snip

A local-first code snippet manager. Save snippets, optionally let an AI provider auto-tag and describe them, then search across everything in natural language. SQLite under the hood, no account required.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/kyroX-D/Snip.git
cd Snip
pip install -e .

Optional dependency groups install the SDK for whichever AI provider you want to use:

pip install -e ".[anthropic]"   # Claude
pip install -e ".[openai]"      # GPT
pip install -e ".[google]"      # Gemini
pip install -e ".[all]"         # all three

Ollama needs no extra install — snip talks to it directly over HTTP.

Commands

snip add                  # paste a snippet, auto-tagged if an AI provider is available
snip add --no-ai          # skip AI, save as-is
snip add --provider openai

snip list                 # tabular listing
snip search "redis pubsub"
snip show 42
snip copy 42              # to system clipboard
snip edit 42              # opens $EDITOR
snip delete 42
snip delete 42 --yes      # no confirmation

snip config               # which provider is active, key/dep status, db info

Example

$ snip add
Paste code, then press Ctrl-D to finish:
def chunked(iterable, n):
    it = iter(iterable)
    while batch := list(islice(it, n)):
        yield batch
^D
Saved snippet #7 (python)
#python #generator #itertools #batching #utility

$ snip search batching
1 match(es):

╭──────────────────────────────────────╮
│ #7  python  2025-04-26 10:14         │
│ Yields successive n-sized chunks…    │
│ #python #generator #itertools …      │
╰──────────────────────────────────────╯

AI providers

snip auto-detects which provider to use based on environment variables. Detection order is Anthropic → OpenAI → Google → Ollama. The first one with a valid key wins; if none are set, snip checks whether Ollama is running locally. If nothing is available, AI tagging is silently skipped and the snippet is saved as-is.

Provider	Env var	Model	Cost
Anthropic	SNIP_ANTHROPIC_KEY	claude-haiku-4-5-20251001	API billed
OpenAI	SNIP_OPENAI_KEY	gpt-4o-mini	API billed
Google	SNIP_GOOGLE_KEY	gemini-1.5-flash	API billed
Ollama	(none)	llama3 on localhost:11434	free, fully local

Cloud AI providers receive the snippet text for tagging. Use --no-ai to keep a snippet entirely local, or use Ollama for local-only tagging.

Override the auto-detected choice with --provider on snip add.

Anthropic

export SNIP_ANTHROPIC_KEY=sk-ant-...
pip install -e ".[anthropic]"

OpenAI

export SNIP_OPENAI_KEY=sk-...
pip install -e ".[openai]"

Google (Gemini)

export SNIP_GOOGLE_KEY=...
pip install -e ".[google]"

Ollama (local, free)

Install Ollama from https://ollama.com, then:

ollama pull llama3
ollama serve   # usually starts automatically

That's it. With no API keys set, snip will use Ollama by default when it is running. In that mode, snippet text stays on your machine.

Privacy

All snippets live in a single SQLite file at ~/.snip/snippets.db (mode 0600 on POSIX). Nothing is ever uploaded or transmitted, with one exception: when AI tagging is enabled, the snippet body is sent to whichever provider you configured. Pick Ollama if you want full local-only operation.

API keys are read from environment variables only. They are never logged, printed, or written to disk by snip.

License

MIT