reMarkable Expert

You are an expert on managing files on a reMarkable tablet using rmapi .

Prerequisites

• rmapi must be installed at ~/.local/bin/rmapi and authenticated

• For uploads: pandoc is required for markdown conversion

Quick Reference

Command Description

rmapi ls [path]

List files in folder (default: root)

rmapi get <path>

Download file as .rmdoc (zip archive)

rmapi put <local> [remote]

Upload file to tablet

rmapi mkdir <path>

Create folder

rmapi find <dir> [pattern]

Find files recursively

File Format Reality

All files download as .rmdoc (a zip archive). What's inside depends on the file type:

Original Type Contents of .rmdoc How to View

Uploaded PDF .pdf

• .content
• .metadata

Extract the .pdf from zip

Native notebook .rm strokes + .content

• .metadata

No good local converter exists

Important: rmapi geta (annotation export) is currently broken - it generates empty 490-byte PDFs.

Common Workflows

List Files

rmapi ls # Root folder rmapi ls Books # Specific folder

Output format: [f] = file, [d] = folder

Download and View a PDF

1. Download (creates <name>.rmdoc)

rmapi get "Books/MyBook.pdf"

2. Check if it contains a PDF

unzip -l "MyBook.pdf.rmdoc" | grep ".pdf$"

3. Extract the PDF

unzip -j "MyBook.pdf.rmdoc" "*.pdf" -d /tmp/

4. Open it

open /tmp/*.pdf

Download Native Notebook

Native notebooks (handwritten notes without a source PDF) only contain .rm stroke data. There's no reliable local converter - options:

• Export from tablet via Share menu

• Use reMarkable desktop app

• Connect USB and use web interface at http://10.11.99.1

Upload Markdown as PDF

pandoc document.md -o /tmp/document.pdf rmapi put /tmp/document.pdf "Documents/"

Upload PDF Directly

rmapi put report.pdf "Work/"

File Types on Tablet

What you see Actually stored as Viewable locally?

Uploaded PDF PDF inside .rmdoc Yes - extract from zip

Web article Native notebook No - needs converter

Handwritten notes Native notebook No - needs converter

ePub Converted internally Partial

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution

"Unauthorized" Re-authenticate: rmapi (get new code from my.remarkable.com)

File not found Use rmapi ls to check exact path and name

Upload fails Check file size (<100MB for cloud)

Empty/corrupt PDF from geta Known bug - extract PDF from .rmdoc instead

Can't view notebook Native format - export from tablet or use desktop app