Use RIFT from the terminal

The RIFT Notes Mac app comes with a command-line tool called rift. Anything you do with it shows up in the app and syncs to your other devices.

Install

The tool ships inside the Mac app. Link it onto your PATH once:

sudo ln -s "/Applications/RIFT.app/Contents/MacOS/rift-cli" /usr/local/bin/rift

The same command, with a copy button, is in RIFT’s Settings → Command-Line Tool.

Run rift on its own to see the commands and your five most recent notes.

Commands

Command	What it does
rift add <text>	Create a note
rift list	List recent notes
rift search <query>	Search notes
rift show <id>	Print a note
rift info <id>	Dates, tags, location, attachments
rift edit <id> <text>	Append to a note (or --prepend, --replace)
rift color <id> <name>	Set or clear a note’s color
rift delete <id>	Move a note to the trash
rift open [<id>]	Open the app, optionally to a note

Notes are referred to by the last five characters of their id, which rift list shows.

rift add buy milk tomorrow
rift add Call the dentist --tag health
rift search "garage code"
rift edit 9c4e2 "one more line"
pbpaste | rift add

If your text has #, !, or other shell characters, wrap it in single quotes: rift add 'done! #todo'.

Use it with an agent

When rift is piped or run by a script, it prints JSON. That makes it easy to hand to Claude, Codex, or any other agent.

RIFT also includes a skill file that teaches an agent how to use it:

# Claude Code
rift skill --install

# Codex and other agents
rift skill >> AGENTS.md

Troubleshooting

• “Can’t reach the RIFT Notes app group container”: the link points at the wrong file. Re-run the install command above.
• “Timed out waiting for RIFT Notes to respond”: open RIFT Notes once by hand, then try again.