vscode-clippers

Quickly create snippets from your selection.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9d67e7c6-f4a8-45c9-b4f2-37381f59611b

Snippets are useful and powerful, but I don't like using gigantic snippet packs, which are hard to remember and don't match my preferences / project style. VS Code's snippets syntax is great, but creating a new snippet in raw JSON is painful.

Enter vscode-clippers, the goal of which is to make creating snippets as fast and easy as possible.

[!WARNING] vscode-scissors is in beta status. If you already have workspace / global snippet file(s), I strongly recommend backing them up before using the plugin to avoid potential data loss.

Usage

Select some text, then run Clippers: Create Global Snippet or Clippers: Create Workspace Snippet from the command palette. (You can, of course, bind each command if you really, really like snippets.)

vscode-clippers will open a new editor window containing your selected text. This is a normal VS Code editor window, so you can use your favorite keyboard shortcuts / plugins to edit the snippet, including full syntax highlighting and formatting. In your new snippet, you can use VS Code's snippet syntax, including variables (which are autocompleted!).

When you're done, save the file, and you'll be prompted to enter a prefix for the snippet. Enter a prefix, and you're done! The snippet is now available globally or for your workspace for the language the snippet was originally extracted from.

FAQ

How do I edit snippets?

vscode-scissors focuses on creating snippets, so it does not provide a mechanism to edit them after creation. Use VS Code's native Snippets: Configure Snippets command to open the appropriate file and edit it manually. (I find that I rarely need to do so, and editing JSON is fine for small edits.)

Can I set a name or description?

vscode-scissors wants you to create snippets as fast as possible, so this is not currently supported. If you need to set these properties, you can use Snippets: Configure Snippets to edit the snippet file directly.

Can I customize the location of the snippets file?

To reduce the odds of conflicts with existing snippets, custom locations aren't currently supported, but if you have a strong use case, please open an issue.

Credits

• nvim-scissors, an excellent Neovim plugin that is the direct inspiration for this one

Release Notes

1.0.1

Lower VS Code version requirement.

1.0.0

Initial release.