GIFs

Search Giphy and paste the GIF as a picture

palupdated 2026-09-29FunIn pal's registry

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GIFs: Nothing typed: Giphy's trending GIFs as a grid
Nothing typed: Giphy's trending GIFs as a grid
GIFs: Typing cat: the matches, and the detail pane with the preview, its size and its page
Typing cat: the matches, and the detail pane with the preview, its size and its page
GIFs: What a GIF can do: copy the file, copy the url, open, save, favourite
What a GIF can do: copy the file, copy the url, open, save, favourite
GIFs: Favourite GIFs: the ones cmd+f kept, and a tile to clear them
Favourite GIFs: the ones cmd+f kept, and a tile to clear them
GIFs: Without a key: one row saying where to get one
Without a key: one row saying where to get one
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What it does

Search Giphy and paste the GIF itself: Enter puts the file on the clipboard, so it lands as a picture in a chat or a document. Trending GIFs show before you type, and favourites keep in a grid of their own.

  • A grid of animated previews from Giphy as you type; trending while nothing is typed
  • enter puts the GIF file on the clipboard, so it pastes as a picture; cmd+enter copies the link
  • cmd+s saves the GIF to Downloads, cmd+o opens its page on Giphy
  • cmd+f keeps a GIF in Favourites, a grid of its own you can also search from the root
  • Previews and GIFs you already fetched are cached, so a second look or copy is instant

Palettes 2

  • GIFsgifsgridfallback row: Search GIFs for “…”

    Type to search; nothing typed lists what is trending. Every tile is an animated preview; Enter copies the GIF file.

    • ↵Copy the GIF file
    • ⌘↵Copy the url
    • ⌘OOpen the page
    • ⌘SSave to Downloads
    • ⌘FAdd to favourites
  • Favourite GIFsfavouritesgrid

    The GIFs kept with cmd+f, newest first; the same actions, and cmd+d removes one.

    • ↵Copy the GIF file
    • ⌘↵Copy the url
    • ⌘OOpen the page
    • ⌘SSave to Downloads
    • ⌘DRemove from favourites

Actions

  • Copy GIFDownloads the GIF into the cache and puts the file on the clipboard.↵
  • Copy URLThe GIF file's url.⌘↵
  • Open in browserThe GIF's page on giphy.com.⌘O
  • Save to DownloadsThe file written to save_to, named after its title.⌘S
  • Add to favourites⌘F
  • Remove from favouritesIn the Favourites grid.⌘D

Settings

Extension, [extensions.gifs]

giphy_api_key
empty secret

From developers.giphy.com › Create an App (API, not SDK). Free, with a rate limit.

content_filter
Medium (PG) select

Giphy's `rating`: what the results may show. One of off, low, medium, high.

save_to
~/Downloads path

Where cmd+s writes the GIF, named after its title.

GIFs, [palettes.gifs]

columns
6 number

Tiles per row in both grids.

Defaults shown. Change them in pal's settings window or in the config file.

The README

Everything GIFs does, key by key, from the extension's own README.md

GIFs

Search Giphy from the panel and paste the GIF. An input grid: what is typed is searched 300 ms after the last key, nothing typed lists what is trending, and every tile is the GIF's small animated preview. enter puts the GIF file on the clipboard, so it pastes as a picture into Slack, Messages, Notes or a document; cmd+enter copies the url instead.

The grid

tile what
a preview Giphy's fixed_height_small, fetched once into the cache directory and sent as a data url, so the grid animates and a second look fetches nothing; the tiles show with the GIF glyph as soon as Giphy answers, the top two rows' previews join first and the rest after
the caption the GIF's title, without its trailing "GIF"
cmd+i the detail pane: the preview larger, the size in pixels and bytes, the page

The section is "Trending" while nothing is typed. Six tiles a row by default (columns under the palette's settings, both grids).

Keyboard

keys action
enter Copy the GIF file: downloaded into the cache (once), then copy_files; the HUD says "Copied GIF"
cmd+enter Copy the url of the GIF file
cmd+o Open the GIF's page on giphy.com
cmd+s Save the file to save_to (~/Downloads), named after its title
cmd+f Add to favourites
cmd+d In Favourite GIFs: remove
cmd+i The detail pane

Favourite GIFs

cmd+f keeps a GIF in the Favourite GIFs palette (gifs-favourites, storage, the last 200, newest first): the same grid with the same actions and Remove; the last row clears it (asks first). The palette is live, so its rows are at the root: a favourite is found by name from the root search.

The backend and its key

Giphy's v1 API on api.giphy.com, which takes an app key: at developers.giphy.com Create an App, pick API (not SDK), and paste the key as giphy_api_key (it lands in the keychain). The key is free with a rate limit.

Without a key the grid is one row saying which setting to fill and where the key comes from; a refused key names the fix.

content_filter is Giphy's rating: off (R), low (PG-13), medium (PG), high (G); medium by default.

The cache

Previews and downloaded GIFs go under ~/Library/Caches/pal/gifs on macOS, $XDG_CACHE_HOME/pal/gifs (~/.cache/pal/gifs) on Linux, named by a hash of their url; the full GIF carries its title (<hash>-cat typing.gif) so a paste or a Save shows a name. Delete the directory any time.

Setup

Settings, [extensions.gifs]:

key type default what
giphy_api_key secret empty The Giphy app key.
content_filter off, low, medium, high medium What the results may show.
save_to folder ~/Downloads Where cmd+s writes the file.

[palettes.gifs.settings] columns (3 to 10, default 6): tiles per row.

What it does not do

  • Paste the GIF straight into the app in front: paste takes text, so Enter copies the file and you paste it. cmd+enter copies the url for places that take one.
  • Upload or share through Giphy: what it learns is the search.
  • Search without a key: the API requires one.

Platforms

macOS and Linux (copy_files puts file URLs on the pasteboard on macOS, text/uri-list on Linux).