enex2md

README

enex2md

Convert Evernote ENEX exports to Markdown with full attachment support

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A fast Go tool to convert Evernote .enex export files to Markdown format. Designed for seamless import into mddb (Markdown Database) and other markdown-based tools.

Features

• Full ENEX Support - Parses Evernote export files with complete metadata
• Attachment Extraction - Extracts images, PDFs, and other files to resources/ folder
• Code Block Detection - Properly formats Evernote code blocks with fenced markdown
• Tag Preservation - All tags included in YAML frontmatter
• Rich Content Conversion - Headers, lists, tables, code blocks, checkboxes
• SEO-friendly Filenames - Clean, URL-safe filenames from note titles
• UTF-8 Throughout - Proper encoding for international content
• mddb Ready - Output format compatible with mddb (Markdown Database)

Quick Start

Installation

# From source
git clone https://github.com/spagu/enex2md.git
cd enex2md
make build

# Using go install
go install github.com/spagu/enex2md/cmd/enex2md@latest

Usage

# Convert ENEX file
enex2md -i notes.enex -o ./markdown

# Short flags
enex2md -i export.enex -o ./notes

# Show version
enex2md --version

Options

Flag	Short	Description	Default
--input	-i	Path to ENEX file (required)	-
--output	-o	Output directory	.
--version	-v	Show version info	-
--help	-h	Show help	-

Output Format

Each note becomes a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter:

---
title: "Meeting Notes"
created: 2025-12-08T15:38:50Z
updated: 2026-01-23T17:55:47Z
author: "John Doe"
tags:
  - "work"
  - "meetings"
---

# Meeting Notes

Content converted to clean Markdown...

```bash
# Code blocks are properly formatted
echo "Hello World"

### Output Structure

output/ ├── meeting-notes.md ├── project-ideas.md ├── untitled.md └── resources/ ├── screenshot.png ├── document.pdf └── photo.jpg

## Docker Usage

### Build and Run

```bash
# Build Docker image
docker build -t enex2md .

# Convert ENEX file (mount volumes)
docker run --rm \
  -v /path/to/your/notes.enex:/data/notes.enex \
  -v /path/to/output:/output \
  enex2md -i /data/notes.enex -o /output

Docker Compose with mddb

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  enex2md:
    build: .
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data:ro
      - ./output:/output
    command: ["-i", "/data/notes.enex", "-o", "/output/markdown"]

  mddb:
    image: ghcr.io/tradik/mddb:latest
    ports:
      - "11023:11023"
      - "11024:11024"
    volumes:
      - mddb_data:/data
    environment:
      - MDDB_DATA_DIR=/data
    depends_on:
      enex2md:
        condition: service_completed_successfully

volumes:
  mddb_data:

Run with:

docker compose up

Integration with mddb

mddb (Markdown Database) is a Go-based embedded database with HTTP/gRPC APIs for indexing and querying Markdown files.

Quick Integration

# 1. Export from Evernote (File > Export Notes > ENEX)

# 2. Convert to Markdown
enex2md -i export.enex -o ./notes

# 3. Start mddb server
docker run -d -p 11023:11023 -v ./notes:/data ghcr.io/tradik/mddb:latest

# 4. Access via HTTP API on port 11023 or gRPC on port 11024

Full Pipeline Script

#!/bin/bash
# convert-and-index.sh

INPUT_FILE="${1:-notes.enex}"
OUTPUT_DIR="${2:-./markdown}"

# Convert ENEX to Markdown
enex2md -i "$INPUT_FILE" -o "$OUTPUT_DIR"

# Start mddb with the converted files
docker run -d --name mddb \
  -p 11023:11023 \
  -p 11024:11024 \
  -v "$OUTPUT_DIR":/data \
  ghcr.io/tradik/mddb:latest

echo "Done! mddb running on http://localhost:11023"

Supported Content

Element	Markdown Output
Headers (h1-h6)	# ## ### ...
Bold/Italic	**bold** *italic*
Lists	- item / 1. item
Links	[text](url)
Images	
Code blocks	```code```
Blockquotes	> quote
Tables	Markdown tables
Checkboxes	[ ] / [x]
Attachments	Extracted to resources/

Development

Requirements

• Go 1.26+
• Make

Commands

make all          # Full pipeline: deps, fmt, lint, vet, sec, test, build
make build        # Build binary
make test         # Run tests with race detection
make test-coverage# Generate coverage report
make lint         # Run golangci-lint
make vet          # Run go vet
make sec          # Run gosec security scanner
make fmt          # Format code
make clean        # Remove build artifacts

Project Structure

enex2md/
├── cmd/enex2md/          # CLI entry point (Cobra)
├── internal/
│   ├── enex/             # ENEX XML parser
│   └── converter/        # Markdown converter
├── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml
├── Makefile
├── go.mod
├── README.md
└── CHANGELOG.md

Security

For security concerns, please see our Security Policy.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guidelines for details.

Quick start:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing)
3. Run tests (make all)
4. Commit changes (git commit -m 'Add feature')
5. Push branch (git push origin feature/amazing)
6. Open Pull Request

License

BSD 3-Clause License - see LICENSE for details.

Copyright (c) 2026, Tradik Limited

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Made with Go by Tradik Limited