Mull: note-taking with a language server / vscode extension

Mull 📖 Mull is a tool for managing a wiki stored in a plain text file. It has a Visual Studio Code / Cursor extension which provides syntax highlighting, hover previews, completions, diagnostics, formatting, refactoring, etc. A quick tour Pages and links A wiki is a text file with a .mull extension. It contains pages which link to each other, all in the same file. Here's a little wiki with 3 pages: # Home My go-to breakfast is [ Pancakes ] with fresh [ Lemons ] . # Lemons Great on [ Pancakes ] . # Pancakes - 1 cup of flour - 1 cup of milk - 1 egg - A squeeze of [ Lemons ] Each page starts with a # Title , followed by the contents of the page. To link to a page, use square brackets like [Lemons] . When you type the opening [ , autocomplete kicks in to help you find the page you're looking for. Every wiki starts with a Home page. Mull requires that every other page is reachable (directly or indirectly) by following links, starting from Home . This rule promotes a basic form of organization that doesn't involve any hierarchical structure. Pages serve the roles traditionally filled by files and directories. Mull formats the wiki when you save the file (default), or when you explicitly request it. It chooses the ordering of the pages in the file based on the links between them, so you don't have to think about it. Linking to pages is the only way to organize them. Linking to files and directories You can link to files like photos, spreadsheets, or anything else. Mull checks that the linked files actually exist, and you can preview them without leaving the editor. Files go in a directory next to the wiki named after the wiki, with the .mull extension replaced with _files . For example, if the wiki is my_wiki.mull , the files go in my_wiki_files . If you have a file called my_wiki_files/photos/beach.jpg , you can link it with [/photos/beach.jpg] . You can also link to directories like [/photos/] . Autocomplete helps you enter the names of files and directories when linking to them. You can also drag-and-drop (while holding the Shift key) or paste files directly into the editor. Just as every page must be reachable from Home , every file in _files (if it exists) must be linked to from the wiki. A link to a directory implicitly counts as linking to everything inside it. An empty directory needs a link of its own. Opening a portal to another page A portal is a window into another page. It holds a copy of the page's contents, and Mull keeps them in sync. For example, if you have a page called Pancakes , you can open a portal to it from another page like this: This is my favorite breakfast: ::: [ Pancakes ] ::: When the wiki is formatted (e.g., on save), that line will be expanded into a copy of the page: This is my favorite breakfast: ::: [ Pancakes ] - 1 cup of flour - 1 cup of milk - 1 egg - A squeeze of [ Lemons ] ::: You can edit the page or any of its portals, and formatting will propagate your edits to the rest. Extending Mull with scripts Suppose you have a list that you want to keep sorted: The contents of my pantry: - Garlic - Kosher salt - Miso - Olive oil - Rice Mull can help with this; you just have to teach it about sorting. Create a file called _files/scripts/sort.sh with the following contents: #! /bin/sh sort " $@ " Make it executable with chmod +x _files/scripts/sort.sh . Now you can put the list in a sort block: The contents of my pantry: ::: sort - Garlic - Kosher salt - Miso - Olive oil - Rice ::: Mull will then sort the list automatically whenever the wiki is formatted (e.g., on save). That sorting script accepts arguments, so you can, for example, sort in reverse order with ::: sort -r . Using a script in a block counts as linking to it, so it doesn't need to be linked to from the wiki like other files in _files . An unused script still needs a link (e.g., [/scripts/sort.sh] ) somewhere in the wiki. Escaping and code To use a special symbol like [ or ] literally, put a backslash before it, like [ . You can also use backticks to denote verbatim text like this , as in Markdown. Fenced code blocks are supported too, with syntax highlighting for common languages. # Home I'm learning Python, currently working on a [ Dice game ] . # Dice game python import random for turn in range ( 3 ): roll = random.randint( 1 , 6 ) print ( f " Roll { turn + 1 } : { roll } " ) print ( " Thanks for playing! " ) No escaping is necessary inside page titles or code. Keyboard shortcuts These common keyboard shortcuts are helpful when navigating and editing a wiki: Action macOS Windows Jump to a page from a link F12 or Command + click F12 or Control + click Jump to links to a page (i.e., backlinks) Shift + F12 Shift + F12 Jump back to the previously visited page Command + [ Alt + Left Jump forward to the next visited page Command + ] Alt + Right Jump to the start of the current page Command + Up Control + Home Jump to the end of the current page Command + Down Control + End Jump to the next error F8 F8 Jump to the previous error Shift + F8 Shift + F8 Find a page Command + Shift + O Control + Shift + O Code actions (e.g., create a missing page) Command + . Control + . Rename a page F2 F2 Format the wiki Shift + Option + F Shift + Alt + F Most of these keyboard shortcuts are standard in Visual Studio Code and Cursor, so they may be familiar to you already. You can remap them. Usage Once Mull is installed for Visual Studio Code or Cursor, you can run it by opening a .mull file in the editor. You can also run Mull from the command line (e.g., in a CI job) as follows: mull check --path wiki.mull Here are the supported command-line options: Usage: mull [COMMAND] Commands: check Check that a wiki is valid and formatted, with its scripts run format Format a wiki, running its scripts (default) page Print the content of a page in a wiki language-server Start the language server (editors use this) help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s) Options: -v, --version Print version -h, --help Print help Installation instructions To use Mull, you must install the binary and optionally the Visual Studio Code / Cursor extension. The binary does all the work and can be used by itself from the command line. The IDE extensions use the binary to provide a rich wiki editing experience. Installation on macOS or Linux (AArch64 or x86-64) If you're running macOS or Linux (AArch64 or x86-64), you can install Mull with this command: curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stepchowfun/mull/main/install.sh -LSfs | sh It first installs the binary, then it installs the extension for Visual Studio Code and/or Cursor. The same command can be used again to update to the latest version. The installation script supports the following optional environment variables: VERSION=x.y.z (defaults to the latest version) PREFIX=/path/to/install (defaults to /usr/local/bin ) For example, the following will install the binary into the working directory: curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stepchowfun/mull/main/install.sh -LSfs | PREFIX=. sh Note that if you change the installation path, you may also need to change the mull.executablePath accordingly in Visual Studio Code or Cursor. If you prefer not to use this installation method, you can download the binary from the latest release , make it executable (e.g., with chmod ), and place it in some directory in your PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin ). You can then follow the instructions below to install the Visual Studio Code / Cursor extension. Installing the binary on Windows (AArch64 or x86-64) If you're running Windows (AArch64 or x86-64), download the binary from the latest release and rename it to mull (or mull.exe if you have file extensions visible). Create a directory called Mull in your %PROGRAMFILES% directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\Mull ), and place the renamed binary in there. Then, in the "Advanced" tab of the "System Properties" section of Control Panel, click on "Environment Variables..." and add the full path to the new Mull directory to the PATH variable under "System variables". Note that the Program Files directory might have a different name if Windows is configured for a language other than English. To update an existing installation, simply replace the existing binary. Installing the binary with Cargo If you have Cargo , you can install Mull as follows: cargo install mull You can run that command with --force to update an existing installation. Installing the Visual Studio Code / Cursor extension First, make sure you have Visual Studio Code or Cursor installed. To install the Mull extension, download the mull.vsix file from the latest release and install it via the "Install from VSIX..." option in the ... menu at the top of the Extensions view of the Primary Side Bar. Note that the macOS / Linux installation command will install the extension automatically, so you can skip this section if you use that installation method. To update an existing installation, simply re-install it.

Source: https://github.com/stepchowfun/mull