TeXPtxSnips

Snippet engine for LaTeX and PreTeXt in VS Code.

Forked from HyperSnips V2 (itself descended from hsnips and UltiSnips) to fix a handful of tabstop bugs and add PreTeXt support.

Quick start

Run TeXPtxSnips: Open Snippets Directory from the Command Palette, then add a file named after the language you want — latex.snips, pretext.snips — or all.snips for snippets shared across both. A minimal example:

snippet mk "inline math" A
\$$1\$
endsnippet

Type mk in a .tex file and it expands immediately, cursor left between the two $. Save the file (or run TeXPtxSnips: Reload Snippets) to pick up changes.

The .snips file format

Snippets

snippet trigger "description" flags
body text with $1 $2 tabstops
endsnippet

trigger is a bare word (mk) or a backtick-delimited regex (`([a-zA-Z])(\d)`), matched against the text right before the cursor. Capture groups are available in the body as m[1], m[2], etc.

The body uses standard VS Code snippet syntax: $1, ${1}, ${1:default text}, $0 for the final cursor position. Escape a literal $, \, or } as \$, \\, \}.

Flags

i, w, b only apply to bare-word triggers — a regex trigger's pattern is the whole boundary condition.

Code blocks

Splice in JavaScript between double backticks; assign to rv to produce output:

snippet `([a-zA-Z])(\d)` "auto subscript" wAm
``rv = m[1] + '_' + m[2]``
endsnippet

Available inside: m (regex capture groups), t (tabstop contents), w (workspace path), path (current file path). rv is spliced in as-is, so it can contain real snippet syntax (rv = '\\frac{' + m[1] + '}{$1}$0') — escape any $ you don't want treated as a tabstop.

global blocks and priority

global
function today() {
	return new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10);
}
endglobal

snippet date "today's date" A
``rv = today()``$0
endsnippet

A global block runs once on load; its functions and constants are visible to every code block in the file. priority N applies to the single snippet that follows it (default 0, higher wins on a tie).

File naming and merging

A file's name (minus .snips) is matched against the document's language ID — latex.snips for .tex, pretext.snips for .ptx. all.snips applies everywhere.

Syntax highlighting

.snips files get their own highlighting out of the box — triggers, flags, tabstops, and code blocks (with real JavaScript inside).

Math mode

The m flag gates a snippet on LaTeX math context — $...$, $$...$$, \(...\), \[...\], or a math environment (equation, align, cases, pmatrix, ...) — including \text{} correctly switching back to prose mid-formula.

Multi-field snippets

Two or more tabstops (\frac{$1}{$2}) get a real native Tab session. Zero or one tabstop is inserted as plain text with the cursor placed directly, which is what lets several A-flagged shortcuts chain inside one $...$.

Manual expansion

A snippet without A doesn't expand as you type — press Tab right after typing it.

Commands and settings

• TeXPtxSnips: Reload Snippets — re-read all .snips files (also happens automatically on save).
• TeXPtxSnips: Open Snippets Directory — create (if needed) and reveal the snippets folder.
• texptxsnips.snippetsDir — override the snippets folder. Defaults to a texptxsnips folder alongside VS Code's own User directory.