Snippets

Native, local-first snippet apps for macOS, iPhone, and iPad. Snippets expands text system-wide on Mac, keeps an encrypted library available across devices, and provides native keyboard-first and touch-first ways to manage it.

• macOS: global text expansion, a caret-side suggestion panel, menu bar access, secure insertion, and the full library editor.
• iPhone: a touch-first library and editor with tap-to-copy, swipe actions, multi-tag filtering, and a short-lived secure clipboard.
• iPad: a keyboard-oriented split view with the same library, editor, transfer, security, and sync tools.

The project is free and open source under the MIT License.

Features

Fast expansion on macOS

• Type \ followed by a keyword in another app to open suggestions and insert a snippet without switching windows.
• Fuzzy matching searches names and keywords; use ↑ / ↓, Ctrl+N / Ctrl+P, Tab, or Return to choose a result.
• An unambiguous exact keyword expands automatically. Prefix collisions are called out in the editor so one keyword does not silently block another.
• Pinned snippets and match quality lead the ranking. Optional on-device usage ranking and per-prefix selection memory learn what you choose without syncing or exporting that history.
• The suggestion panel follows the caret when Accessibility geometry is available and falls back safely when an app exposes less information.
• Native text fields use an atomic Accessibility replacement. Compatible fallbacks preserve the clipboard, avoid overwriting a newer copy, and include dedicated handling for Chromium and Electron apps.
• Secure Keyboard Entry suspends injection.

A complete snippet library

• Create, edit, duplicate, delete, enable/disable, and pin snippets.
• Create a snippet directly from the current clipboard.
• Add multiple tags, filter by several tags at once, and search across names, keywords, content, and tags. Secure snippet bodies remain excluded while locked.
• Get keyword suggestions from the snippet name or first line, live collision warnings, placeholder completion after typing {, and a rendered placeholder preview.
• Undo and redo ordinary library changes. iPhone also offers an inline Undo action after deleting an ordinary snippet.
• Copy a snippet, paste it into the previously active Mac app, or share an ordinary snippet through the system share sheet on iOS.

Dynamic placeholders

Placeholders are resolved at insertion or copy time:

The explicit format, locale, and offset syntax is compatible with current Raycast date placeholders. Offsets can contain several terms, for example {datetime offset=+1d -2h}.

Secure snippets

• Make any snippet secure to move its body out of the ordinary JSON library and into an AES-GCM encrypted vault.
• Reveal or edit secure content only after device-owner authentication. On macOS, the editor marks the body as protected Accessibility content, renders it through a capture-protected layer, and shows its pixels only while the pointer is over the editor. Secure editor copy, drag, Services, sharing, Find, speech, Quick Look, text checking, and Writing Tools routes are disabled. On iPhone and iPad, explicit secure copy and insertion remain authenticated actions.
• The vault auto-locks after five minutes without secure-content use and always within thirty minutes of authentication. Sleep, screen/session lock, screensaver start, and iOS backgrounding lock it immediately; merely switching away from the macOS app does not, because secure insertion is used while another app is active.
• Secure snippets never auto-expand, never appear in ordinary exports or share links, and show a lock marker wherever their searchable metadata appears.
• A recovery key can restore the vault key if it is missing from Keychain.
• On iPhone and iPad, secure copies are device-local and expire from the clipboard after 60 seconds.
• Names, keywords, and tags remain visible locally so Snippets can find a secure snippet while the vault is locked. The encrypted body is the protected part.

Capture protection and hover reduce accidental screen-share, screenshot, recording, and shoulder-surfing exposure; they are not a DRM or physical-camera guarantee. A camera can still photograph content while the pointer is over it, and sufficiently privileged software on the same Mac remains outside this boundary.

End-to-end encrypted iCloud sync

• Sync is opt-in on every installation. With it off, Snippets does not create a CloudKit transport or sync base.
• Ordinary and secure snippets are encrypted on-device before upload to the app's private CloudKit database. The wire encryption key is shared through iCloud Keychain; Apple receives ciphertext, including encrypted names, keywords, and tags.
• Field-aware three-way merging preserves edits from multiple devices. Concurrent body edits retain the losing version as a disabled conflict copy instead of discarding it.
• A deletion safety guard halts suspiciously large remote deletions for review.
• Use Sync Now on Mac or pull to refresh on iPhone. Without push notifications, background polling can take up to two minutes to notice a remote change.
• Usage counts and learned prefix choices stay on the Mac where they were recorded.

A switched iCloud account is still a known edge case: the current sync base does not bind itself to the CloudKit user record name.

Import, export, backup, and links

• Import native raw arrays ([...]), wrapped JSON ({ "snippets": [...] }), and Raycast snippet exports. Raycast date placeholders are preserved or converted to the supported explicit syntax.
• Export for Sharing writes ordinary snippets only.
• Encrypted Backup (Includes Secure Snippets) protects the complete library with a password and includes both ordinary and secure records. Forgotten backup passwords cannot be recovered.
• Native imports merge by ID first and then by case-insensitive keyword, making repeated imports idempotent instead of creating duplicate rows.
• Share one ordinary snippet with a snippets://share?... deep link. Opening the link shows a preview and confirmation before applying the same merge rules.

Native platform workflows

On macOS:

• ⌘\ brings Snippets forward from any app and hides it again when already focused.
• Run from the Dock, hide to a menu bar item, optionally launch at login, and choose whether ⌘Q hides or quits.
• Collapse the sidebar for a focused editor; search results become a keyboard-navigable overlay.
• Built-in compatibility covers Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and Arc. Additional Chromium/Electron bundle identifiers can be added in Settings without a relaunch.
• Configure matched-letter highlighting, usage ranking, selection memory, the global shortcut, quit behavior, sync, secure storage, browsers, and diagnostics.
• Signed releases check for updates with Sparkle and expose download/apply progress in the app menu and window chrome.
• Install the bundled snippets-cli from Settings for scripts and agents.

