mdhowle

Mine is even simpler.

  journal                     # opens 2026-03-07.md in vim
  journal yesterday           # opens 2026-03-06.md in vim
  journal weekly              # pipes 2026-03-01 – 07.md into vim
  journal monthly             # pipes 2026-03-01 – 31.md into vim
  journal monthly last month  # pipes 2026-02-01 – 28.md into vim

I added support for other editors. For the editors that don't support stdin, it creates a temporary file for the generated pages ("weekly", "monthly", etc.)

It fits my needs perfectly. It removes the friction of note taking. It's easy to backup, search, convert the notes. If I want to use another editor like a WYSIWYG markdown editor, it's trivial to change.

This seems overly complicated. Let the editors be editors.

I recently created a Go application for myself after not finding a note-taking application I liked. Instead of implementing an editor, the application just creates the `%Y-%m-%d.md` file and then opens it in my preferred editor. I have other features, but in the end, all it does is create files or pipe data into the editor I want to use.

I haven't encountered any major drawbacks. The reporting is a bit lacking. ActualBudget has simple Net Worth and Cash Flow charts.

Other than that, it has all the features of YNAB4 I can recall.

I have been using the self-hosted ActualBudget for ~6 months and found it mostly perfect. The mobile version of the site is not complete but it's at least usable for managing transactions. The only drawback is no user accounts, but you can have multiple budgets.

I was originally on YNAB4, and then financier.io for ~2 years.

The MODE variable in the Makefile is undefined by default so "o/$(MODE)/" becomes "o//"