Snipsy

Type todo and a space, get - [ ]. Snipsy is the actively-maintained hotstring plugin for Obsidian — markdown-aware, with a community catalog and Espanso import. No scripting required.

Why Snipsy

The text-expansion niche in Obsidian has three things wrong with it: the long-standing leader hasn't shipped in four years, the alternatives lean on JavaScript-templating engines, and none of them is aware of markdown context. Snipsy is the simple answer:

• Actively maintained. Regular releases, every change passes CI with attested artifacts. 0 vulnerable dependencies on the latest dependency scan.
• Markdown-aware. Triggers don't fire inside fenced code blocks, inline code, or YAML frontmatter. Most competitors don't draw that line.
• No scripting. If you need JavaScript or dynamic templates, use Templater — it's purpose-built for that. Snipsy is for users who want hotstrings with zero setup.
• Community catalog. 10 starter packs cover Markdown essentials, daily journaling, GTD, dev boilerplate, code review, research notes, math symbols and more. Install in one click. Or paste any Espanso Hub package's YAML.

Try these out of the box

Snipsy ships with these triggers ready to use. Type the trigger followed by a space — Snipsy expands it as soon as the space lands.

Want more? Browse the community catalog in Settings → Snipsy → Packages — 10 starter packs cover Markdown essentials, daily journaling, GTD, meetings, dev boilerplate, code review, research notes, symbols & math, date stamps. Or paste any Espanso .yml from hub.espanso.org into the Espanso import section.

Quick start

1. Install Snipsy from Obsidian's Settings → Community plugins → Browse.
2. Enable it.
3. Open a Markdown note and type todo followed by a space. It expands to - [ ].

That's it. Open Settings → Snipsy to add your own snippets, browse the catalog, or set up hotkeys.

Add a snippet

Settings → Snipsy → Snippets → Add new snippet → pick a trigger (e.g. sig) and replacement (e.g. Best,\nDmitriy). Save. Now typing sig and a space expands to your signature anywhere you type.

Set up the picker hotkey

The picker is a Command Palette command called Insert snippet… — it's searchable, has a live preview, and inserts at the cursor. To set a hotkey: Settings → Hotkeys → search "snipsy" → bind.

How expansion works

Snipsy watches for triggers followed by a separator — a space, Enter, or common punctuation. When the separator lands, the trigger gets replaced; the separator itself stays exactly where you typed it.

Two ways to invoke (identical result):

You type:   todo·
You get:    - [ ]·                ← cursor right after the bracket

You type:   :todo·                ← Espanso-style invocation
You get:    :- [ ]·               ← the leading ":" is your typed character, so it stays

The · is the trailing space you typed. Most users skip the leading : and just type todo, but Espanso muscle memory works too — Snipsy treats : as a separator, so it bounds the trigger the same way a space does.

Multi-line snippets place the cursor on the right line:

You type:   note·
You get:    > [!note]
            > ·                   ← cursor on the body line, ready to type the note

What's safe:

• ✅ Triggers don't expand mid-word
• ✅ Triggers don't expand inside fenced code blocks (```)
• ✅ Triggers don't expand inside inline code (`)
• ✅ Triggers don't expand inside YAML frontmatter
• ✅ The cursor lands where the snippet defines it ($|), with support for $date / $time / $filename / $clipboard placeholders and $1/$2 tabstops

Packages

Snipsy has two ways to get pre-made snippets:

Community catalog. Hosted at Dimagious/snipsidian-community. Open Settings → Snipsy → Packages, browse the list, click Install. Each pack lives in its own group so you can uninstall it later by deleting the group. The current catalog covers:

• Markdown Essentials — headings, emphasis, code fences, tables, links
• Obsidian Power-User — dataview blocks, frontmatter, embeds, wikilinks
• Daily Journal — daily note, weekly review, gratitude, morning pages
• GTD & Productivity — project / next-action / waiting-for / context tags
• Meetings — meeting notes, 1:1, standup, retrospective
• Developer Boilerplate — JS/TS/Python function shells, log shortcuts, try/catch
• Code Review — Conventional Comments labels (praise / nit / suggestion / blocking)
• Research & Academic — literature notes, claim-evidence, citations
• Symbols & Math — arrows, operators, Greek letters, currency
• Date & Time — $date / $time stamps, log entries
• Obsidian Callouts — >note, >tip, >warning, >danger, etc.
• Basic Emojis — common emoji shortcuts (smile → 😀, fire → 🔥, etc.)

Espanso import. Most Espanso packages are plain YAML. Copy the YAML from any package on Espanso Hub, paste it into Espanso import, click Install. Conflicts open a preview so you can resolve them before anything writes to disk.

Privacy

Snipsy is offline-first.

• Reads/writes only .obsidian/plugins/snipsidian/data.json in your vault.
• Network: a single request to api.github.com when you open the Community packages tab (to list the catalog). No analytics, no telemetry, no account.
• Optional submission flow uses a Google Form (your choice to fill it in).

When Snipsy is NOT the right tool

Be honest: a few jobs are better served elsewhere.

• Dynamic templates with JavaScript? Use Templater — it owns this category.
• System-wide expansion (in any app, not just Obsidian)? Use Espanso — runs as a background process.
• Just want to retrieve and fuzzy-search snippets without auto-expansion? Snippets Manager is closer to that use case.

Snipsy fits between these — hotstring-style auto-expansion, inside Obsidian, with a catalog. No more, no less.

Project status

Active. Releases are tag-driven; the release workflow attests build provenance for every binary it ships. The CHANGELOG.md is a Keep-a-Changelog file maintained on every release.

If something breaks, open an issue. Bug reports help; "this isn't working" without steps doesn't.

Development

If you're building / contributing, the short version:

git clone https://github.com/Dimagious/snipsidian.git
cd snipsidian
npm install
npm run build:vault   # build into VAULT_PLUGIN
npm test              # vitest with coverage

Set VAULT_PLUGIN to your test vault's plugin folder:

export VAULT_PLUGIN="/path/to/vault/.obsidian/plugins/snipsidian"

Full conventions, release flow, and architecture notes live in CLAUDE.md (when present locally; ignored from the repo).

License

MIT. Use it, fork it, share it.

Acknowledgments

Espanso — inspiration and YAML format. Obsidian — the plugin host. Everyone who's filed a bug or suggested a feature so far.

Support

If Snipsy saves you keystrokes:

• ⭐ Star the repo so others find it.
• 🐛 Open an issue when something breaks.
• ☕ Buy me a coffee if you want to encourage more work.