Apple Notes Hello World

Overview

Create, read, search, and delete Apple Notes using JXA (JavaScript for Automation) via osascript. All examples work from the command line on macOS.

Prerequisites

• Completed apple-notes-install-auth (permissions granted)
• macOS with Notes.app

Instructions

Step 1: Create a Note

# JXA: Create a note in the default folder
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const defaultFolder = Notes.defaultAccount.folders[0];
  const newNote = Notes.Note({
    name: "Hello from Automation",
    body: "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This note was created via JXA at " + new Date().toISOString() + "</p>"
  });
  defaultFolder.notes.push(newNote);
  newNote.id();
'

# AppleScript equivalent:
osascript -e '
  tell application "Notes"
    tell account "iCloud"
      make new note at folder "Notes" with properties {name:"Hello AppleScript", body:"<p>Created via AppleScript</p>"}
    end tell
  end tell
'

Step 2: List All Notes

# List notes with title and creation date
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const notes = Notes.defaultAccount.notes();
  notes.slice(0, 10).map(n =>
    `${n.name()} | Created: ${n.creationDate().toISOString().split("T")[0]}`
  ).join("\n");
'

Step 3: Read a Note's Content

# Read note body (returns HTML)
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const notes = Notes.defaultAccount.notes();
  const target = notes.find(n => n.name() === "Hello from Automation");
  if (target) {
    `Title: ${target.name()}\nBody: ${target.body()}\nModified: ${target.modificationDate()}`;
  } else {
    "Note not found";
  }
'

Step 4: Search Notes

# Search by keyword in note name
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const query = "Hello";
  const results = Notes.defaultAccount.notes().filter(n =>
    n.name().toLowerCase().includes(query.toLowerCase())
  );
  results.map(n => n.name()).join("\n") || "No results";
'

Step 5: Create Note in Specific Folder

# Create a folder and add a note to it
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const account = Notes.defaultAccount;

  // Create folder if it does not exist
  let folder = account.folders().find(f => f.name() === "Automation");
  if (!folder) {
    folder = Notes.Folder({ name: "Automation" });
    account.folders.push(folder);
  }

  // Add note to folder
  const note = Notes.Note({
    name: "Organized Note",
    body: "<p>This note lives in the Automation folder.</p>"
  });
  folder.notes.push(note);
  `Created in folder: ${folder.name()}`;
'

Step 6: Delete a Note

# Delete by name (moves to Recently Deleted)
osascript -l JavaScript -e '
  const Notes = Application("Notes");
  const notes = Notes.defaultAccount.notes();
  const target = notes.find(n => n.name() === "Hello from Automation");
  if (target) {
    Notes.delete(target);
    "Note deleted";
  } else {
    "Note not found";
  }
'

Note Properties

Output

• Created a note via JXA and AppleScript
• Listed, searched, and read note content
• Organized note into a folder
• Deleted a note

Examples

Create one synthetic note in a pre-created, test-only local folder, read only that note back by its returned identifier, and remove it after verifying the exercise. Do not list all notes, search a live account, or create folders implicitly as part of a permission smoke test.

Error Handling

Resources

• AppleScript Notes Dictionary
• JXA Examples
• osascript Manual

Next Steps

Proceed to apple-notes-local-dev-loop for development workflow setup.