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Overview

The dex notes command manages markdown-based editorial posts for Dex Notes, including creation, editing, building, and publishing.

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Usage

dex notes <list|add|edit|set|build|validate|publish> [args]

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Subcommands

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List

List all markdown posts with metadata. 
dex notes list
Output shows slug, published date, and title for each post.

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Add

Create a new notes post draft. 
dex notes add [--title ... --slug ...]
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--title
string
Post title
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--slug
string
URL-friendly slug for the post
This command creates a new markdown file with JSON frontmatter in the notes content directory.

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Edit

Edit a notes post in your default editor. 
dex notes edit --slug <slug>
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--slug
string
required
Slug of the post to edit
Uses $VISUAL or $EDITOR environment variable to determine which editor to launch.
The updated_at_iso field is automatically updated when you save.

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Set

Set a specific frontmatter field value. 
dex notes set --slug <slug> --field <frontmatter-key> --value <value> [--json]
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--slug
string
required
Slug of the post to update
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--field
string
required
Frontmatter field name to set
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--value
string
required
New value for the field
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--json
boolean
Parse value as JSON instead of plain string
Allowed fields include all required frontmatter keys plus any custom fields in the existing frontmatter.

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Build

Build the notes bundle from markdown sources. 
dex notes build
This command:
  • Processes all markdown posts
  • Generates HTML from markdown content
  • Builds the notes bundle for deployment

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Validate

Validate notes integrity and schema compliance. 
dex notes validate
Validation checks:
  • Frontmatter schema compliance
  • Required fields present
  • Content integrity

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Publish

Complete publish pipeline: build, sync, and validate. 
dex notes publish
This command runs:
  1. dex notes build - Build notes bundle
  2. Sync runtime CSS
  3. dex notes validate - Verify integrity
Use publish for production deployments to ensure all steps complete successfully.

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Examples

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Create a new post

dex notes add --title "Introducing Season 3" --slug "season-3-announcement"

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Edit a post

dex notes edit --slug "season-3-announcement"

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Update post metadata

dex notes set --slug "season-3-announcement" --field "published_at_iso" --value "2026-03-01T12:00:00.000Z"

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Build and validate

dex notes build
dex notes validate

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Full publish workflow

dex notes publish

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Frontmatter Structure

Notes posts use JSON frontmatter with these required fields: 
{
  "slug": "post-slug",
  "title_raw": "Post Title",
  "published_at_iso": "2026-03-01T12:00:00.000Z",
  "updated_at_iso": "2026-03-07T10:30:00.000Z"
}
Additional custom fields can be added as needed.

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Workflow

1

Create draft

Use dex notes add to create a new post with frontmatter
2

Write content

Edit the markdown file using dex notes edit --slug <slug>
3

Update metadata

Set publication date and other fields using dex notes set
4

Build and validate

Run dex notes build and dex notes validate to check for issues
5

Publish

Deploy using dex notes publish to complete the full pipeline

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See Also

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