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feat: add orvanitag-v2 devlog post

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Title: otag 2: Plain-Text Tags for Your Files
Date: 2026-10-25 14:00
Category: MINIMAL
Slug: orvanitag-v2
Summary: A todo.txt style file tagger written in one week of June 2023 and then left alone, now back as version 2 with its YAML replaced by plain-text .otag files and nine plugins that write tags into the files themselves.
Tags: python, orvanitag, todo.txt
In June 2023 I spent one week writing a file tagger and then didn't touch it again for over three years. It is called *Orvani Tagger*, after עוֹרְבָנִי, the Hebrew name for the Eurasian jay, and the idea was simple: tag files the way *todo.txt* tags tasks. A `+project`, an `@context`, some `#tags` and a free note, typed on one line, searchable from the shell.
The 2023 version kept those tags in a `.context.yaml` in every folder, with a `.index.yaml` cache next to it and a configurable schema on top.
## One Line per File
Version 2 throws the YAML out. Each folder now has a plain `.otag` file, and every line in it is written in exactly the syntax you type on the command line:
```
Boombap Loop.wav --- +album @drums #boombap #lofi
song.mp3 --- +album @drums #lofi #snare first take
stems/ --- @archive
```
You can open it in any editor, grep it, diff it, and it travels with the folder when you copy, sync or zip it. A line without the ` --- ` separator stops `otag` with an error naming the file and the line, so a typo of mine can't quietly eat the rest of the folder. The configurable schema is gone too.
## Tags That Live in the File
The part that grew most is the plugins, from five to nine. `scan` reads tags that are already embedded in files and `write` puts them back, each in the place its format already has for it: the comment tag of an *MP3* or *FLAC*, the keywords field of a PDF, the description of an *ODT* or *DOCX*, a COM segment in a JPEG, an iTXt chunk in a PNG, the archive comment of a ZIP, a pax header in a tar, a `<meta name="otag">` in an EPUB, an `otag:` comment line at the top of a Python or Rust file. *TagSpaces* sidecars are read and written as well, so the two tools can share a folder. In every case the file's own data stays untouched, and another tool's comment (like the commit id `git archive` stores in a ZIP) is never overwritten.
The rest is housekeeping I had been putting off since 2023: `setup.py` and `requirements.txt` replaced by a `pyproject.toml` and `uv`, a committed `build/` directory deleted, the CLI rebuilt on argparse with one handler per command, a real test suite, and the licence moved from MIT to Apache-2.0. There is also a `SKILL.md`, so a coding agent can tag and search files with it without me explaining the syntax every time.
It's not on PyPI yet. For now it lives in the repository below.
## Repository
[orvanitag](https://code.randogoth.com/randogoth/orvanitag)