• No dependencies required for basic functionality
• Optional: OpenAI API key for semantic search

On Linux, bkmr uses external clipboard tools (it cannot use the system clipboard directly because clipboard data is process-owned and would be lost when bkmr exits):

bkmr auto-detects Wayland vs X11 via WAYLAND_DISPLAY. For X11, it tries xclip first, then falls back to xsel if xclip is not installed.

cargo install bkmr

# Via pip
pip install bkmr

# Via pipx (isolated environment)
pipx install bkmr

# Via uv (fast Python package installer)
uv tool install bkmr

brew install bkmr

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/sysid/bkmr.git
cd bkmr

# Build release version
cargo build --release

# Binary will be at: target/release/bkmr

After installation:

# 1. Generate default configuration
bkmr --generate-config > ~/.config/bkmr/config.toml

# 2. Create database
bkmr create-db ~/.config/bkmr/bkmr.db

# 3. Set environment variable (optional, can also configure in config.toml)
export BKMR_DB_URL=~/.config/bkmr/bkmr.db

Add the environment variable to your shell profile (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.) for persistence.

Verify installation:

# Check version
bkmr --version

# View help
bkmr --help

# Create test database
bkmr create-db /tmp/test.db

When upgrading to a new version, bkmr will automatically:

1. Check if database migrations are needed
2. Create a timestamped backup of your current database
3. Apply necessary migrations

Backups are saved with date suffix (e.g., bkmr_backup_20250406.db).

# Via cargo
cargo install bkmr --force

# Via pip
pip install --upgrade bkmr

# Via homebrew
brew upgrade bkmr

For more issues, see Troubleshooting.

• Quick Start - Get productive in 5 minutes
• Configuration - Customize bkmr settings
• Basic Usage - Learn common commands