🧙 Snape - A Severus Snippet Manager for macOS

Handle your snippets with Severus precision.

Features

• ⚡ Quick index selection (a-z, A-Z)
• 🔍 Real-time filtering with /
• 📁 Folder-based snippet grouping with separators
• 👀 Preview popup on hover and keyboard navigation
• 📋 Automatic clipboard copy with visual confirmation
• 🎨 Light/Dark/System theme support
• 🖱️ Opens at cursor position
• 💾 Remembers window size
• 🚪 Click outside to close

📖 Philosophy

Snape follows the KISS principle — Keep It Simple, Severus 🧙.

• Minimal UI, instant access
• Zero learning curve: open, pick, done
• Plain text storage for easy syncing and versioning
• Integrates with your existing workflow, not the other way around
• No accounts, no cloud, no nonsense

Requirements

• macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later

Installation

Homebrew

brew tap rgcr/formulae
brew install --cask snape

Or Download Latest Release

1. Download Snape-2.0.0-macos.dmg from Releases
2. Open the DMG and drag Snape.app to /Applications
3. Bypass Gatekeeper xattr -cr /Applications/Snape.app

Hotkey Integration

• Snape works best when bound to a global hotkey.
• The app opens at your cursor position, you select a snippet, and it's copied to your clipboard.

macOS Shortcuts (Native)

1. Open Automator → New → Quick Action
2. Add "Run Shell Script" action
3. Script: open -a Snape
4. Save as "Launch Snape"
5. Go to System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services
6. Find "Launch Snape" → Assign shortcut (e.g., Cmd+Option+S)

Hammerspoon

-- In ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua:
hs.hotkey.bind({"cmd", "alt"}, "s", function()
    hs.application.launchOrFocus("Snape")
end)

skhd

# In ~/.config/skhd/skhdrc:
cmd + alt - s : open -a Snape

Raycast

Create a Quicklink with open -a Snape and assign a hotkey.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Normal Mode

Key	Action
↑ ↓	Navigate snippets
Enter	Select snippet and copy to clipboard
a-z A-Z	Quick selection by index
/	Enter filter mode
?	Show about dialog
Esc	Quit

Filter Mode

Key	Action
Type	Filter snippets by name or content
Backspace	Delete last character
↑ ↓	Navigate filtered list
Enter	Select snippet
Esc	Exit filter mode

Snippets Directory

Snippets are stored in: ~/.config/snape/

Each file is a snippet. The filename (without extension) becomes the snippet name.

Folder Structure

Use folders to organize snippets into groups:

~/.config/snape/
├── readme.txt              # Ungrouped (shown first)
├── 01-aws/                 # Group: "aws"
│   ├── 01-get-account.txt
│   └── 02-list-buckets.txt
├── 02-linux/               # Group: "linux"
│   ├── 01-find-files.txt
│   └── 02-disk-usage.txt
└── scripts/                # Group: "scripts" (no prefix)
    └── backup.txt

Ordering:

• Folders become section separators in the UI
• Numeric prefix (01-, 02-) controls display order
• Prefixes are stripped from display (e.g., 01-aws shows as "aws")
• Ungrouped files (in root) appear first
• Files within folders are also sorted by name/prefix

Default Snippets

On first launch, if no snippets exist, sample snippets are created:

• hello.txt – "Hello, World!"
• greeting.txt – Friendly greeting
• hello-world.go – Hello World in Go

Settings

Click the ⚙️ gear icon to access settings:

• Theme: System / Light / Dark

Window size is saved automatically when you resize.

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by the template system of AutoHotkey’s CL3 utility

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your feature branch: git checkout -b my-new-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add some feature'
4. Push the branch: git push origin my-new-feature
5. Open a Pull Request 🚀