Snippets¶

Paste text you define: boilerplate, email signatures, code templates, or anything you type often. Type s <name> to find a snippet and paste it with placeholders filled in, or turn on expansion as you type to replace a snippet's keyword in any app.

How to use it¶

Define snippets in your config.toml:

[[snippet]]
name = "Email signature"
keyword = "sig"
text = "Best regards,\nNinad\n{date}"

[[snippet]]
name = "License header"
keyword = "lic"
text = "# Apache License 2.0 - https://example.com"

[[snippet]]
name = "Meeting notes"
text = """
## Attendees
- 

## Agenda
- 

## Action items
- 
"""

Then search by name or keyword:

Type	Shown	Press `Enter`
`s email`	"Email signature" (matches name)	Pastes the text with `{date}` replaced by today
`s sig`	"Email signature" (matches keyword)	Pastes the text
`s lic`	"License header" (exact keyword match ranked highest)	Pastes the text
`s meet`	"Meeting notes" (fuzzy match on name)	Pastes the text (no placeholders to fill)

When you press Enter, Sevak hides, brings back the app that was in focus, and pastes the snippet (unless pasting is unavailable).

Keyword matching¶

A keyword is optional and gives the snippet an alternative search term:

Type s signature → finds "Email signature" by name.
Type s sig → finds "Email signature" by keyword (and ranks higher).
Type s email sig → finds "Email signature" because it matches either term.

An exact match on a keyword outranks any fuzzy match on the name, so s sig shows "Email signature" first even if you have other snippets with "sig" in the name.

Placeholders¶

Placeholders are filled in when you press Enter, not while you type. This means {time} gives the time of the paste, and {clipboard} reads the clipboard only then.

Placeholder	Result	Example
`{date}`	Today in `YYYY-MM-DD` format	`2026-10-03`
`{time}`	Now in `HH:MM` format (24-hour)	`14:05`
`{datetime}`	Today and now together	`2026-10-03 14:05`
`{date:FORMAT}`	Today in strftime format	`{date:%d %B %Y}` → `03 October 2026`
`{time:FORMAT}`	Now in strftime format	`{time:%H:%M:%S}` → `14:05:23`
`{datetime:FORMAT}`	Now in strftime format	`{datetime:%Y-%m-%d at %H:%M}` → `2026-10-03 at 14:05`
`{clipboard}`	The text on the clipboard when you pressed `Enter`	(whatever you had copied)
`{uuid}`	A fresh random UUID v4	`550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000`
`{{`	A literal `{`	`{{key}}` → `{key}`
`}}`	A literal `}`	(same)

Anything else in braces ({unknown}, {}, a lone {) is left exactly as written, so code snippets with braces usually just work:

[[snippet]]
name = "Python lambda"
text = "lambda x: {x * 2}"  # The {x * 2} is left as-is

Common formats¶

A few handy strftime formats for custom dates and times:

[[snippet]]
name = "ISO week date"
text = "{date:%G-W%V}"                      # 2026-W40

[[snippet]]
name = "US date"
text = "{date:%m/%d/%Y}"                    # 10/03/2026

[[snippet]]
name = "File timestamp"
text = "backup_{datetime:%Y%m%d_%H%M%S}"    # backup_20261003_140523

[[snippet]]
name = "Markdown heading + date"
text = "## {date:%A, %B %-d, %Y}"           # ## Thursday, October 3, 2026

Actions¶

Enter: Paste the selected snippet into the app you were in.
Ctrl+K (action panel): See all available actions for the selected snippet (typically just paste and copy).
Ctrl+C: Copy the selected snippet's text to the clipboard without pasting into the previous app. Placeholders are not filled.

