Peter Steinberger

Bear Notes

Peter SteinbergerΒ·Jan 4, 2026

Summary

TL;DR: Create, search, and manage Bear notes via grizzly CLI.

Bear Notes connects your AI agent to the Bear note-taking app on macOS through the grizzly CLI. Create notes, search your library, and manage your writing without switching to the Bear app.

Bear is popular with writers and developers for its clean Markdown interface and tagging system. This skill lets your agent tap into all of that. Search by tags, create formatted notes, and organize your library.

If Bear is your note app of choice, this skill makes it part of your AI workflow. Prefer Apple's built-in? Try Apple Notes instead. Capture thoughts, find old notes, and keep things organized from your conversation.

Use cases

  • Creating new Bear notes with Markdown formatting and tags
  • Searching your Bear library by keyword or tag
  • Organizing notes into categories using Bear's tagging system
  • Capturing meeting notes and ideas directly from your AI conversation

Installation

Run this command to install the skill on your OpenClaw agent:

Install with OpenClaw
npx clawhub@latest install bear-notes
Downloads
7.8k
Active installs
811
Stars
3
Updated
Jan 4, 2026

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OpenClawSuspiciousmedium confidence

The skill's instructions match its stated purpose (using grizzly to manage Bear notes) but its published metadata omits required binaries/install and environment details; installing the third‑party grizzly tool via `go` and storing a Bear token in a file are coherent for functionality but the metadata/instruction mismatches and install-from-GitHub raise moderate risk.

Purpose & Capability
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SKILL.md

SKILL.md
---
name: bear-notes
description: Create, search, and manage Bear notes via grizzly CLI.
homepage: https://bear.app
metadata: {"clawdbot":{"emoji":"🐻","os":["darwin"],"requires":{"bins":["grizzly"]},"install":[{"id":"go","kind":"go","module":"github.com/tylerwince/grizzly/cmd/grizzly@latest","bins":["grizzly"],"label":"Install grizzly (go)"}]}}
---

# Bear Notes

Use `grizzly` to create, read, and manage notes in Bear on macOS.

Requirements
- Bear app installed and running
- For some operations (add-text, tags, open-note --selected), a Bear app token (stored in `~/.config/grizzly/token`)

## Getting a Bear Token

For operations that require a token (add-text, tags, open-note --selected), you need an authentication token:
1. Open Bear β†’ Help β†’ API Token β†’ Copy Token
2. Save it: `echo "YOUR_TOKEN" > ~/.config/grizzly/token`

## Common Commands

Create a note
```bash
echo "Note content here" | grizzly create --title "My Note" --tag work
grizzly create --title "Quick Note" --tag inbox < /dev/null
```

Open/read a note by ID
```bash
grizzly open-note --id "NOTE_ID" --enable-callback --json
```

Append text to a note
```bash
echo "Additional content" | grizzly add-text --id "NOTE_ID" --mode append --token-file ~/.config/grizzly/token
```

List all tags
```bash
grizzly tags --enable-callback --json --token-file ~/.config/grizzly/token
```

Search notes (via open-tag)
```bash
grizzly open-tag --name "work" --enable-callback --json
```

## Options

Common flags:
- `--dry-run` β€” Preview the URL without executing
- `--print-url` β€” Show the x-callback-url
- `--enable-callback` β€” Wait for Bear's response (needed for reading data)
- `--json` β€” Output as JSON (when using callbacks)
- `--token-file PATH` β€” Path to Bear API token file

## Configuration

Grizzly reads config from (in priority order):
1. CLI flags
2. Environment variables (`GRIZZLY_TOKEN_FILE`, `GRIZZLY_CALLBACK_URL`, `GRIZZLY_TIMEOUT`)
3. `.grizzly.toml` in current directory
4. `~/.config/grizzly/config.toml`

Example `~/.config/grizzly/config.toml`:
```toml
token_file = "~/.config/grizzly/token"
callback_url = "http://127.0.0.1:42123/success"
timeout = "5s"
```

## Notes

- Bear must be running for commands to work
- Note IDs are Bear's internal identifiers (visible in note info or via callbacks)
- Use `--enable-callback` when you need to read data back from Bear
- Some operations require a valid token (add-text, tags, open-note --selected)

Version history

v1.0.0Latest
Jan 4, 2026

Frequently asked questions

It uses the grizzly CLI to interact with Bear. Check the grizzly documentation for compatibility with your version of Bear.

Installation method

Send this prompt to your agent to install the skill

npx clawhub@latest install bear-notes
Download ZIP

Skill info

Versionv1.0.0
AuthorPeter Steinberger
CategoryProductivity
UpdatedJan 4, 2026

Files

SKILL.md2.4 KB

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Skill data sourced from ClawHub