---
name: using-silverbullet
description: Manages notes in SilverBullet/SB via the CLI and Space Lua. Use when the user mentions notes, SilverBullet, pages, journal, tasks in their space, or asks to search/read/write/edit notes.
license: GPL-3.0-or-later
metadata:
  author: Amolith <amolith@secluded.site>
---

SilverBullet is a self-hosted Markdown note-taking app with a Lua scripting layer. Do not write top-level `# Titles`; SilverBullet puts the page title at the top of the page and `Title\n\n# Title` is redundant.

# CLI

`silverbullet-cli` executes Lua _on_ the remote SilverBullet instance in one of two modes:

- `lua '<expr>'` — single expression, prints its return value
- `lua-script` — multi-statement script from file or stdin; use `return` for output (`print` is swallowed)

```bash
# expression
silverbullet-cli lua 'space.readPage("index")'

# multi-statement via stdin
echo '
local text = space.readPage("index")
text = string.gsub(text, "old", "new")
space.writePage("index", text)
return "done"
' | silverbullet-cli lua-script
```

# Editing pages with plainReplace

`string.gsub` treats the search string as a **Lua pattern**, not plain text. Characters like `-`, `.`, `%`, and so on are magic and silently break replacements. **Always use the `plainReplace` helper** instead of raw `string.gsub` for find/replace on page content:

```lua
function plainReplace(str, old, new, n)
  old = old:gsub("[%^%$%(%)%%%.%[%]%*%+%-%?]", "%%%0")
  new = new:gsub("%%", "%%%%")
  if n == nil then
    return str:gsub(old, new)
  else
    return str:gsub(old, new, n)
  end
end
```

Usage: `plainReplace(text, "arm64-v8a", "x86_64", 1)`

# Operations

```bash
# search (full-text, returns JSON with excerpts/scores/offsets)
silverbullet-cli lua 'silversearch.search("query", {silent=true})'

# read
silverbullet-cli lua 'space.readPage("PageName")'
silverbullet-cli lua 'space.getPageMeta("PageName")'

# query the object index (Lua Integrated Query)
silverbullet-cli lua 'query[[from p = index.tag "page" order by p.lastModified desc limit 10 select p.name]]'

# find pages that link to a specific page
silverbullet-cli lua 'query[[from l = index.tag "link" where l.toPage == "TargetPage" select l.fromPage]]'

# write / create
silverbullet-cli lua 'space.writePage("PageName", "# Title\nContent")'

# delete
silverbullet-cli lua 'space.deletePage("PageName")'

# edit one-liner
silverbullet-cli lua 'space.writePage("Page", plainReplace(space.readPage("Page"), "typo", "fixed"))'

# multiple replacements
echo '
local function plainReplace(str, old, new, n)
  old = old:gsub("[%^%$%(%)%%%.%[%]%*%+%-%?]", "%%%0")
  new = new:gsub("%%", "%%%%")
  if n == nil then
    return str:gsub(old, new)
  else
    return str:gsub(old, new, n)
  end
end
local text = space.readPage("Title")
text = plainReplace(text, "mistake one", "correction one", 1) -- specify the replacement limit; you usually want 1
text = plainReplace(text, "mistake two", "correction two", 1)
space.writePage("Title", text)
return "done"
' | silverbullet-cli lua-script

# writing multi-line markdown with lua-script
# Use long-string delimiters [==[...]==] instead of [[...]] when the
# markdown itself contains [[ or ]], which would prematurely close a
# plain Lua long string and cause syntax errors.
echo '
local text = [==[
Some content with [[wiki links]] and ${template directives}.
]==]
space.writePage("PageName", text)
return "done"
' | silverbullet-cli lua-script
```

# Fetching SilverBullet docs

The official SilverBullet instance at `silverbullet.md` serves raw Markdown pages. When you need details on any Space Lua feature, API, or concept, fetch the docs directly:

```bash
# Fetch a specific docs page (URL-encode spaces and slashes)
silverbullet-cli lua 'net.readURI("https://silverbullet.md/.fs/Space%20Lua.md")'

# List all docs pages to find what you need
silverbullet-cli lua-script <<'EOF'
local result = http.request("https://silverbullet.md/.fs", {
  headers = { ["X-Sync-Mode"] = "true" }
})
local names = {}
for _, p in ipairs(result.body) do
  table.insert(names, p.name)
end
return table.concat(names, "\n")
EOF
```

URL-encode page names (`%20` for spaces, `%2F` for `/`). The page listing is always current, so no hardcoded index is needed.

---

If `silverbullet-cli` is unavailable when you run it, read [references/installation.md] (folder is next to this file) and ask the user to install it.