Buku Bookmark Manager Skill

Buku is a powerful command-line bookmark manager that lets you search, organize, import, and export bookmarks with full-text search, tagging, and browser integration.

What You Can Do With Buku

• Search & Organize: Quick bookmark addition with full-text search and regex, flexible tag operators for organization
• Import & Export: Auto-import from Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Chromium; export to HTML, XBEL, Markdown, Orgfile, RSS, or new database
• Bulk Operations: Update bookmarks, rename tags across collections, filter and manage entire bookmark sets
• Browser Integration & Backup: Launch bookmarks from CLI, automated database backups with versioning

When to Use This Skill

Load this skill when:

• User wants to add, search, or manage bookmarks from the command line
• User needs to organize bookmarks with tags
• User wants to import bookmarks from a web browser
• User needs to export bookmarks for backup or migration
• User encounters errors or needs database recovery assistance
• User is troubleshooting buku-related issues

Recovery & Safety

Buku is designed for safe bookmark management with built-in protections:

• Database Locking: If you encounter "Database is locked" errors, close your browser and retry. See references/troubleshooting.md#error-database-is-locked for detailed recovery steps.

• Import Safety: Duplicate detection prevents accidental overwrites on re-import. New bookmarks are always added safely. See references/troubleshooting.md#error-bookmark-already-exists for import strategies.

• Bulk Operations: Always backup before performing large tag updates or deletions. Use scripts/backup-bookmarks.sh for automated backups. See references/troubleshooting.md#prevention-tips for best practices.

Quick Start

1. Set your editor (for bookmark editing):

   export EDITOR=vim  # or nano, gedit, macvim, etc.
   

2. Create your first bookmark:

   buku -a https://example.com "Example Site" "useful" "reference"
   

3. Search your bookmarks:

   buku -s example
   

4. View all bookmarks:

   buku -p
   

5. Troubleshoot if EDITOR won't open:

   If running buku -w BOOKMARK_ID fails with "EDITOR not set", quickly fix:

   export EDITOR=vim  # or nano, gedit, code --wait
   buku -w 1          # Now should open in editor
   

   For detailed editor setup and other troubleshooting: See references/troubleshooting.md

Automation & Non-Interactive Usage

When using buku in scripts, automation, or from AI agents, use the --nostdin flag to prevent stdin-related warnings and ensure clean, non-interactive execution.

When to Use --nostdin

• Scripts and automation: Shell scripts, cron jobs, CI/CD pipelines
• AI agents: When AI assistants run buku commands programmatically
• Batch operations: Processing multiple bookmarks without user interaction
• Piped commands: When chaining buku with other command-line tools

Common Commands with --nostdin

Add a bookmark:

buku --nostdin --add https://example.com --tag "dev,tools" --title "Example"

Update bookmark tags:

buku --nostdin --update 5 --tag ">>important"

Import bookmarks:

buku --nostdin --import bookmarks.html

Export bookmarks:

buku --nostdin --export backup.html --format html

Search and list:

buku --nostdin --sany python
buku --nostdin --print

Why --nostdin Matters

Without --nostdin, buku may display warnings like:

buku: waiting for input (unexpected? try --nostdin)

These warnings don't prevent operation but create noise in logs and output. Using --nostdin ensures clean, predictable behavior in automated contexts.

For interactive usage (manual command-line work), omit --nostdin to allow normal stdin behavior. See references/daily-workflows.md for more examples.

Documentation Guide

Choose the reference that matches your need:

Getting Started

references/getting-started.md - First time with buku? Start here for installation verification, EDITOR setup, and your first bookmark.

Daily Workflows

references/daily-workflows.md - Common daily tasks: adding bookmarks, searching, updating, deleting, opening in browser, copying URLs.

Organize with Tags

references/organize-bookmarks.md - Tagging strategies, tag operators, tag search, renaming tags, and organization best practices.

Import & Export

references/migrate-bookmarks.md - Importing from browsers, manual imports, exporting to different formats, backups, and merging bookmarks.

Troubleshooting

references/troubleshooting.md - Common errors, EDITOR issues, database locking, and recovery strategies.

Production Scripts

Pre-built scripts for common workflows:

• scripts/bulk-update-tags.sh - Update tags on multiple bookmarks
• scripts/backup-bookmarks.sh - Automated backups with multiple formats
• scripts/browser-import-workflow.sh - Safe browser import with checks

Learn More

• Official Docs: https://buku.readthedocs.io/
• GitHub: https://github.com/jarun/buku
• Database Location: ~/.local/share/buku/bookmarks.db or $XDG_DATA_HOME/buku/bookmarks.db