Options¶

Setting	Default	What it does	Config section
Snippets	(empty)	List of `[[snippet]]` entries with name, optional keyword, and text	`[[snippet]]`
Restore clipboard	`false`	Put back the clipboard's previous text after pasting (also affects clipboard history)	`[paste] restore_clipboard`
Expand as you type	`false`	Replace a snippet's keyword when you type it in any app; watches keystrokes while on	`[snippets] auto_expand`
Prefix	`""`	Typed before every keyword, e.g. `;`	`[snippets] prefix`
Expand on	`"immediate"`	`"immediate"`, or `"delimiter"` (a space or punctuation follows)	`[snippets] expand_on`
Case-sensitive	`true`	`false`: `SIG` and `sig` both expand	`[snippets] case_sensitive`
Ignore apps	(empty)	Never watch or expand in these apps	`[snippets] ignore_apps`
Expand in terminals	`false`	Also expand in terminal windows	`[snippets] expand_in_terminals`
Expand in web browsers	`false`	Also expand in web browsers (also in Settings → Plugins)	`[snippets] expand_in_browsers`

Expand snippets as you type¶

Give a snippet a keyword, turn on Settings → Plugins → Expand snippets as you type (or [snippets] auto_expand = true), and typing the keyword in any app replaces it with the snippet's text, placeholders filled in:

[snippets]
auto_expand = true
prefix = ";"               # ";sig" expands, a plain "sig" does not

[[snippet]]
name = "Email signature"
keyword = "sig"
text = "Best regards,\nNinad\n{date}"

Sevak presses Backspace once for each character you typed, then pastes the text (the clipboard is saved first and put back afterwards, and kept out of clipboard history). Choose the moment with expand_on: "immediate" (the default) fires on the last character of the keyword, "delimiter" waits for a space or punctuation mark and keeps it after the text, which also lets ;a and ;ab both exist.

Rules worth knowing:

A keyword starting with a letter or digit only counts at the start of a word, so sig does not fire inside assign. A keyword starting with punctuation (;sig, or any prefix that is punctuation) fires anywhere. A prefix is recommended: short keywords are easy to type by accident.
The longest matching keyword wins. In immediate mode a keyword that is the start of another (;a and ;ab) fires first, so ;ab is unreachable; use delimiter mode or different keywords.
Matching is case-sensitive unless case_sensitive = false. The expanded text is never changed to fit the case you typed.
Expanding takes a moment (a few hundred milliseconds, mostly waiting for the app to read the pasted text). If you type another character right after the keyword, or switch to another window, Sevak leaves the keyword alone rather than delete the wrong text or paste into the wrong app. Your clipboard is put back afterwards unless you copied something else in the meantime.
Enter and Tab do not expand: the app has already sent the line or moved the focus by the time Sevak could act. End the keyword with a space or punctuation in delimiter mode instead.
Typing with Ctrl, Alt or Cmd held, arrow keys, Home / End, clicking, switching windows, Esc and Enter all make Sevak forget what you had typed, so a keyword has to be typed in one go. Backspace is followed.
Input methods (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and emoji pickers do not type through keys Sevak can follow; keywords containing such characters cannot expand. Letters typed with a dead key (´ then e) are followed for the common accents on Windows only; on macOS, anything typed with Option held resets.

This feature watches your keystrokes while it is on

What Sevak keeps and where it does not look:

Only the last 64 characters you typed, in memory, to compare with your keywords. They are never written to disk, never logged and never sent anywhere, and Sevak has no telemetry. They are overwritten whenever the text could have changed under them (see above) and after every expansion.
Nothing is observed while the setting is off: expansion does not listen to the keyboard. (On Windows the launcher shortcut can use the same keyboard hook when it needs to, for Win+Space; it only compares key presses with your shortcuts and reads nothing. See Privacy.)
Typing in Sevak's own windows, in terminals (unless expand_in_terminals = true), in web browsers (unless expand_in_browsers = true) and in apps listed in ignore_apps (["KeePassXC", "1Password"], matched like clipboard history) is not recorded. Neither is typing in an app Sevak cannot identify (a protected or elevated process on Windows, a window without a class on X11, an app without a bundle id on macOS): the rules above cannot be applied to it, so nothing is watched or expanded there. Where the system can say so, a focused password box is skipped too, see below.
Security software may flag any program that installs a keyboard hook. Sevak installs it only when you turn this on, or on Windows when a shortcut such as Win+Space needs it.

