Automates note creation in Joplin

on August 16, 2025

Taking notes is essential for productivity, but doing it manually every time can become repetitive and distracting. As a developer, I often wanted a way to automatically create notes in Joplin — whether triggered from a script, a workflow, or even during my coding sessions.

That’s why I built a small project called joplin-api: a Symfony PHP application that connects to the Joplin Web Clipper API and lets you create notes and tasks directly from the command line.

Why Automate Notes?

If you’re like me, you probably use Joplin for:

• Quick notes during work sessions

• Task management with to-do lists

• Centralized documentation

The problem: every time you want to capture something, you need to switch apps and type it in manually. That’s friction.

Automation solves this by letting you pipe information directly into Joplin — no manual copy-paste, no context switching.

The joplin-api Project

👉 GitHub repo: matyo91/joplin-api

This project is built with Symfony (PHP) and interacts with the Joplin Web Clipper API.

Key Features

📄 Create notes automatically from CLI or scripts.
✅ Add todos/tasks with due dates and status.
🎨 Use templates for different project types.
🔗 Integrate into your automation workflows (cron jobs, CI/CD, shell scripts, etc.).

How It Works

1. Enable the Joplin Web Clipper API
   In Joplin, go to Tools → Options → Web Clipper and activate the service.
   You’ll get a port (default: 41184) and an API token.

2. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/matyo91/joplin-api.git
   cd joplin-api
   composer install
   

3. Configure your environment
   Create a .env file with your Joplin API token and server URL:

   JOPLIN_TOKEN=your-api-token-here
   JOPLIN_SERVER=http://127.0.0.1:41184
   

4. Run your first note

   php bin/console joplin:create-note "My automated note" --body="This note was created via CLI"
   

5. Use templates
   You can create structured templates (for example, a project checklist or daily log) and call them via command:

   php bin/console joplin:create-note "Daily Log" --template=daily
   

Real Use Cases

Here are some examples where automation saves me time:

• Automatically generate a daily work log at the start of the day.

• Pipe Git commit messages or deployment logs into Joplin for documentation.

• Create a meeting notes template every time a calendar event starts.

• Hook it into Uniflow, Make, or n8n to integrate with other apps.

Why This Matters

The beauty of automation is not just saving a few seconds — it’s about removing mental friction.
When everything you need is captured seamlessly in Joplin, you can focus on the actual work instead of worrying about documentation.

As a developer, I’ve found that having structured, automated notes gives me:

• Better project organization

• A reliable history of decisions

• More mental clarity

Conclusion

Joplin is already a fantastic open-source note-taking app. With a little automation, it becomes a personal knowledge system that updates itself.

If you want to try it, check out the repo here:
👉 github.com/matyo91/joplin-api

🎁 I offer free 30-minute coaching sessions to help creators like you automate your processes and save time ⏱️

👉 Book your free session here: https://www.bonzai.pro/matyo91/lp/4471/je-taide-a-automatiser-tes-process

Thanks for reading! Let’s build smart, fast, and automated workflows together 💻⚡

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