henning
844d2e716f
Adds a command-line client in cli/ as its own Cargo workspace, depending on the outline library via a path dependency. Covers exactly the requested scope: login (stores the API key in the system keyring via the Secret Service D-Bus protocol, verified against auth.info() before storing), search (full-text), and get (fetch a document, render its markdown to a self-contained HTML page, open it in the default browser). Verified end-to-end against a real Outline instance and the local gnome-keyring: login stores and search/get retrieve the token purely from the keyring and saved config, with no environment variables set.
outline-cli
A command-line client for Outline, built on the
outline library. Search documents and open them locally,
rendered from markdown to HTML, in your default browser.
This is a separate Cargo workspace from the library (its own Cargo.lock),
depending on it via a path dependency.
Install / build
cargo build --release
# binary at target/release/outline
Usage
# Store an API key (created under Outline Settings → API & Apps) in the
# system keyring (GNOME Keyring / KWallet via the Secret Service D-Bus API).
outline login
# Full-text search
outline search "onboarding"
# Fetch a document by id, urlId, or a pasted document URL — renders its
# markdown to HTML and opens it in your default browser.
outline get hDYep1TPAM
For a self-hosted instance:
outline --base-url https://wiki.example.com login
The instance URL is remembered (in ~/.config/outline-cli/config.toml) after
login, so it doesn't need to be repeated on every command.
Configuration
| Source | Purpose | Precedence |
|---|---|---|
--base-url / $OUTLINE_URL |
Outline instance | 1 (highest) |
~/.config/outline-cli/config.toml |
saved instance URL (written by login) |
2 |
| Outline Cloud default | fallback | 3 |
--api-key / $OUTLINE_API_KEY |
API key | 1 |
| system keyring (Secret Service) | saved API key, per instance (written by login) |
2 |
The API key is never written to the config file — it lives exclusively in the system keyring, looked up by the resolved instance URL.
Rendered documents are cached in ~/.cache/outline-cli/ (mode 0600, not
/tmp, since documents may be confidential).
Requirements
A running Secret Service
provider (GNOME Keyring or KWallet) is required for outline login / for
search/get to find a stored key. On headless systems, skip the keyring
entirely and pass --api-key or set $OUTLINE_API_KEY instead.
Status
Minimal first version: login, search, get. No logout, no rate-limit
retries, no export/attachment handling — see the library's own README for
the broader API coverage roadmap.