Getting started

Installation

The easiest way to install jrnl is using pipx with Python 3.10+:

pipx install jrnl

The first time you run jrnl you will be asked where your journal file should be created and whether you wish to encrypt it.

Quickstart

To make a new entry, just type

jrnl yesterday: Called in sick. Used the time to clean, and spent 4h on writing my book.

and hit return. yesterday: will be interpreted as a time stamp. Everything until the first sentence mark (.?!:) will be interpreted as the title, the rest as the body. In your journal file, the result will look like this:

2012-03-29 09:00 Called in sick.
Used the time to clean the house and spent 4h on writing my book.

If you just call jrnl, you will be prompted to compose your entry - but you can also configure jrnl to use your external editor.