draftscript

An interactive CLI tool to manage your Drafts macOS app drafts from the terminal. Use it as a one-shot command or drop into interactive REPL mode with arrow-key navigation, tab completion, and AI-powered semantic search via Ollama.

Features

• Interactive REPL — full terminal UI with history, tab completion, and list navigation
• Compose mode — write or paste multi-line drafts, end with /end to save
• Recent browser — browse recent current-workspace drafts, or edit them with /recent --edit
• Todo mode — navigate and update a pinned Drafts todo draft from the REPL
• Create drafts from arguments, piped stdin, or compose mode
• List drafts with filters (folder, flagged, text search)
• Get a draft's full content by UUID
• Search drafts by text content with selectable results
• AISearch — semantic search via a local LLM, browse results with arrow keys
• Run any Drafts action on a draft
• Set tags, toggle flags, move between folders
• View mode — scroll through full draft content, Esc back to results

Requirements

• macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel)
• Drafts app installed (Mac App Store)
• Swift 5.9+ (included with Xcode or Command Line Tools)
• Ollama (optional, for aisearch)

Installation

git clone <this-repo> ~/DraftScript
cd ~/DraftScript
swift build -c release
cp .build/release/draftscript ~/.local/bin/

Ensure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

One-Time Permission

Before draftscript can communicate with Drafts, grant AppleScript permission:

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation
2. Click + and add your terminal app (Terminal, iTerm2, Warp, etc.)
3. Check the box next to Drafts
4. Run any command (e.g. draftscript list) to verify

Quick Start

# Launch the interactive REPL
draftscript

# Or use one-shot commands directly
draftscript create "Buy groceries"
draftscript list --limit 10
draftscript search "meeting notes"
draftscript current

Interactive REPL

Running draftscript with no arguments enters the interactive REPL — a terminal UI with a prompt, command history, tab completion, and navigable lists.

$ draftscript
DraftScript interactive. Type /help for commands. /exit or ^C to quit.

> /new --tags work
── Compose your draft (type /end on a blank line to save, /cancel to abort) ──
Meeting notes from today:
- Q3 roadmap discussed
- Budget approved
/end
Created: A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4

> /aisearch "design ideas"
Fetching drafts... 50 found.
Querying LLM (gemma4:e2b)...
[LLM response with relevant results]

── All drafts (↑/↓ select, Enter view, q back) ──
  a1b2c3d4  some ideas about the new feature...
→ e5f6g7h8  meeting notes from last week...
  i9j0k1l2  design brainstorm session...

Slash Commands

Command	Description
/new [--tags <t>] [--flag]	Enter compose mode, type/paste content, end with /end
/edit	Select one of the 10 most recently modified drafts, edit it, and save with /end
/recent [--limit <n>] [--edit]	Browse recent drafts, or edit with --edit
/todo	Open the pinned todo draft, move with ↑/↓, toggle with Space/←/→, edit with Enter
/todo --change [uuid]	Set a different Drafts draft as the pinned todo list
/list [--tag <t>] [--folder <f>] [--flagged] [--search <q>] [--limit <n>]	List drafts
/search <q> [--folder <f>] [--limit <n>]	Search drafts, results are selectable
/aisearch <q> [--limit <n>]	AI-powered semantic search, browse results
/get <uuid>	Show a draft's full content
/current	Show the draft currently open in the editor
/action <name> [--uuid <uuid>]	Run a Drafts action
/tag <uuid> <tag> ...	Set tags on a draft
/flag <uuid> [--unflag]	Toggle flagged state
/folder <uuid> <inbox|archive|trash>	Move a draft to a folder
/help	Show all commands
/exit	Quit the REPL

Composing a Draft

> /new
── Compose (type /end on a blank line to save, /cancel to abort) ──
Your multi-line draft content here.
You can paste or type freely.
/end
Created: A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4

Options like --tags work,urgent --flag can be added on the /new line.

Editing a Draft

> /edit
── Edit recent drafts (↑/↓ select, Enter edit, q back) ──
→ A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4  First line of the draft

Select a recently modified draft with the arrow keys and press Enter. The draft opens in an editable buffer. Use arrow keys to move, Enter to insert lines, and type /end on its own line to overwrite the draft and return to the REPL. Use /cancel, Escape, or Ctrl-C to abort.

Recent Drafts

/recent shows the 10 most recent drafts from the current Drafts workspace. Use the arrow keys to select a draft and press Enter to view its full content. While viewing, press / to open that draft in the editor, or Escape to return to the recent list.

Use /recent --limit 5 to change the count, or /recent --edit to open the selected draft in the same editable buffer used by /edit.