On iPhone:

• Tap a row to copy it, swipe right to edit, swipe left to pin or delete, or long-press for all actions.
• Search the full library, filter by multiple tags, and keep pinned snippets in their own section.
• Edit in touch-first Content and Details modes with a keyboard-following mode control, live keyword help, tags, enable/disable, secure conversion, and placeholder preview.
• Pull to sync, import documents and shared links, export JSON, create encrypted backups, and create a new snippet from the clipboard.

On iPad:

• Use a two-column list and editor designed for a hardware keyboard.
• Search, filter, navigate snippets, move between fields, copy, import/export, undo/redo, and open the in-app shortcut reference without leaving the keyboard.

Automation and diagnostics

snippets-cli reads and safely updates the same local Mac library. It supports JSON output for:

• list, search, get, and tags;
• add, update, and delete;
• secure-status; and
• reveal, which asks the running app for human approval instead of decrypting the vault itself.

When iCloud sync is enabled and the Mac app is running, CLI mutations share a one-second trailing debounce and then request one outbound sync round. A script can therefore add or update many snippets without starting one CloudKit operation per command. If the app is closed, its normal startup round uploads those changes the next time it launches.

Both apps keep bounded, structured diagnostic logs for troubleshooting. Settings can export one validated JSONL file or delete retained logs. The schema excludes snippet bodies, display names, tags, IDs, paths, ciphertext, and keys; secure keywords may be present after sanitization. See docs/diagnostics.md for the exact privacy contract and retention limits.

Requirements

Building the iOS target requires an Xcode version with the iOS 26 SDK. The iOS app is a universal native target (TARGETED_DEVICE_FAMILY = 1,2), not Catalyst and not a wrapper around the Mac app.

Download or build

Download the latest signed Mac release from GitHub Releases, or build from source:

1. Open Snippets.xcodeproj in Xcode.
2. Select Snippets for macOS or Snippets iOS for iPhone/iPad.
3. Choose a destination and build.

For a paired iPhone or iPad, the repository helper performs a signed Release build, validates its entitlements and provisioning profile, installs it in place, and launches it without deleting the existing data sandbox:

./scripts/install-ios.sh

Use --device <name> when more than one device is paired, --no-build to reuse the current device artifact, or --no-launch to stop after installation. Run ./scripts/install-ios.sh --help for all options.

First launch on macOS

Global expansion uses Accessibility APIs:

1. Click Request Permission in the app banner.
2. Open Accessibility from the same banner and enable Snippets.
3. Return to Snippets and click Refresh.

Input Monitoring may also be required on some macOS configurations. Library management, the ⌘\ global shortcut, and menu bar access do not depend on Accessibility permission.

Keyboard shortcuts on macOS

The in-app shortcut panel shows essentials first; hold Option to reveal the complete list.

Storage and privacy boundaries

The normal storage root is:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/SnippetsClone
• iOS/iPadOS: Library/Application Support/SnippetsClone inside the app container

Important contents include:

SnippetsClone/
├── snippets.json          # ordinary snippets
├── Vault/vault.json       # secure metadata and encrypted bodies
├── Sync/                  # merge base, state, tombstones, and quarantine
├── Usage/usage.json       # Mac-only ranking history; never synced
├── Diagnostics/Logs/      # bounded structured JSONL logs
└── Backups/               # safety snapshots made by the merge layer

The Mac app creates a starter snippet on first launch. The iOS app intentionally starts with an empty library so a fresh installation can fetch the remote library without looking like it authored a local record.

Architecture

• snippets/ contains the AppKit app, expansion engine, Mac settings, CloudKit app boundary, diagnostics backend, and platform integrations.
• snippets-ios/ contains the native UIKit universal app, including separate iPhone and iPad workflows.
• snippets/Core/, snippets/Sync/, snippets/Vault/, and snippets/SnippetStore.swift hold the shared model, persistence, crypto, merge, sync, and vault logic.
• snippets-cli/ contains the entitlement-free command-line client.
• CorePackage/ is a test overlay for the shared Foundation-only core.

The CloudKit implementation stays at the app boundary. The shared core does not import CloudKit, AppKit, UIKit, CocoaLumberjack, or MetricKit unconditionally.

More detail:

• docs/text-input-detection.md — cross-app text input detection and replacement strategies.
• docs/frecency-ranking.md — usage ranking, decay, merging, and privacy.
• docs/cloud-sync.md — sync safety and secure-snippet design. Its older phase/status table predates the shipping CloudKit transport and iOS target; the current code is authoritative for implementation status.
• docs/diagnostics.md — persistent logging, exports, privacy, and collection workflows.

Verification

Run the checks that cover the changed layer. For cross-platform shared-code changes:

swift test --package-path CorePackage

xcodebuild \
  -project Snippets.xcodeproj \
  -scheme Snippets \
  -configuration Debug \
  -destination 'platform=macOS,arch=arm64' \
  -derivedDataPath /tmp/snippets-macos-derived \
  CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO \
  build

xcodebuild \
  -project Snippets.xcodeproj \
  -scheme 'Snippets iOS' \
  -configuration Debug \
  -destination 'generic/platform=iOS Simulator' \
  -derivedDataPath /tmp/snippets-ios-derived \
  CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO \
  build

Run iOS unit and UI tests on available iPhone and iPad simulators as described in AGENTS.md.