Dendrite

vault

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

vault#

A vault is, simply put, a directory on your desktop containing a set of markdown files. These files contain your notes, and can be connected to each other through links.

A local index is kept to support searching, linking and navigating your vault, as the documentation of your knowledge outgrows file managers and directory viewers.

Important: Neither dendrite.nvim nor dendrite.daemon supports vault switching and multiple vaults at the moment. While this might change, bear this in mind if you decide to use Dendrite.

vault commands

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

vault commands#

Vault commands manage the daemon’s connection to a vault and its index. vault/init must be called before any other command — it is what binds the daemon instance to a vault.

vault/init#

Initializes the daemon against a vault. This sets up the database context and, if the vault has not been indexed before, performs a full index build by scanning the vault directory.

If the index already contains notes the rebuild is skipped, so calling vault/init on an already-known vault is safe and cheap.

note commands

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

note commands#

Note commands modify the index by creating or updating notes.

create note#

Creates a note at a specified directory, and updates the index. Returns the path to the created note. The note content is generated from a template.

Method: note/create

Params:

Field	Type	Description
`title`	string	Title for the new note. Used in frontmatter and converted to a slug for the filename.
`templateName`	string	Name of the template the note will use.
`directory`	string	The directory the note will be placed in, relative to the vault root.

Request:

protocol

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

protocol#

Communication between client and daemon is composed of two things: standard streams, often referred to as stdio (after the popular C library stdio.h), and JSON-RPC. While this documentation does not aim to give an in-depth explanation of the two, it will cover some basics, in order for you to be able to roll your own client.

standard streams#

Standard streams are a set of preconnected communication channels. Of said channels, there are three: input, output and error. It is quite simple — the client application writes to the daemon’s input channel, and reads from the daemon’s output and error channel.

spec

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

note specification#

A note is a markdown file stored inside a vault. Each note carries metadata in a YAML frontmatter block and a body of regular markdown content.

file naming#

When a note is created through the daemon, its filename is derived from the title by converting it to a slug. The title is lowercased, digits are preserved, and every other character is replaced with a dash. The resulting slug becomes the filename (with .md appended) and also acts as the canonical identifier used in internal links.

completion commands

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

completion commands#

Completion commands are designed to feed editor completion engines. Both accept a partial query and return a list of matching strings, using a substring match against the index.

completion/slug#

Returns a list of note slugs whose title, path, or slug contains the query string. Intended to power [[link]] completion in the client editor.

Method: completion/slug

Params:

Field	Type	Description
`query`	string	Partial string to match against note title, path, and slug.

Request:

links

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

links#

Dendrite supports two kinds of links:

Internal links between notes in your vault, using the [[my-note-about-pasta]] syntax.
External links to URLs, using standard markdown [text](url) syntax.

Internal links can also carry display text using the pipe separator: [[my-note-about-pasta|Pasta Notes]]. In this form, the part before the pipe is the target slug and the part after is what the client may choose to render.

Note: Handling of links is up to the client application. In dendrite.nvim, external links are rendered as clickable links that open in the default web browser and internal links are opened in a new buffer.

queries

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

queries#

Queries read from the index without modifying it. They are used for navigation, discovery, and search.

goto note#

Supplied with a valid link, returns a target and a type. The target is what the client should navigate to. The type indicates whether the link points to another note within the vault or to an external URL. See links for details.

Method: note/goto

Params:

Field	Type	Description
`link`	string	A link extracted from a note.

Request:

templates

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

templates#

Templates define the initial content of a newly created note. They live in a dedicated template directory configured at vault initialization (the templateDirectory parameter of vault/init).

template directory#

The template directory is an ordinary folder containing markdown files. Each file is a template, and its filename (without extension) is the template name. For example, daily.md in the template directory is referenced as daily when creating a note.

placeholders#

Templates support the following placeholders, which are expanded at note creation time:

diagnostics

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

diagnostics#

Diagnostic commands inspect the index for inconsistencies without modifying it. They are intended to help clients surface problems to the user in real time.

diagnostics/links#

Scans the links recorded for a given note and returns any that point to a slug that does not exist in the index. Intended to be called after a note is saved or opened so clients can display inline warnings.

Method: diagnostics/links

Params:

Field	Type	Description
`path`	string	Absolute path to the note to check.

Request:

installation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1. installation#

Installing dendrite.daemon is a prerequisite to any client working, as they depend on the daemon.

1.1 requirements#

Requirement	Notes
Linux or macOS	Windows is not supported.
Neovim 0.9+	Required for the diagnostic API used by the plugin.
`curl`	Used by the install script to download the binary.

2. install the daemon#

Run the install script. It will detect your OS and CPU architecture, download the correct binary from the latest release, and place it on your PATH.