Snippets from the CLI

Snippets are the core of Snipset: short keywords that expand into longer text. This page covers the full snippet lifecycle from the terminal, grounded in snipset 0.2.0. Every example uses a throwaway /tmp/demo.db; drop --db to use your default database.

Groups

Every snippet belongs to a group. List and create groups with snipset group:

snipset group list --db /tmp/demo.db
snipset group add --db /tmp/demo.db --name "Email" --description "Email templates"

group add prints the new group's UUID. You can refer to a group later by either its UUID or its name.

Create a snippet

snipset snippet add --db /tmp/demo.db \
  --name "Signature" --keyword ";sig" --content "Best regards," --group "Email"

--name, --keyword, and --content are required. The optional fields:

Option	Effect	Default
--description <TEXT>	Optional description.	""
--group <GROUP>	Group UUID or group name.	(none)
--matching-mode <MODE>	strict or loose.	strict
--case-sensitivity <MODE>	case-sensitive or case-insensitive.	case-sensitive
--disabled	Create the snippet disabled.	enabled

List and filter

snipset snippet list --db /tmp/demo.db

Option	Effect
--group <GROUP>	Filter by group UUID or name.
--enabled	Only enabled snippets.
--favorite	Only favorite snippets.
--limit <N>	Maximum rows to return (default 100).
--offset <N>	Rows to skip (default 0).

The default text output is tab-separated uuid, keyword, name. Add --json for the full record, including matching mode, case sensitivity, group id, timestamps, and attachment count.

Read one snippet

snipset snippet get --db /tmp/demo.db <uuid>

Search

snipset snippet search --db /tmp/demo.db "regards"

Expand template variables

A snippet's content can contain template variables such as #{date} and #{clipboard}. snippet expand renders them. This is a read-only operation and never modifies anything.

snipset snippet expand --db /tmp/demo.db <uuid>
snipset snippet expand --db /tmp/demo.db --by-keyword ";sig"

Option	Effect
--by-keyword	Look the snippet up by keyword instead of UUID.
--clipboard <VALUE>	Value used for #{clipboard} and #{selection} (default "").

Update and delete

snipset snippet update --db /tmp/demo.db <uuid> --content "Kind regards,"
snipset snippet update --db /tmp/demo.db <uuid> --enabled
snipset snippet delete --db /tmp/demo.db <uuid>

update takes the same field options as add, each as a new value, plus --enabled and --disabled to toggle state. Only the fields you pass change.

Bulk import and export

snipset import --db /tmp/demo.db snippets.json
snipset import --db /tmp/demo.db --dry-run snippets.csv

Option	Effect
--dry-run	Parse, validate, and report without writing.
--group <GROUP>	Group assigned to rows that do not name their own group.
--on-duplicate <MODE>	skip (default), update, or fail when a keyword already exists in the same group.

Export the other direction:

snipset export --db /tmp/demo.db
snipset export --db /tmp/demo.db --format csv --out snippets.csv
snipset export --db /tmp/demo.db --group "Email" --format json

Option	Effect	Default
--group <GROUP>	Filter by group UUID or name.	all groups
--format <FORMAT>	json or csv.	json
--out <FILE>	Write to a file instead of standard output.	stdout

Where to go next

• See every other command in the command reference.
• Read snippets from a running desktop app with the live database wrapper.