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Get started with Timo

This guide will help you capture your first thought and explore Timo’s core features in under 2 minutes.
Make sure you’ve installed Timo before starting this guide

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Add your first thought

Let’s start by adding a thought to Timo:
1

Add a thought

Run the add command with your thought:
timo add "Research rate limiting strategies for the API"
Your thought is now stored locally in Timo’s SQLite database.
2

Add more thoughts

Add a few more thoughts to build your collection:
timo add "Review pull request #234"
timo add "Update documentation for auth flow"
timo add "Buy groceries after work"
3

View all thoughts

List all your captured thoughts:
timo list
You’ll see output like this:
[1]: Research rate limiting strategies for the API
[2]: Review pull request #234
[3]: Update documentation for auth flow
[4]: Buy groceries after work
Each thought gets a unique ID in brackets for easy reference.
Thoughts can be multiple words - just type naturally after timo add

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Search your thoughts

As your collection grows, search helps you find specific thoughts quickly:
1

Search by keyword

Find thoughts containing “API”:
timo search "API"
Output:
[1]: Research rate limiting strategies for the API
2

Search with multiple words

Search supports multi-word queries:
timo search "pull request"
Output:
[2]: Review pull request #234

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Organize with labels

Labels help you categorize thoughts by context:
1

Add thoughts with labels

Use the --label flag to organize thoughts:
timo add "Implement user authentication" --label "work"
timo add "Learn about Rust macros" --label "learning"
timo add "Call dentist for appointment" --label "personal"
2

Filter by label

View only thoughts with a specific label:
timo list --label "work"
Output shows only work-related thoughts:
[5]: Implement user authentication
3

Show labels in output

Display labels alongside thoughts:
timo list --show-labels
Output:
[1]: Research rate limiting strategies for the API
[2]: Review pull request #234
[3]: Update documentation for auth flow
[4]: Buy groceries after work
[5]: Implement user authentication  #work
[6]: Learn about Rust macros  #learning
[7]: Call dentist for appointment  #personal
Labels appear highlighted in yellow with a black background.
Use short label names like “work”, “personal”, “ideas” for quick typing

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Remove completed thoughts

Clean up thoughts you no longer need:
1

Remove by ID

Remove a single thought using its ID:
timo remove 4
Thought #4 is now deleted from your collection.
2

Remove multiple thoughts

Remove several thoughts at once:
timo remove 1 2 3
All specified thoughts are deleted in one command.

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Clear all thoughts

If you want to start fresh: 
timo clear --confirmed
This command deletes ALL thoughts permanently. There’s no undo. The --confirmed flag is required to prevent accidental deletion

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Common workflows

Here are some practical ways to use Timo:

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Daily task capture

# Morning: capture tasks for the day
timo add "Review code from yesterday" --label "work"
timo add "Debug authentication issue" --label "work"
timo add "Grocery shopping" --label "personal"

# During the day: check your list
timo list --label "work" --show-labels

# Evening: remove completed tasks
timo remove 1 2

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Research notes

# Capture interesting findings while researching
timo add "Redis supports pub/sub out of the box" --label "research"
timo add "Consider using rate limiting middleware" --label "research"

# Later: search your research notes
timo search "Redis" --label "research"

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Idea collection

# Save ideas as they come
timo add "Blog post about CLI design patterns" --label "ideas"
timo add "Build a TUI version of Timo" --label "ideas"

# Review all ideas
timo list --label "ideas" --show-labels

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Command reference

Here’s a quick reference of all commands:
CommandDescriptionExample
addAdd a new thoughttimo add "text" [--label "name"]
listShow all thoughtstimo list [--label "name"] [--show-labels]
searchFind thoughts by keywordtimo search "keyword" [--label "name"]
removeDelete thoughts by IDtimo remove <id1> <id2> ...
clearDelete all thoughtstimo clear --confirmed
All commands have short aliases: -l for --label and -s for --show-labels

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What’s next?

Command reference

Detailed documentation for all commands

Labels guide

Advanced label organization strategies

Tips and tricks

Power user tips and best practices

Configuration

Customize Timo for your workflow

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