Paper

Paper is a command line journaling tool built specifically for software developers. It captures the kind of context that project management tools miss, the reasoning behind decisions, the small wins, the frustrations, the things worth remembering but not worth a Jira ticket. You type a one line entry in your terminal, and it lands in a plain markdown file on your disk. No accounts, no network calls, just local files you own.

The core workflow is simple. Run paper log followed by a quick note about what you're doing or what you decided. Over time those entries accumulate into a searchable archive. The paper list command lets you browse and retrieve past entries, and because everything is markdown, you can grep it, back it up, or open it in any editor.

Where it gets more interesting is the interactive prompt mode. Rather than just capturing what you did, the prompts dig into why you made certain choices. That turns a flat log into something closer to a decision journal, which is useful for retrospectives or when you need to explain past reasoning to a teammate or your future self.

The paid tier adds AI features on top. Paper recap pulls together your weekly entries and generates standup notes automatically, which saves time on Monday morning status updates. Paper coach uses your logged history and goals to offer personalized guidance. Both features run through AI, but the tool shows you what it proposes and waits for confirmation before storing anything, so you stay in control of what gets saved.

Sync across devices is also a paid feature. If you work from multiple machines, the free tier won't help, but upgrading lets entries follow you. There's a two week free trial for the paid features with no card required, so you can test the AI and sync layers before committing.

Installation runs through npm and requires Node 20 or higher. Paper is built by Rewrlution, a small studio, and support goes through a Gmail address. It's a focused tool that does one thing, capture developer context over time, and does it without demanding much setup or workflow change. If you've ever wished your commit history captured more than code diffs, this is aimed at that gap.