Bear

bear

Bear.app CLI bridge — two-way sync between filesystem markdown and Bear notes.

Overview

Sends markdown files into Bear for editing (via URL scheme) and pulls Bear notes back to the filesystem as clean markdown (via read-only SQLite queries). Import never touches the database directly — it uses Bear's URL scheme to preserve CloudKit sync. Export is always read-only.

When to Use

• "Send this to Bear" / "Open in Bear"
• "Pull my Bear notes" / "Export from Bear"
• "What are my recent Bear notes?"
• "Find Bear notes tagged with X"
• "Open this note in Bear"

Common Mistakes

Quoting titles with special characters. Always wrap Bear note titles in quotes when they contain spaces or punctuation: bear open "My Note Title".

Expecting instant sync on send. Bear processes URL scheme requests asynchronously. The note may take a moment to appear after bear send.

Running pull-all into a tracked directory. Export dumps many files — use a scratch directory or ./bear-export/ (the default) to avoid polluting git repos.

CLI Tool

Alias: bear Location: .claude/skills/bear/tools/bear

Quick Reference

bear                 # Send file to Bear (shortcut for send)
bear send            # Send/update markdown file in Bear
bear pull  [path]      # Pull Bear note to filesystem
bear pull-all [path]          # Export all notes (default: ./bear-export/)
bear open              # Open note in Bear
bear search            # Search in Bear
bear recent [N]               # List N most recent notes (default: 10)
bear list [--tag ]       # List notes, optionally by tag
bear help                     # Show help

Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | send | Send markdown file to Bear. Updates existing note if title matches, creates new note with project tag if not | | pull [path] | Export note as clean markdown. Resolves [image:UUID/file] to ` and copies image files | | pull-all [path] | Bulk export all non-trashed notes to directory | | open | Open note directly in Bear by title | | search | Open Bear's search UI with query | | recent [N] | List N most recently modified notes with relative timestamps | | list [--tag tag]` | List all notes or filter by tag |

Send Behavior

• Title extracted from first # H1 heading, falls back to filename
• If note with same title exists: updates via replace_all mode
• If new: creates with project tag derived from file path (/my-project/... -> #my-project)

Pull Behavior

• Bear's [image:UUID/filename.png] syntax converted to standard ``
• Image files copied from Bear's local storage to ./images/ alongside the output file
• YAML frontmatter preserved if present in the note (never added)

Output Format

Default: Plain text (numbered lists, formatted tables)

• recent and list output numbered lists to stdout
• send, pull, open output status messages

Examples

Edit a project doc in Bear's editor, then pull it back:

bear send docs/architecture.md     # Push to Bear (tagged #my-project)
# ... edit in Bear's markdown editor ...
bear pull "Architecture" docs/architecture.md   # Pull back with clean markdown

Quick lookup of recent notes:

bear recent 5                      # What have I been working on?
bear list --tag work            # All project-related notes
bear open "Meeting Notes"          # Jump straight into Bear

Bulk export for backup or migration:

bear pull-all ~/Desktop/bear-backup/   # Export everything with images

Integration

• Project tags auto-derived from your directory structure (~/my-project/ -> #my-project, ~/Projects/unbound/ -> #unbound)
• Stateless — no state files, so no conflicts with other skills

Data Locations

| Operation | Path | Description | |-----------|------|-------------| | Reads | ~/Library/Group Containers/9K33E3U3T4.net.shinyfrog.bear/Application Data/database.sqlite | Bear SQLite database (read-only) | | Reads | ~/Library/Group Containers/9K33E3U3T4.net.shinyfrog.bear/Application Data/Local Files/Note Images/ | Bear image assets | | N/A | Stateless tool | Stateless tool |

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: tylerjhayden
• Source: tylerjhayden/agent-toolkit
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.