Apple Notes Export Tool

Version 1.3.0

Export Apple Notes to HTML, Markdown, PDF, and Word with images intact. Search across notes by text, date, or AI-powered semantic similarity. Edit markdown locally and sync changes back to Apple Notes.

Thanks to @sulkaharo for performance optimizations and feature improvements!

Works on macOS only (uses AppleScript). Requires the Notes app.

• Released under MIT license
• Release History
• Possible future features

Guides

Guide	For	Covers
Basic Guide	Getting started	Export, search, scheduling, reconciliation
Advanced Guide	Power users	Bidirectional sync, AI search, Qdrant, JSON output
Technical Reference	Developers	All CLI options, env vars, JSON schemas, file structure

Quick Start

# Install
brew install git python
git clone https://github.com/storizzi/notes-exporter.git
cd notes-exporter
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Export all notes to Markdown
chmod +x exportnotes.zsh
./exportnotes.zsh --convert-markdown

# Search your notes
python query_notes.py "meeting notes"
python query_notes.py --modified-within 7d -l "."

Output goes to ~/Downloads/AppleNotesExport/ by default.

What It Does

Export from Apple Notes to multiple formats:

• Raw HTML, processed HTML (with extracted images), plain text
• Markdown (for Obsidian, etc.), PDF, Word (DOCX)
• Incremental — only re-exports changed notes (~3x faster than full export)

Search across all exported notes:

• Text and regex search with context, date filtering, image filtering
• AI-powered semantic search via Qdrant vector database

Sync changes back to Apple Notes:

• Edit exported markdown files locally, push changes back
• Conflict detection with .conflict.md sidecars
• Create new Apple Notes from local markdown files

Manage your note collection:

• Reconciliation to find orphans, missing files, and mismatches
• Qdrant vector indexing for semantic search
• Scheduled automatic exports via launchd
• Machine-readable JSON Lines output from all commands

What's New in 1.3.0

Bidirectional Sync

Edit exported markdown locally, then sync back to Apple Notes with --sync or --sync-only. Conflict detection creates .conflict.md sidecars. Create new notes with --create-new.

AI Search with Qdrant

Semantic search using Ollama embeddings and Qdrant vector database. --ai-search "cooking ideas" finds recipe notes even without matching keywords. Incremental indexing with --update-qdrant.

Search & Query Tool

Full-text search with regex (-E), date filtering (--modified-within 3d), image filtering (--has-images), and folder filtering (-F Notes).

Reconciliation

reconcile.py compares counts across Apple Notes, tracking JSON, disk files, and Qdrant. --details pinpoints specific exceptions.

Export Enhancements

--no-overwrite, --modified-after DATE, --images-beside-docs, --html-wrap, --dedup-images.

Venv Support

--venv-dir .venv replaces conda. --conda-env still works (maps to venv with deprecation warning).

JSON Lines Output

All commands support --json-log for machine-readable output.

Upgrading from 1.2.x

Sync requires fullNoteId in tracking JSON. Run a full re-export after upgrading:

./exportnotes.zsh --update-all --convert-markdown

See RELEASES.md for full details.

Setup

Prerequisites

brew install git python

Optional (for specific features):

• Google Chrome — for PDF conversion
• Pandoc — for Word conversion (brew install pandoc)
• Docker + Ollama — for AI search (setup guide)

Install

git clone https://github.com/storizzi/notes-exporter.git
cd notes-exporter
pip install -r requirements.txt
chmod +x exportnotes.zsh

First Export

./exportnotes.zsh --convert-markdown

macOS will prompt for Notes app permissions on first run.

Tests

# Run all tests (258 tests)
pytest -v

# By category
pytest -m unit           # Fast unit tests
pytest -m integration    # Subprocess-based integration tests
pytest -m search         # Search features
pytest -m sync           # Bidirectional sync
pytest -m qdrant         # Qdrant vector DB
pytest -m reconcile      # Reconciliation
pytest -m export         # Export features
pytest -m json_output    # JSON output

# Via test runner
tests/test.zsh           # All tests
tests/test.zsh search    # Just search tests

All tests use isolated temp directories — never touches your live data.