laurent22/joplin · error · Error

Cannot find "%s".

Error message

Cannot find "%s".

What it means

The 'done' command loads the note via app().loadItem, runs encryptionCheck, then checks for null and throws 'Cannot find' if the note does not exist. The message is i18n-translated.

Source

Thrown at packages/app-cli/app/command-done.ts:21

import { _ } from '@joplin/lib/locale';
import { ModelType } from '@joplin/lib/BaseModel';
import Note from '@joplin/lib/models/Note';
import time from '@joplin/lib/time';
import { NoteEntity } from '@joplin/lib/services/database/types';

class Command extends BaseCommand {
	public override usage() {
		return 'done <note>';
	}

	public override description() {
		return _('Marks a to-do as done.');
	}

	public static async handleAction(commandInstance: BaseCommand, args: { note: string }, isCompleted: boolean) {
		const note: NoteEntity = await app().loadItem(ModelType.Note, args.note);
		commandInstance.encryptionCheck(note);
		if (!note) throw new Error(_('Cannot find "%s".', args.note));
		if (!note.is_todo) throw new Error(_('Note is not a to-do: "%s"', args.note));

		const todoCompleted = !!note.todo_completed;

		if (isCompleted === todoCompleted) return;

		await Note.save({
			id: note.id,
			todo_completed: isCompleted ? time.unixMs() : 0,
		});
	}

	public override async action(args: { note: string }) {
		await Command.handleAction(this, args, true);
	}
}

module.exports = Command;

View on GitHub (pinned to 2654b33620)

Solutions

1. Verify the title/id with 'ls'.
2. Switch notebooks with 'use <notebook>'.
3. Sync to pull missing notes.
4. Use the note id if the title is ambiguous.

Example fix

# before
#   joplin done task42   # does not exist
# after
#   joplin done "task 42"

const note = await app().loadItem(ModelType.Note, args.note);
if (!note) {
  console.error(`Note not found: ${args.note}`);
  return;
}

try {
  await Command.handleAction(this, args, isCompleted);
} catch (e) {
  if (/Cannot find/.test(e.message)) console.error(e.message);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running 'done <note>' where <note> matches no note title or id in the current notebook.

Common situations: Typo in the title; note in a different notebook; note not synced; note deleted.

Related errors

• More than one item match "%s". Please narrow down your query
• Cannot find "%s".
• No notebook has been specified.
• Cannot find "%s".
• Cannot find "%s".

AI-assisted analysis of laurent22/joplin@2654b33620 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/93973b5842d742ab. Report an issue: GitHub.