Overview
devlog-cli was a small command-line tool for keeping a structured dev journal. The idea: open a terminal, type devlog add "Fixed the auth bug", and have your note timestamped and stored locally. At the end of the week, devlog review would print a summary of what you shipped.
It worked well enough that I used it daily for about six months.
Why It Existed
Most note-taking tools either live in a browser tab (context-switch cost) or require too much structure upfront. I wanted something that felt like git commit -m "..." — fast, local, and forgettable until you need it.
Implementation
Built with Node.js and TypeScript, using commander for CLI argument parsing and a plain JSON file as the data store. Each entry was a timestamped object:
type LogEntry = {
id: string;
timestamp: string;
message: string;
tags: string[];
};The review command grouped entries by ISO week and printed them with chalk. No database, no server, no sync — just a ~/.devlog.json file.
Why It’s Archived
I stopped maintaining it when I started using a plain markdown file in my home directory instead. The overhead of installing and updating a CLI tool wasn’t worth it for something this simple. The lesson: sometimes a text file is the right tool.
The code is still readable if you want to fork it and add sync or a TUI.