Notebooks

The Notebook Model · Notebook List · Notebook Detail · Defaults · Sync and Git · Danger Zone

The Notebook Model

Each nb notebook is a plain directory under ~/.nb/ — its own self-contained git repo, with notes as Markdown files tracked by an .index file.

~/.nb/
  home/       ← default notebook
    .git/
    .index
    note1.md
    note2.md
  work/
    .git/
    .index
    …

Notes are real files. You can open, copy, edit, and script them directly from the terminal at any time — nb-web never locks them. Every edit (whether from nb-web or the CLI) is auto-committed by nb with a message like [nb] Edit: filename.md.

Notebook List

Menu → Notebooks opens the notebook management view. The left pane lists all notebooks with:

Note count
Last-modified age
Sync status badge: synced (green), N unpushed (yellow), not wired, or no git

Click any notebook to open its detail panel.

The list can be sorted: active first (default — current notebook at top) or A→Z. The sort button in the toolbar lights up when you’ve diverged from the default.

Notebook Detail

Clicking a notebook opens a detail panel with everything you need to inspect and manage it.

Info

Field	What it shows
Notes	Total note count
Path	Absolute path on disk (`~/.nb/<name>/`)
Branch	Current git branch (always `master` for nb notebooks)
Remote	Configured remote URL, or not wired
Last commit	Short hash · subject · age
Folders	Sub-folders that have an `.index` file

Actions

Two mutually exclusive action buttons appear depending on git state:

Wire remote — appears when the notebook has a git repo but no remote configured. Opens the wire form (see Sync and Git).
Sync — appears when a remote is already wired. Opens the sync dialog for this notebook.

Plugin sections

Active plugins can contribute additional sections here. For example, NbWeb-archive adds an Archive section with a ↓ Archive notebook button. See PLUGINS for details.

Use this notebook

Sets this notebook as the active scope for the List, Add, Search, and other commands — equivalent to nb use <name> from the CLI.

Defaults

Each notebook can have its own defaults for how notes are listed and created. These are saved to nb-settings.json and restored every time you switch to that notebook.

Default	Options	Effect
Sort	default, a→z, z→a, newest, oldest	Pre-selects the sort order for the note list
Type	all, note, bookmark, todo, contact, folder, image	Pre-filters the list to that note type
Template	any installed template	Pre-applies a template when adding a new note

Plugins can contribute additional defaults rows to this panel (e.g., NbWeb-contacts adds a List type option when a contacts notebook is active).

Click Save defaults to persist. Changes take effect immediately on the next notebook switch.

Tip: setting a notebook’s template default to a single local template is the recommended way to give a notebook a fixed structure — see TEMPLATES for the folder-local template pattern.

Sync and Git

nb-web uses a one-repo, branch-per-notebook model: all notebooks share one remote repository; each maps to a branch named after it.

Wiring a notebook

A notebook that has a local git repo but no remote shows a Wire remote button. Clicking it reveals the wire form:

Paste a remote URL (SSH preferred), or leave blank to use the default from Settings → Git.
Click Wire — adds the remote, pushes the notebook’s commits to a branch named after it, and configures git tracking.

If you don’t yet have a remote repo, expand Create a new separate GitHub repo instead… and choose Private or Public, then Create & Wire. This requires a gh (GitHub CLI) token configured on the server.

Wire all at once: ☰ → Git → wire remotes wires every notebook that lacks a remote in one operation, using the default remote URL from Settings.

Syncing

Once wired, the Sync button opens the sync dialog:

Status — lists uncommitted files and unpushed commit count; “Up to date” when nothing is pending
Commit message — optional; creates a labelled commit before syncing (useful for annotating a batch of auto-commits)
Sync Now — full two-way cycle: auto-commit pending changes → git pull (merge remote edits) → git push to the notebook’s branch
Show Log — shows the last 30 commits inline without closing the dialog

The sync menu item shows a live badge (updated every 60 s) so you can see pending changes at a glance without opening the dialog.

Danger Zone

At the bottom of each notebook’s detail panel. Two separate actions:

Delete local notebook — removes ~/.nb/<name>/ from this machine. Does not touch the remote. Type the notebook name to confirm. If there are unpushed commits, the count is shown as a warning — archive first if those commits matter.

Delete remote branch — removes the notebook’s branch from the remote repository. Does not touch the local copy. Type the notebook name to confirm. Use this when you want to stop syncing a notebook without deleting local notes.

Both actions are irreversible. Archive the notebook first (see Export) if you might want it back.

Creating a notebook

New notebooks can be created directly from nb-web: open the Add bar, select 📒 Notebook from the type picker, type the name, and confirm. Equivalent to the CLI:

nb notebooks add <name>

The new notebook appears in the list immediately. Wire a remote from the detail panel if you want to sync it.

Explorer

nb-web docs test site

NOTEBOOKS