jrnl-sync

Write jrnl.sh entries on iOS and sync anytime.

Using a Siri Shortcut, write entries in jrnl.sh format on your iOS device. The entires are appended to a plaintext file, which can be synced to your computer using iCloud Drive. It can then be synced to your main jrnl.sh journal using the provided shell script.

Usage

Add a new journal entry from iOS:

1. Open your text editing app of choice (I prefer Drafts).
2. Write your journal entry.
3. Open the share menu.
4. Share using the jrnl Siri Shortcut.

Sync your iOS entries with your main journal:

1. Open your shell.
2. Type jrnl-sync.
3. If there are journal entries to sync, it will sync them.

Installation

1. Make sure you have installed jrnl.sh.
2. Install and run the jrnl-sync script once (see below).
3. Install jrnl iOS Shortcut.

How to install jrnl-sync shell script

Copy and paste the following one-liner into your shell.

curl -LJO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lkdm/jrnl-sync/main/install.sh && bash install.sh; rm -f install.sh

Install jrnl Siri Shortcut

Make sure you can access the Siri Shortcut from the Share menu in iOS.

FAQ

Why use this instead of copy/pasting, emailing, airdropping from iOS?

This will preserve the date and time of the entry was written on iOS, rather than the date and time you performed the import. Huge improvement if you care about what time the entry was actually written.

What app do you recommend for writing entries on iOS?

I personally like to use Drafts.app to write entries, from which I can append them to a journal using the Share menu.

Can I run the script as part of a cron job/Launch Agent?

I have not tested it, but I don't see why not.

Why does it create then delete a @log entry in my diary

This is caused by jrnl.sh not respecting the first timestamp in a file, and prepending its own timestamp (time of import). To get around this, I create a dummy entry then delete it. The dummy entry has instructions on how to delete them, if the script fails to clean them up.