markdown-chat-to-org-mode

Problem addressed

Most of the chatbots generate chats in markdown. If you want to save these chats and store them as org-mode files that you may include in a knowledge graph under the subfolder called projects, protocols, resources, or code, you have to carry out the conversion of the org file format. The program pandoc does a good job of this, but I have trouble remembering the syntax for the pandoc command, and pandoc does not add the frontmatter of the org file.

My solution

I developed a bash function that runs pandoc and adds the front matter to the file. Other solutions out there enable this operation to be done from inside of Emacs while running a chatbot inside Emacs (e.g., gptel). However, if you run a chatbot outside of Emacs, you will probably handle the downloaded file outside of Emacs. Because you are already outside of the Emacs, you could use a little Bash.

This bash function takes the single argument of the markdown file's filestem. To incorporate this new note into the org-roam database, you must run the command M-x org-id-get-create to add a unique identifier to this file.

m2o () {
	echo "Convert chat in markdown into org-mode. Uses pandoc."
	echo "Takes only the filestem of the markdown file."
	if [ $# -lt 1 ]
	then
		echo "$0: not enough arguments" >&1
		echo "Supply the mp3 file stem."
		echo "Usage: m2o fileStem"
		return 2
	elif [ $# -gt 1 ]
	then
		echo "$0: too many arguments" >&1
		echo "Supply the mp3 file stem."
		echo "Usage: m2o fileStem"
	fi
	pandoc -f markdown -t org $1.md -o $1.org
	(
		echo "#+Title: $1."
		echo "#+Date: $(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
		echo "#+Author: Claude 3.5 Sonnet"
		echo "\n"
		cat $1.org
	) > temp
	mv temp $1.org
}

Save the function where you save your bash aliases or, better yet, a dedicated ~/.bashFunctions file. Source this file from your .bashrc or .zshrc file so it is always available. You can display the code in the terminal from any directory by entering which m2o. I call this a bash function, but I use it in zsh.

This trivial function was generated ab inito.

Update history

Version	Changes	Date
Version 0.1	Added badges, funding, and update table. Initial commit.	2025 March 14

Sources of funding

• NIH: R01 CA242845
• NIH: R01 AI088011
• NIH: P30 CA225520 (PI: R. Mannel)
• NIH: P20 GM103640 and P30 GM145423 (PI: A. West)