Todo List

/todo opens a pinned Drafts draft as a line-by-line todo list. The default todo draft is 399FDE34, but you can change it from the REPL:

> /todo --change 399FDE34-ABCD-1234-ABCD-1234567890AB

You can also run /todo --change with no UUID and enter the new Drafts ID when prompted. DraftScript validates the draft, resolves short UUID prefixes to the full UUID when possible, and saves the selection in ~/.draftscript_todo_uuid for future sessions.

In todo mode, use ↑/↓ to select a line, Space or ←/→ to toggle Markdown checkbox state, and Enter to edit the selected line. Changes are saved back to the same draft immediately.

Navigating Results

When search or aisearch returns multiple results, a navigable list appears:

• ↑/↓ — move selection
• Enter — view the full draft (scroll with ↑/↓, Esc to go back)
• q — exit the list and return to the prompt

Tab Completion

Press Tab to auto-complete command names. Multiple matches show all possibilities.

One-Shot CLI Commands

All commands also work directly from the shell for scripting or quick use:

create

draftscript create [<text>] [--tags <tags>] [--folder <folder>] [--flag]

Argument/Option	Description
text	Draft content. Omit to pipe from stdin.
--tags	Comma-separated tags (e.g. work,urgent)
--folder	Target folder: inbox, archive, or trash
--flag	Flag the draft

Examples:

draftscript create "Meeting at 3pm" --tags work --flag
echo "Piped note" | draftscript create

list

draftscript list [--tag <tag>] [--folder <folder>] [--flagged] [--search <query>] [--limit <n>]

Option	Description
--tag	Filter by tag
--folder	Filter by folder (inbox, archive, trash)
--flagged	Show only flagged drafts
--search	Filter by text in content
--limit	Max results (default: 50)

Example:

draftscript list --folder inbox --flagged --limit 20

get

draftscript get <uuid>

Example:

draftscript get A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4

current

Show the draft currently open in the editor.

draftscript current

search

draftscript search <query> [--folder <folder>] [--limit <n>]

Example:

draftscript search "project alpha" --folder inbox --limit 5

aisearch

Semantic search using a local LLM via Ollama. Drafts are sent to the model for relevance ranking.

draftscript aisearch <query> [--limit <n>] [--verbose]

Option	Description
--limit	Number of recent drafts to consider (default: 50)
--verbose	Show all drafts before the LLM response

Example:

draftscript aisearch "ideas about the new feature" --limit 30

action

Run a Drafts action on a draft.

draftscript action <name> [--uuid <uuid>]

Argument/Option	Description
name	Name of the action (e.g. "Copy", "Archive")
--uuid	Target draft UUID (defaults to current draft)

Example:

draftscript action "Archive" --uuid A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4

tag

Set tags on a draft (replaces all existing tags).

draftscript tag <uuid> <tag> [<tag> ...]

Example:

draftscript tag A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4 work urgent

flag

Toggle the flagged state of a draft.

draftscript flag <uuid> [--unflag]

Example:

draftscript flag A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4
draftscript flag A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4 --unflag

folder

Move a draft to a different folder.

draftscript folder <uuid> <inbox|archive|trash>

Example:

draftscript folder A2A1F93B-25D4-416B-9B5F-3D192DBE6AA4 archive

AI Search Setup

1. Install Ollama:

   brew install ollama

2. Start the Ollama service:

   ollama serve

3. Pull a Gemma 4 model:

   ollama pull gemma4

4. Run a search:

   draftscript aisearch "what did I write about design?" --limit 30

The tool auto-detects whether Ollama is running and falls back gracefully if it isn't.

Pipe Support

Any command that accepts text as an argument also reads from stdin:

curl -s https://example.com/notes.txt | draftscript create --tags imported

Examples

# Launch the interactive REPL
draftscript

# In the REPL: compose a new draft
> /new --tags work

# In the REPL: AI search and browse results
> /aisearch "vacation planning"

# One-shot: capture a quick thought
draftscript create "Remember to file taxes by April 15"

# One-shot: find everything in the archive with "report"
draftscript search report --folder archive

# Flag the current draft and move it to the inbox
draftscript flag $(draftscript current | head -1 | awk '{print $2}')
draftscript folder $(draftscript current | head -1 | awk '{print $2}') inbox

Project Layout

DraftScript/
├── Package.swift                     # Swift Package Manager manifest
├── Sources/
│   └── draftscript/
│       ├── CLI.swift                 # @main entry point, command configuration
│       ├── Commands.swift            # One-shot subcommand implementations
│       ├── DraftsBridge.swift        # AppleScript execution layer
│       ├── LLMService.swift          # Ollama API client for AI search
│       └── Interactive.swift         # Interactive REPL, list navigator, compose mode
└── README.md

License

MIT