Automating with the mimir command

Read and add to your Mimir notes from a script, an AI agent, or a terminal on your Mac, through the mimir command.

The mimir command reads your notes and adds to them from outside the app. A script, an AI agent, or you in a terminal can use it to search your notes, read a page, or add a bullet to today’s journal. It works on a Mac, and only while Mimir is open.

To open a page or add a line from Shortcuts or another app instead, see Deep links & automation.

Allowing access

The command can reach your notes only while Automation > Allow Automation is on in the menu bar. It’s off until you choose it. Each Mac has its own setting.

If the command says it can’t reach Mimir, check that Mimir is open and that Allow Automation is on.

Installing the command

Choose Automation > Install Command Line Tool… in the menu bar.
Read the message that shows. It names the folder Mimir put mimir in.

If the message says that folder isn’t on your PATH, mimir can’t be found by name. Add the folder to your PATH.

If you opened Mimir from its disk image or your Downloads folder, Mimir asks you to move it to your Applications folder first.

Mimir updates the command when it updates itself.

What the command does

Command	Does
`mimir status`	Checks that Mimir is open and allows access.
`mimir search "<words>"`	Searches your notes.
`mimir read "<page title>"`	Shows a page and the bullets that link to it.
`mimir pages`	Lists your pages, newest first.
`mimir context`	Shows the page and bullet you’re on in Mimir.
`mimir open "<page title>"`	Opens a page in a pop-out.
`mimir append "<text>"`	Adds a bullet to the end of today’s journal.
`mimir append "<text>" --page "<page title>"`	Adds a bullet to the end of a page.
`mimir revert`	Takes back what the command wrote in its most recent stretch of work.

<words>, <page title>, and <text> are placeholders. Put your own text there. mimir --help lists every command and its options.

In a terminal, results show as text. When another program reads them, they come as JSON.

Text you hid between tildes (~like this~) stays hidden in everything the command returns.

What the command can change

The command can add bullets, and edit or delete the bullets it added. It can’t change your bullets, and it can’t create pages. To suggest a new page, it writes a link to it.

A bullet the command wrote shows a robot in place of the dot. When you edit its text, the bullet becomes yours, and the robot changes to a dot. Moving, indenting, or folding the bullet doesn’t count as an edit.

If you and the command change the same bullet at the same moment, Mimir keeps both versions. The command’s text goes in a new bullet above yours.

Taking it back

Cmd-Z doesn’t undo what the command wrote. To take it back, run mimir revert, or ask the agent that wrote it. It deletes the bullets the command added in its most recent stretch of work, and puts back the text it changed. It skips bullets you edited since, and says which ones.

You can also delete a robot bullet the same way as any other bullet.

Using it with an AI agent

An agent is an AI tool that can run commands on your Mac. The command comes with a skill: a short guide an agent reads to learn how to use mimir. To install it:

Choose Automation > Install Agent Skill… in the menu bar.
Choose your agent’s skills folder, such as ~/.claude/skills.

After Mimir updates, install the skill again, so it matches the updated command.

You can also install the skill in a terminal. Put your agent’s skills folder in place of <folder>:

mimir skill install --dir <folder>

mimir skill install on its own lists the skills folders it finds, and writes nothing. To replace an older copy after an update, add --force at the end.

A second skill teaches an agent study methods that use your notes. Choose Automation > Get the Study Skill to open its page, which has the install command. See Learning from your notes.

The two dots

While access is allowed, two small dots show in the bottom-left corner of the main window, above the search button. They show what the command is doing:

The dots	What’s happening
Breathe slowly	Nothing is using the command.
Hop	Something is searching your notes.
Turn half over	Something is reading or writing.
Turn end over end	A pause between commands, while an agent decides what to do next.
Make one small pop	The work finished.
Drop to the floor and fade	You stopped it.

Stopping it

To stop whatever is using the command, click the two dots while they move, or choose Automation > Stop and Turn Off Automation in the menu bar.

Stop turns off Allow Automation. The command in progress fails, and no later command gets through until you turn Allow Automation on again. What was written before you stopped it stays in your notes.