Password fields and web browsers¶

Sevak skips a password field when the system tells it that is what has focus:

Windows: edit controls in password mode, and anything UI Automation reports as a password field (the focused element's IsPassword): WPF, WinUI/UWP, Qt and Electron apps, and web pages in browsers whose accessibility support is on. Whether a browser exposes its password fields depends on its version and settings (Chromium-based browsers can turn their accessibility support on when a UI Automation client asks; others may need it enabled in the browser). The question is asked on a helper thread with a 50 ms limit and the answer is reused for 300 ms per window; if it is not answered in time, or the app does not expose its controls (canvas-drawn password boxes, some games and remote-desktop windows, a process running as administrator when Sevak is not), Sevak cannot tell and treats the field as an ordinary one.
macOS: while "secure event input" is on, which password fields in most apps turn on.
Linux (X11): the X server offers no way to ask. Nothing is detected.

Because this is not reliable for web pages, web browsers are skipped altogether unless you set [snippets] expand_in_browsers = true (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, Safari, Arc, Zen, LibreWolf and Chromium count). If you turn it on, remember that a keyword typed inside a password field in a page can still expand, so use a prefix you never type in a password, such as ;.

System	What happens
Windows	A low-level keyboard hook (`WH_KEYBOARD_LL`). It sees typing into every app at Sevak's own privilege level; it cannot see windows running as administrator unless Sevak does too. Windows can silently remove a hook that was too slow, and a lock, a remote-desktop switch or a display change can leave one dead, so Sevak puts the hook in again every minute and shortly after a session unlock, display change or wake from sleep.
macOS	A listen-only event tap. Needs System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring → Sevak (macOS shows a prompt the first time; restart Sevak afterwards) and Accessibility, which pasting needs anyway.
Linux, X11	The X server's RECORD extension. Works without any permission. Dead keys and compose sequences reset instead of being followed.
Linux, Wayland	Not possible: Wayland does not let an app watch typing in other apps or press keys for them. Settings says so.

If the keyword was typed and nothing happened, check the troubleshooting entry.

Pasting: platform notes¶

WindowsmacOSLinux (X11)Linux (Wayland)

Pasting works in most applications. Exception: applications running with elevated privileges (Admin, UAC elevation) cannot receive simulated keypresses, so Sevak copies instead and the row says so.

Requires System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → Sevak to paste. Without this permission, Sevak copies instead and the row shows "Copies to clipboard". Keyboard layouts that move the V key (e.g. Dvorak) also prevent pasting; use copy instead.

Pasting works in most applications.

Applications cannot simulate keypresses, so Sevak can only copy. The row shows "Copies to clipboard".

Editing snippets¶

The Settings window does not let you edit snippets (only the expansion switch and its options under Plugins: prefix, timing, case, terminals and ignored apps) (to keep hand-written entries untouched, with proper formatting and comments). Edit them by opening config.toml directly:

Choose Settings → Open config file (or find it in Files and data).
Edit the [[snippet]] sections.
Save the file and choose Reload index from Sevak's tray or restart.

Each [[snippet]] must have a name and text; the keyword is optional. Names do not have to be unique (if you have duplicates, Sevak adds a number like "Email #2" to each).

Tips and troubleshooting¶

Shared snippets

Store config.toml in a synced folder (Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, git) with SEVAK_CONFIG_DIR=~/Dropbox/sevak. The [[snippet]] entries sync across devices. See Configuration reference.

Long multiline snippets

Use triple-quoted TOML strings to avoid escaping newlines:

[[snippet]]
name = "Meeting notes"
text = """
## Attendees
- 

## Agenda
- 
"""

Generate UUIDs

Each time you paste a snippet with {uuid}, a fresh UUID is generated. Use it in multiple places in a snippet to get different UUIDs:

[[snippet]]
name = "Pair of UUIDs"
text = "{uuid}\n{uuid}"

Escaping braces in JSON or code

Snippets containing braces (JSON, programming languages) can conflict with placeholders. Use {{ and }} to escape them:

[[snippet]]
name = "JSON template"
text = "{{\"user\": \"{clipboard}\"}}"
# Pastes: {"user": "..."}