Snipdeck

A native Windows desktop app for managing parameterised CLI command snippets ("Snips"), organised by the CLI they belong to. Browse a CLI, pick a Snip, fill its arguments, and copy the resolved command to the clipboard — or run it in place and watch it live, with a clean, searchable run history.

Conceptually inspired by SnipCommand, with one defining difference: the CLI is the top-level organising axis — every Snip belongs to exactly one CLI (e.g. pl-app, mpt-app, inv-app).

Status

Snipdeck has shipped its v1 release and is stable — see Releases for the current build, or CHANGELOG.md for the full history. The installed app self-updates from then on.

The v1 feature set:

• Browse CLIs and Snips; author Snips with structured Text and Choice parameters, tags, favourites, and a Markdown description.
• Fill a Snip's parameters from a flyout with a live preview, and copy the resolved command to the clipboard.
• Run a Snip in its configured shell via a real pseudo-terminal (ConPTY) — so colours, spinners, progress bars and interactive prompts all work — watch it live, and keep a clean, searchable plain-text run history you can replay. Per-CLI shell, executable path and working directory configure how runs launch.
• Global hotkey (default Ctrl+Alt+S, rebindable), system tray with configurable close-to-tray, Light/Dark/System theme, and per-write plus pre-update store backups.
• Migrate from SnipCommand with the snipdeck-importer .NET global tool.

See TODO.md for the backlog of deferred and v2 ideas.

Install

Download Snipdeck-stable-Setup.exe from the latest release and run it. The installer is unpackaged (no Microsoft Store, no MSIX) and Velopack handles self-update from then on.

Windows 11 is the supported target — Mica backdrop only renders there; on Windows 10 it falls back to a solid colour.

Stack

• .NET 10, C#
• WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK) — unpackaged
• MVVM via CommunityToolkit.Mvvm
• DI via Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
• JSON persistence via System.Text.Json
• Identicons via Jdenticon-net
• Tray icon via H.NotifyIcon
• Install + self-update via Velopack
• Tests via xUnit

Repository layout

src/
  Snipdeck.Core/             net10.0         — UI-free domain, engine, store, services
  Snipdeck.App/              net10.0-windows — WinUI 3 head, platform implementations
tests/
  Snipdeck.Core.Tests/       net10.0         — xUnit coverage for Core
tools/
  Snipdeck.Importer/         net10.0         — snipdeck-importer console tool (SnipCommand import)
  Snipdeck.Importer.Tests/   net10.0         — xUnit coverage for the importer

The dependency direction is one-way: App → Core. The view models live in Core and never touch WinUI types directly — every platform-bound capability is an interface defined in Core and implemented in App.

Importing from SnipCommand

Migrating from SnipCommand? The cross-platform snipdeck-importer console tool reads a SnipCommand export and merges its snippets into your Snipdeck store, grouping them under a CLI per command. It defaults to a dry-run preview. Install it as a .NET global tool:

dotnet tool install -g NextIteration.Snipdeck.Importer

See tools/Snipdeck.Importer/README.md for the full options.

Building

Requirements:

• Windows 11 (Windows 10 1809+ may work but is not the target)
• .NET 10 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 17.x with the Windows App SDK workload, or the command-line equivalents

# Restore + build everything
dotnet build

# Run Core unit tests
dotnet test tests/Snipdeck.Core.Tests

The Snipdeck.Core project targets net10.0 and is fully portable, so dotnet build / dotnet test for Core also work on Linux and macOS. The Snipdeck.App project is Windows-only. The Snipdeck.Importer tool also targets net10.0 and builds, tests and runs on any platform.

Acknowledgements

Snipdeck owes its founding idea to SnipCommand by Güray Yarar — a cross-platform command snippet manager that demonstrated how useful parameterised, fill-in-and-copy command templates are day to day. Snipdeck reimagines that idea as a native Windows app organised around the CLI each command belongs to. A SnipCommand import tool ships in this repo.

Snipdeck is built on the work of these open-source projects, with thanks to their authors and maintainers:

• .NET Community Toolkit — MVVM source generators and helpers (MIT)
• Coverlet — code-coverage collection (MIT)
• H.NotifyIcon — system-tray icon and menu (MIT)
• Jdenticon — identicons for CLIs without a custom icon (MIT)
• Markdig — Markdown rendering for Snip descriptions (BSD-2-Clause)
• Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection — dependency injection (MIT)
• Nerdbank.GitVersioning — git-derived versioning (MIT)
• Porta.Pty — cross-platform pseudo-terminal (ConPTY) for running commands (MIT)
• Spectre.Console — console UI for the import tool (MIT)
• SQLite & Microsoft.Data.Sqlite — execution-history storage (Public Domain / MIT)
• Velopack — installer and self-update (MIT)
• WebView2 — hosts the xterm.js live terminal (Microsoft)
• Windows App SDK & WinUI 3 — the native Windows UI framework (MIT)
• Windows Community Toolkit — SettingsCard / SettingsExpander controls (MIT)
• xterm.js — renders the live terminal output (MIT)
• xUnit — unit-testing framework (Apache-2.0)

Licence

Licensed under the Apache Licence, Version 2.0. See LICENSE.