22category%22%2Cvalue%3A%22unsorted%22%2Crequired%3A!0%7D)%2Ck(%7Blabel%3A%22Tags%22%2Cname%3A%22tags%22%2Cvalue%3A%22%22%2Cplaceholder%3A%22Separate%20tags%20with%20commas%22%7D)%2Cd(%22div%22%2C%7Bstyle%3A%7Bdisplay%3A%22flex%22%2CjustifyContent%3A%22space-around%22%2Cpadding%3A%228px%22%2CpaddingTop%3A%2216px%22%2Cwidth%3A%22100%25%22%7D%7D%2C%5Bd(%22input%22%2C%7Btype%3A%22submit%22%2Cvalue%3A%22Save%22%2Cstyle%3Al%7D)%2Cd(%22input%22%2C%7Btype%3A%22button%22%2Cvalue%3A%22Cancel%22%2Cstyle%3Al%2Cevents%3A%7Bclick%3Am%7D%7D)%5D)%5D)%3Bvar%20q%3Dd(%22div%22%2C%7Bstyle%3A%7Bposition%3A%22fixed%22%2Ctop%3A%220%22%2Cleft%3A%220%22%2Cright%3A%220%22%2Cbottom%3A%220%22%2CbackgroundColor%3A%22rgba(0%2C0%2C0%2C0.8)%22%2CzIndex%3A%229999%22%2Cdisplay%3A%22flex%22%2CjustifyContent%3A%22center%22%2CalignItems%3A%22center%22%2C%22--bg%22%3A%22%23eee%22%2C%22--bg2%22%3A%22%23fff%22%2C%22--bg3%22%3A%22%23ddd%22%2C%22--fg%22%3A%22%23111%22%2C%22--fg2%22%3A%22%23333%22%7D%7D%2C%5Bl%5D)%3Bdocument.addEventListener(%22keydown%22%2Cp)%3Bdocument.body.appendChild(q)%7D)()%3Bvoid+0
https://github.com/ArtBIT/bash-bookmarks-firefox-add-on/
If you source'd .bookmarksrc the server should auto-start, otherwise you need to start it via bookmarks server. The server is a HTTP server with a very simple API.
- Search Endpoint
GET /search?format=json&q=searchterm - Add Endpoint
POST /addwhich accepts a JSON payload containing{url,title,category}
The Firefox Add-On uses these two endpoints to automatically add bash-bookmark whenever a Firefox bookmark is created, and to suggest bookmarks directly from the address-bar by registering bb keyword, which when used in the address-bar, fetches the bookmarks results from the server.