Problem
While editing a single readable note in a notes-managed repo, the obvious command failed:
notes diff notes/scratch-mise-workbench.md
Observed output:
Error: not a tree-ish ref: notes/scratch-mise-workbench.md
[diff] ERROR task failed
notes diff currently treats positional arguments as refs/ranges. That makes sense for BASE, BASE..HEAD, and BASE...HEAD, but a readable note path is also a natural thing to pass when reviewing one modified note.
Why this would help
The working-tree diff without arguments works, but it shows all readable note changes. During note-only edits, agents often want to inspect exactly one note before notes commit / notes stage.
Desired shape could be either:
notes diff notes/scratch-mise-workbench.md
or, if avoiding ambiguity with refs is preferable:
notes diff -- notes/scratch-mise-workbench.md
notes diff --path notes/scratch-mise-workbench.md
Acceptance sketch
- A readable note path can be used to filter the working-tree readable diff.
- If a positional argument is neither a valid ref/range nor an existing readable note path, the error explains both accepted forms.
- Existing ref/range and
--pr behavior remains unchanged.
Provenance
Hit by Brownie while adding a fold scratch-mise-workbench dogfood note on 2026-06-20. Or immediately said this would be nice to support.
Problem
While editing a single readable note in a notes-managed repo, the obvious command failed:
Observed output:
notes diffcurrently treats positional arguments as refs/ranges. That makes sense forBASE,BASE..HEAD, andBASE...HEAD, but a readable note path is also a natural thing to pass when reviewing one modified note.Why this would help
The working-tree diff without arguments works, but it shows all readable note changes. During note-only edits, agents often want to inspect exactly one note before
notes commit/notes stage.Desired shape could be either:
or, if avoiding ambiguity with refs is preferable:
Acceptance sketch
--prbehavior remains unchanged.Provenance
Hit by Brownie while adding a fold
scratch-mise-workbenchdogfood note on 2026-06-20. Or immediately said this would be nice to support.