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Environment variables

This page documents the environment variables noteui reads.

NOTES_ROOT

Overrides the default notes directory. When set, this bypasses configured workspace profiles for that session and disables in-app workspace switching.

Default:

$HOME/notes

Use this when:

  • your notes live somewhere else
  • you want separate note collections
  • you are testing noteui against a temporary notes tree

NOTEUI_CONFIG

Points noteui at a specific config file path.

Use this when:

  • you want to keep config outside the default config directory
  • you maintain multiple noteui setups
  • you want per-project config behavior

NOTEUI_EDITOR

Overrides the editor used to open notes.

Resolution order is:

  1. NOTEUI_EDITOR
  2. EDITOR
  3. nvim

XDG_STATE_HOME

Changes the location of the noteui state file.

Default state path:

$HOME/.local/state/noteui/state.json

XDG_DATA_HOME

Influences the user trash location used when deleting notes or categories.

This matters because noteui deletes into trash rather than immediately hard-deleting content.

Example shell setup

export NOTES_ROOT="$HOME/my-notes"
export NOTEUI_EDITOR="nvim"
export NOTEUI_CONFIG="$HOME/.config/noteui/config.toml"

$env:NOTES_ROOT = "$HOME\my-notes"
$env:NOTEUI_EDITOR = "nvim"
$env:NOTEUI_CONFIG = "$HOME\.config\noteui\config.toml"