nb Notes

Overview

Manage persistent notes and todos using nb, a command-line note-taking system. This skill enables Claude to capture insights, decisions, and deferred tasks that should persist across sessions, while keeping current work-in-progress tracked separately in TodoWrite.

Notebook Access:

• Write access: Only the claude notebook (for persisting information across Claude sessions)
• Read access: All notebooks (for understanding user's recent learnings, reference materials, and context)
• Users may organize their nb notebooks differently - check available notebooks with nb notebooks or look for organizational notes in the claude notebook

When to Use This Skill

Use nb for Persistent Information

Proactively create nb notes when:

• Solving a bug and understanding the root cause (tag: #bug-fix)
• Making architectural or technical decisions (tag: #technical-decision)
• Discovering patterns, conventions, or antipatterns in a codebase (tag: #code-pattern)
• Learning about user preferences or working style (tag: #preference)
• Finding workflow improvements or process discoveries (tag: #workflow)
• Capturing insights that will be valuable in future sessions (tag: #session-insight)

Use nb todo/tasks for deferred work:

• Issues discovered during work that should be addressed later (tag: #deferred-task)
• Follow-up tasks or improvements to make when time permits
• Technical debt to track

Use TodoWrite for Current Work

Keep using TodoWrite for:

• Breaking down the current task into steps
• Tracking work-in-progress during the active session
• Managing what you're actively working on right now

Key distinction: nb is for persistence across sessions, TodoWrite is for tracking active work within the current session.

Creating Notes

Standard Notes

Create markdown notes in the claude notebook with appropriate tags:

nb claude:add --type md --title "Note Title" --tags tag1,tag2 --content "Note content here"

Example - Technical Decision:

nb claude:add --type md \
  --title "Use factory pattern for tool instantiation" \
  --tags technical-decision,code-pattern \
  --content "Decision: Implement factory pattern for creating tools in the MCP server.

Rationale:
- Allows dynamic tool registration
- Easier to test individual tools in isolation
- Follows existing patterns in codebase

Implementation: See ToolFactory in src/tools/factory.ts"

Example - Bug Fix:

nb claude:add --type md \
  --title "Race condition in async file watcher" \
  --tags bug-fix,session-insight \
  --content "Root cause: File watcher callbacks fired before initialization completed.

Solution: Added initialization lock using async mutex. Files are queued during init and processed after lock is released.

Location: src/watchers/file-watcher.ts:145"

Example - Codebase Pattern:

nb claude:add --type md \
  --title "Error handling pattern: wrap with context" \
  --tags code-pattern,preference \
  --content "This codebase wraps errors with additional context rather than throwing new errors.

Pattern:
catch (err) {
  throw Object.assign(err, { context: 'additional info' })
}

NOT:
catch (err) {
  throw new Error(\`Failed: \${err.message}\`)
}"

Deferred Tasks

Use nb todo or nb tasks for deferred work:

# Add a deferred task
nb claude:todo add "Refactor authentication module to use new JWT library" --tags deferred-task,technical-decision

# List deferred tasks
nb claude:todo list

# Complete a task
nb claude:todo do <id>

Searching Notes

Before creating a note, search to avoid duplicates and to leverage existing knowledge:

# Search by keyword
nb claude:search "authentication"

# Search by tag
nb claude:search --tags technical-decision

# List recent notes
nb claude:list --limit 10

# List notes with specific tags
nb claude:list --tags code-pattern,preference

When to search:

• Before starting work on a new area of the codebase
• When encountering a familiar problem
• When making decisions (check if similar decisions were made before)

Editing Notes

Update existing notes when information changes or needs clarification:

# Edit a note
nb claude:edit <id>

# Show a note first to see its content
nb claude:show <id>

Note Quality Guidelines

Good notes are:

• Specific: Include file paths, line numbers, concrete examples
• Actionable: Explain not just what, but why and how
• Searchable: Use clear titles and appropriate tags
• Concise: Focus on the essential information
• Evergreen: Avoid temporal references ("recently", "new", "old")

Title conventions:

• 5-10 words
• Present tense verbs for actions: "Use factory pattern for tool creation"
• Nouns for concepts: "Authentication flow in API layer"
• Include context: "React components: Prefer composition over inheritance"

Content structure:

• Start with the key insight or decision
• Include rationale/context
• Add implementation details or location references
• Use code examples when helpful

Tag Reference

Standard tags for organization:

• #technical-decision - Architectural choices, framework decisions, design rationale
• #session-insight - Important learnings or patterns discovered during work
• #deferred-task - Issues or improvements to address later
• #code-pattern - Common patterns, antipatterns, or conventions found in codebases
• #bug-fix - Solutions to bugs and their root causes
• #workflow - Process improvements or workflow discoveries
• #preference - User preferences and working style notes

Apply multiple tags when appropriate.

Resources

references/nb_commands.md

Complete reference for all nb commands, including detailed syntax for creating notes, todos, tasks, searching, and editing. Consult this file for command-line syntax details and additional examples.