Kaydet: Your Queryable Personal Database—With Zero Friction

Kaydet: Capture • Query • Remember

Kaydet is not a diary you read—it's a database you query. Capture your thoughts, track your work, log your life—all from your terminal, in plain text, with zero friction.

Install

pip install git+https://github.com/miratcan/kaydet.git

Start logging:

kaydet "First entry #personal"
kaydet "Working on feature X #work time:2h"
kaydet --search "#work"

The Problem With Traditional Note-Taking

You're deep in code. A thought hits: "This auth bug is a cache TTL issue."

Opening Notion? Four context switches. Finding the right page? Another minute gone. By the time you're back, your flow is broken.

Kaydet keeps you in the terminal where you already live. One command, zero friction:

kaydet "Fixed staging auth bug—cache TTL issue #work status:done time:2h"

Done. Back to work in 3 seconds.

Not a Diary—A Database

Traditional diaries are linear. You write, you read, you flip pages.

Kaydet is structured, indexed, and queryable. Every entry becomes searchable data:

# What did I ship this week?
kaydet --search "status:done" --since 7d

# How much deep work did I do this month?
kaydet --search "focus:high time:>2" --since 30d

# All billable expenses?
kaydet --search "billable:yes #expense"

Tags (#work), metadata (time:2h, status:done), and full-text search—all in one natural string.

Plain Text Forever

Everything lives in timestamped .txt files:

~/.local/share/kaydet/
├── 2025-10-26.txt
├── 2025-10-27.txt
├── 2025-10-28.txt
└── index.db  (SQLite cache)

Human-readable. Git-versionable. Tool-independent. Your data will outlive any proprietary format.

The SQLite index is just a cache. If it breaks, kaydet --doctor rebuilds it from your text files.

Real-World Usage

Work Logging:

kaydet "Shipped analytics feature #work commit:a3f89d pr:142 status:done time:4h"
kaydet "Investigating prod timeout #work #oncall status:wip time:1.5h"

Time Tracking:

kaydet "Deep work on ETL pipeline #work time:3h focus:high"
kaydet "Code review session #work time:45m"

Expense Tracking:

kaydet "Lunch with client #expense amount:850 currency:TRY billable:yes"
kaydet "Conference ticket #expense amount:2500 currency:TRY billable:yes"

Personal Moments:

kaydet "Morning run felt amazing #fitness time:30m distance:5k"
kaydet "Read Atomic Habits chapter 3 #reading"
kaydet "Watched Aurora play with her toys #family"

Then query your life:

kaydet --search "time:>2"           # Long work sessions
kaydet --search "#work status:done" # Completed tasks
kaydet --search "billable:yes"      # Invoice data
kaydet --tags                        # All tags with counts

Structured Metadata

Kaydet parses key:value pairs automatically:

  • Numeric values: time:2h becomes 2.0, 90m becomes 1.5
  • Comparisons: time:>2, time:>=1, time:<5
  • Ranges: time:1..3 (between 1 and 3 hours)
  • Wildcards: branch:feature/*

Everything in one natural string:

kaydet "Fixed bug #work #urgent status:done time:2h commit:abc123 pr:76"

Gets stored as:

14:25 [42]: Fixed bug | status:done time:2h commit:abc123 pr:76 | #urgent #work

Clean message, structured metadata, tagged for search.

AI Integration

Connect Kaydet to Claude Desktop via MCP:

// claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kaydet": {
      "command": "kaydet-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Ask Claude:

  • "What did I work on this week?"
  • "How consistent was my fitness routine?"
  • "Summarize my accomplishments from last sprint"

Your personal AI with perfect memory of your own data.

Core Features

  • Terminal-native: One command, zero friction
  • Plain text storage: .txt files, human-readable forever
  • SQLite indexing: Fast searches across 10,000+ entries
  • Structured metadata: key:value with numeric comparisons
  • Edit/Delete by ID: kaydet --edit 42, kaydet --delete 42
  • Browse mode: Interactive TUI with vim-like navigation
  • AI-ready: MCP server for Claude Desktop
  • Git-friendly: Version your diary, sync across devices

Why Zero Friction Matters

I built Kaydet in 2016 because I was tired of context switching. Nine years later, I use it every single day—not because it's mine, but because it's the fastest way to capture thoughts without breaking flow.

No apps to open. No pages to find. No sync to wait for. Just terminal → thought → storage → back to work.

Your thoughts deserve zero friction.

10/2025