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:

1. Export from tablet via Share menu
2. Use reMarkable desktop app
3. 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