Snippets

Short texts by name and keyword, pasted into the app in front with the date, the clipboard or a UUID filled in.

palv0.1.0Productivitybundled

Install in pal

Ships inside pal. Installing puts an editable copy ahead of the bundled one.

Snippets: Snippets by name, the keyword as a tag, the first line as the subtitle
Snippets by name, the keyword as a tag, the first line as the subtitle
Snippets: The whole text in the detail pane, with its keyword and length
The whole text in the detail pane, with its keyword and length
Snippets: Paste, Copy, Edit and Delete on a snippet
Paste, Copy, Edit and Delete on a snippet
Snippets: Create Snippet: name, keyword and the text with its placeholders
Create Snippet: name, keyword and the text with its placeholders
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What it does

Snippets

Short texts by name and keyword, kept in the extension's storage and edited in the panel. Enter pastes the text into the app that was in front, cmd+c copies it instead. The keyword is a row keyword, so typing sig finds the signature; it shows as a tag, the first line of the text is the subtitle, and the whole text is in the detail pane (cmd+i) with its keyword and length.

Placeholders in the text are filled in when it is pasted or copied:

placeholder becomes
{clipboard} the newest text on the clipboard
{selection} the same as {clipboard} (Raycast's spelling; pal cannot read the selected text)
{date} today, YYYY-MM-DD
{time} now, HH:MM
{datetime} both, with a space between
{uuid} a fresh UUID, a different one per occurrence

Anything else in braces is left as it is, so a snippet of code keeps its braces. A snippet with placeholders carries a dynamic accessory.

The palette is indexed, so a snippet's name and keyword find it from the root, and the rows around the list are its tools:

row what
Create Snippet a form: name, keyword (one word, no spaces), text
Import Snippets a form with one path field; reads a JSON array of {name, text, keyword?} (Raycast's export too), skips a snippet whose name and text you already have, says how many came in
Export Snippets writes your snippets as a JSON array (no ids) to the path, ~/Downloads/pal-snippets.json by default, replacing the file

A keyword with a space in it is refused with the message under the field, as is a path that cannot be read or written.

Keyboard

keys action
enter Paste: hides, then pastes the filled text into the app in front
cmd+c Copy the filled text
cmd+e Edit: the form, filled in
ctrl+x Delete, after a confirm
cmd+i The detail pane, with the whole text

Setup

No settings. The snippets live in <data dir>/pal/storage/snippets.json (Storage in the Extensions guide), shared by every config profile.

Paste is a synthesised Cmd+V, which macOS only delivers from a process on the Accessibility list: without the permission pal shows the system prompt once per run and a toast, "Paste needs Accessibility", instead of half-doing it. On Linux the paste is Ctrl+V through wtype, else ydotool (which needs ydotoold running); with neither, paste fails and the toast says so. Copy needs nothing.

An import file looks like this:

[
  { "name": "Email signature", "keyword": "sig", "text": "Best,\nAda" },
  { "name": "Today", "keyword": "today", "text": "{date} {time}" }
]

What it does not do

  • No expansion by typing: Raycast expands a keyword typed in another app; pal pastes on Enter from the panel.
  • {cursor} is not supported: pal pastes the text whole and cannot place the caret, so it is left in the text as typed.
  • {selection} is the clipboard, not the selected text: copy first.
  • No rich text: what is pasted is plain text.

Platforms

macOS and Linux. Paste needs Accessibility on macOS and wtype or ydotool on Linux; everything else is the same on both.

Palettes 1

  • Snippetssnippetslist

    Every snippet by name and keyword, plus Create Snippet.

    • ↵Paste into the app in front
    • ⌘CCopy
    • ⌘EEdit
    • ⌃XDelete

Actions

  • PasteHides, then pastes the filled text into the app in front.↵
  • CopyThe filled text onto the clipboard.⌘C
  • EditThe form, filled in.⌘E
  • DeleteAsks first.⌃X
  • Create SnippetThe form, on the Create row.↵
  • Import…A JSON file's snippets, the ones you already have skipped.↵
  • Export…Your snippets to a JSON file.↵

Settings

No settings. It works out of the box.