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WebF1 Pad

by WebF1
How To

WebF1 Pad from the command line

Open files from the terminal, forward to the running window, and use WebF1 Pad as your $EDITOR for git commits.

WebF1 Pad ships with a command-line interface. The webf1-pad binary opens notes from a terminal and can act as the editor for other tools, like codium or code do for VS Code.

Open a file

webf1-pad file.md

If WebF1 Pad is already running, the file opens as a new tab in the running window and the command gives your terminal back immediately. If it is not running, a new instance starts with the file open. Multiple files work too: webf1-pad a.md b.txt notes/.

Registered file associations mean double-clicking a .md or .txt file in your file manager does the same thing as the command above.

Options

  • --new, open a fresh empty note. Handy bound to a desktop shortcut as a keyboard-only quick-capture flow (see Quick capture).
  • --new-chat, open a new AI chat (requires AI chat to be enabled).
  • --fg, keep the process in the foreground instead of handing the file to a running instance and exiting. Useful when a script should wait or when you want to see the app’s stdout.
  • --wait --new-window, open the file(s) in a fresh window and block until you close it. This is what turns the pad into a general-purpose $EDITOR.

Use as $EDITOR (git commit messages and more)

Terminal tools that spawn an editor, git commit, crontab -e, fzf, interactive shell history, read the EDITOR environment variable. Point it at the pad:

export EDITOR="webf1-pad --wait --new-window"

Each invocation opens a fresh window with the file (e.g. COMMIT_EDITMSG) and blocks until you close the window; the caller then continues with the saved content. --wait is the essential part, without it the command would return before you typed anything.

Good to know

  • Everything goes through the single-instance mechanism: a second launch never opens a second main window unless --new-window is given.
  • Autosave applies to command-opened files just like any other tab, edits write back to the file as you type.
  • The webf1-pad binary is placed on PATH by the Linux packages (DEB, RPM) and the AppImage’s integration; on Windows it is available in the install directory.