Snipsy

Type todo and a space, get - [ ]. Hotstrings for Obsidian, markdown-aware, no scripting.

A trigger expands when a separator lands after it. The separator stays where you typed it, and the caret goes where the snippet says.

What is in it

Install

Snipsy is in Obsidian's community plugin catalog.

1. Settings›Community plugins›Browse
2. Search for Snipsy, then Install and Enable.
3. Open any note, type todo and a space. The line becomes - [ ] with the caret after it.

Insert snippet…

For a snippet whose trigger you do not remember, run Snipsy: Insert snippet… from the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd P). It searches your triggers and shows the whole expansion before you pick one. With text selected, the same picker opens as Wrap selection.

> [!note]
> 

A sketch of the picker: the query, the matching triggers with their group, and a preview of the one under the cursor. Command id insert-snippet.

A hotkey

The second command, Snipsy: Open settings, opens the plugin's settings tab. To put a key on either one, go to Settings›Hotkeys and search for "snipsy". Or use Set hotkey for Insert snippet in Snipsy's settings: it opens that screen with the search already filled in.

On Obsidian 1.13 and later the settings are native: Snippets and Packages open as pages, everything else sits on the Snipsy settings screen, and Obsidian's settings search finds them. Older Obsidian shows the same settings as Snippets, Packages, General and About tabs.

Sixteen defaults, one group

A fresh install comes with these, all in one group called Defaults. marks where the caret lands, ↵ is a line break.

Your first snippet

1. Settings›Snipsy›Snippets›Add snippet
2. Trigger: sig. The dialog answers under the field: Will expand when you type: sig.
3. Replacement: two lines, Best, and your name. Save.
4. In a note, type sig and a space.

trigger: sig
replacement: |
  Best,
  Dmitriy

The two fields above are what you fill in; the dialog is a form, not YAML. The caret ends up after the last character, with the space you typed still after it.

Placeholders

A replacement is plain text with a few words that fill in when it expands.

## $filename, $date $time
- $|

Groups

Every snippet lives in a group. The defaults are one, and each pack or import you add gets its own.

• The toggle on a group header mutes the whole group: its triggers stop expanding and leave the picker. The group stays in the list, dimmed, and you can still edit it.
• Select several snippets to move or delete them together.
• Deleting asks first, and names the first five triggers it is about to remove.

How expansion works

A trigger expands when a separator lands right after it. These count as separators:

The separator stays where you typed it. Type brb and a comma, and you get be right back,. A snippet that spans lines puts the caret on the line it names, so note leaves you inside the callout, ready to write.

Where it stays quiet

Snipsy never expands:

• inside a fenced code block
• inside inline code
• in YAML frontmatter
• in the middle of a word: photodo is left alone

Since 1.3.0 only real typing triggers it. None of these expand, even when they end in a trigger:

• a paste
• undo and redo
• drag and drop
• another plugin's edit
• IME composition, so Chinese, Japanese and Korean input works as usual

Prefix mode

For writers who kept getting now and today expanded in the middle of a sentence. In Settings›Snipsy›Expansion, turn on Require a prefix before triggers and pick : or ;.

The prefix is consumed: it does not stay in the note. It is one switch for every trigger, and it is off by default.

Community catalog

Settings›Packages lists ready-made packs from the catalog repository. One click installs a pack into its own group; uninstalling deletes that group.

Reinstall a pack whose snippets you have edited, and a preview asks before anything is written: keep yours, or overwrite it. A pack that wants a trigger used by a different snippet in another group is not installed, and the notice names the trigger. The list is cached for 24 hours, and works offline from that cache.

Have a set worth sharing? Submit it from the plugin, and Snipsy opens a GitHub issue with it already filled in.

Espanso import

Paste an Espanso .yml, from hub.espanso.org or your own config, name the group, and press Import snippets.

matches:
  - trigger: ":sig"
    replace: "Best,\nDmitriy$|$"
  - trigger: ":paste"
    replace: "> {{clipboard}}"
  - trigger: ":ymd"
    replace: "{{d}}"
    vars:
      - name: d
        type: date
        params:
          format: "%Y-%m-%d"
  - trigger: ":ask"
    form: "Hi [[name]]"

$|$ becomes $|, {{clipboard}} becomes $clipboard, and a plain date variable becomes $date or $time. Forms, scripts, shell commands, regex triggers and images have no Snipsy equivalent. They are skipped and listed by name, instead of arriving broken. The same size limits apply as for a catalog install.

Backup

Export snippets and Import snippets in Snipsy's settings move your snippets as one JSON file. On mobile, export writes snipsidian-snippets.json to the root of the vault, and falls back to the clipboard when it cannot.

Privacy

Snipsy works offline. Everything it keeps is in one file: .obsidian/plugins/snipsidian/data.json.

$clipboard reads the clipboard only when a snippet containing it expands. None of the defaults use it.

What it leaves out

Snipsy replaces a word with text. It does not do these, by design:

• templates with JavaScript (see Templater)
• expansion outside Obsidian, in every app (see Espanso)
• a snippet library you search but never type (see Snippets Manager)
• Tab-stops that jump from field to field
• scripting of any kind

If one of these stops you, say what you tried.

Questions