Search Notes.app with Alfred

Search titles or create a new note if none was found

Search note titles and bodies

Search folder names

Result actions

• enter to open the note/folder or create a new note if none was found
• shift+enter to search for your Alfred query using the Notes in-app search
• cmd+enter to copy the note body to the clipboard
• alt+enter to copy a link to the note to the clipboard

Note linking

You can generate links to any of your notes and use them on macOS or iOS. Copy the note URL by pressing alt+enter on an Alfred result or paste it using the snippet. This will generate two links. The first one works on macOS Big Sur (11) and newer, and the second one works on iOS.

Install

Download the latest version of the workflow. Alfred version 4 is required.

Required setup

1. Try searching for a note
2. If a warning dialog appears (see image below), click "Cancel" rather than "Move to Trash". Then open System Preferences > Security & Privacy and click the "Open Anyway" button near the bottom
3. Approve additional requests for permission as they appear
4. If there are any other issues, make sure each of the required permissions, if present, is enabled

Required permissions

If you get a permission-related error, especially after installing updates to macOS, try disabling and re-enabling these permissions.

Troubleshooting

Try disabling and re-enabling the above permissions. If that doesn't work, also try restarting Alfred or restarting your computer.

Email notes are not supported

This workflow doesn't support notes stored with Google or other internet accounts. Please make sure either iCloud or On My Mac is selected as the default account in the preferences of Notes.app.

Customize search behavior

Result ordering and title+folder search behavior can be controlled using the environment variables.

Updates

By default, the workflow checks Github for updates every 24 hours. This can be disabled by removing the connections to the "Check for updates" block in the workflow.

Compile

If you want to compile the binary yourself, you can go into the "search_notes" folder and do make.

Contributors

Big thanks to...

• All who have submitted pull requests
• drgrib for allowing me to build off the alfred-bear workflow
• threeplanetssoftware for the apple_cloud_notes_parser from which I copied the protobuf handling
• lslz627 for help with protobuf and tables
• Artem Chistyakov for a much improved way to create links to notes

Donate

If you enjoy using this workflow, consider donating!