The Free Code Snippet Expander for Developers
IDE snippets stop working the moment you leave the IDE. TypeFire expands code in every editor, terminal, browser, and chat tool. Native Mac app for desktop coverage, free Chrome extension for browser-based tools. One canonical library, zero configuration per app, completely free.
Snippets, clips and notes. One app.
Everything you type, everything you copy, and the markdown vault you already have. Without switching apps once.
Why developers outgrow IDE snippets
VS Code snippets, JetBrains live templates, and Vim UltiSnips are useful within their editor. The problem is the rest of the day.
Only work in one IDE
VS Code snippets are invisible in Cursor. Cursor snippets do not work in JetBrains IDEs. JetBrains live templates do not work in Sublime. Switching tools means re-creating the same library.
Stop working outside the editor
The minute you write a commit message in iTerm, a PR description on GitHub, a Slack message to a teammate, or an email to a vendor, your IDE snippets are gone.
No dynamic data
Most IDE snippet engines only support placeholder tab-stops. They cannot insert today's date, your clipboard contents, or your cursor position dynamically.
Hard to share across machines
Some IDEs sync settings through their account, others through dotfiles, others through plugins. Maintaining the same snippet library across two machines and three IDEs is its own ongoing project.
Common developer snippets
Six patterns developers store on day one. The dynamic tokens resolve at expansion time so each snippet adapts to its context.
clogexpands toconsole.log({{clipboard}});Print whatever you just copied. The {{clipboard}} token resolves to your current clipboard contents.
trycexpands totry {
{{cursor}}
} catch (err) {
console.error(err);
}Try/catch scaffold. The {{cursor}} token positions your caret inside the try block ready to type.
todoexpands to// TODO ({{date:YYYY-MM-DD}} - NR): {{cursor}}Dated TODO with your initials. Useful when you want to grep TODOs by age later.
rcexpands toimport React from 'react';
export function {{cursor}}() {
return (
<div></div>
);
}React functional component scaffold with the cursor jumping to the component name.
routeexpands toexport async function GET(request: Request) {
{{cursor}}
return Response.json({ ok: true });
}Next.js API route scaffold. Adapt for POST/PUT/DELETE as separate snippets.
envexpands toprocess.env.{{cursor}} ?? ''Safe env access pattern with a fallback. Cursor lands at the variable name.
Snippets can run code
For cases that go beyond static templates, TypeFire supports JavaScript and AppleScript snippets that run when triggered.
JavaScript snippets
Write JS that reads the clipboard, transforms it, and returns the result. TypeFire pastes the return value.
// Pretty-print clipboard JSON const obj = JSON.parse(clipboard); return JSON.stringify(obj, null, 2);
Trigger this snippet after copying minified JSON to get formatted JSON pasted at the caret.
AppleScript snippets
Use AppleScript to query other Mac apps and paste the result. Same expansion mechanism, deeper system access.
tell application "Safari" return URL of current tab of window 1 end tell
Trigger this snippet to paste the URL of the active Safari tab without leaving your editor.
Built for the way developers actually work
Multiple editors, terminal-heavy days, AI-assisted writing, version control. TypeFire is designed around all of it.
Works in every editor
VS Code, Cursor, Zed, all JetBrains IDEs, Sublime, Nova, Xcode, Vim and Neovim in terminals, Emacs GUI. One library, every app.
Works in your terminal too
iTerm, Terminal, Warp, Alacritty, kitty. Your dev shorthand fires in shell prompts, git commit messages, and inside tmux just like it does in your editor.
Snippet vault is git-friendly
Snippets are plain Markdown files. Point your TypeFire vault at a git repo and version, diff, and share changes with normal git workflows.
AI tokens inside snippets
Drop {{ai:rewrite}} into a snippet to rewrite a selection, {{ai:summarize}} for a TL;DR, or {{ai:custom:explain-this-code}} for a custom prompt. Works with Apple Intelligence (free), Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, or local Ollama.
Global hotkeys per snippet
Bind your most-used snippet to a hotkey like Cmd+Shift+L. Press it from anywhere, paste happens immediately, no abbreviation needed.
Spotlight-style snippet finder
Press Ctrl+Cmd+Shift+T, type a few letters of a snippet name, paste it. Great for the long tail of snippets you do not memorize abbreviations for.
iCloud Sync across Macs
Edit a snippet on your desktop, the change appears on your laptop within seconds. Syncs through your own iCloud Drive, encrypted by Apple.
No vendor lock-in
All snippets are plain Markdown files. If you ever stop using TypeFire, your library remains readable in any text editor. No proprietary database to extract from.
Frequently asked questions
Developer-specific questions about using TypeFire as a code snippet expander.
IDE snippets only work inside that IDE. The moment you switch to Terminal, a PR description on GitHub, a Slack thread, an email, or your notes, the snippets stop working. A text expander works everywhere on macOS, so the same `clog` trigger that drops a console.log line in VS Code also works in iTerm, GitHub web, Linear, and Notion. For developers who jump between many text surfaces in a day, one universal expander beats configuring snippets in five different IDEs.
Yes. JavaScript snippets are a first-class content type in TypeFire. Write JS that runs at expansion time, and TypeFire pastes the return value. Use cases: transform clipboard contents (kebab to camelCase, JSON pretty-print, base64 encode), generate IDs, build a timestamp-prefixed log line, or compute anything that depends on context. The runtime has access to the clipboard, current date, and standard JS APIs. AppleScript snippets work the same way for deeper macOS integration.
Common patterns developers store as abbreviations include: 'clog' for console.log({{clipboard}}), 'tryc' for try/catch boilerplate, 'imp' for common import statements, 'todo' for TODO comments with the current date and your initials, 'env' for .env variable patterns, 'fn' for arrow function scaffolds, 'route' for Express/Next API route boilerplate, and 'comp' for React component scaffolds. Most developers have 30 to 80 code-related snippets after their first month, and the time savings compound as the library grows.
Yes. TypeFire uses macOS Accessibility APIs to monitor keystrokes system-wide, so it works in every IDE and code editor on macOS. Verified working in Cursor, VS Code, Zed, all JetBrains IDEs (WebStorm, IntelliJ, PyCharm, GoLand, RubyMine), Sublime Text, Vim and Neovim (when running in a normal terminal), Emacs (in GUI mode), Nova, Xcode, BBEdit, and TextMate. The abbreviation expansion works in the editor pane, the integrated terminal, the find-and-replace panel, and anywhere else you can type.
Yes. TypeFire stores all snippets as plain Markdown files in a vault folder you choose. Point your vault at a git repository and you can version, diff, and share snippet changes with the same tools you use for code. The Markdown format means the files are human-readable, mergeable, and survive any future move off TypeFire. There is no proprietary database to extract from.
Shell aliases only fire in the shell. Vim snippets only fire in Vim. UltiSnips only fires in Vim. VS Code snippets only fire in VS Code. TypeFire fires everywhere on macOS. If you want one canonical place for the same `console.log({{clipboard}})` expansion to work in any editor, any terminal, any web form, and any chat tool, a Mac-level text expander is the right layer. The shell aliases and IDE snippets you already have keep working, TypeFire just covers everything they do not reach.
Need TypeFire on Windows, Linux, or Chromebook?
The Mac app is macOS-only. The free Chrome extension covers every other operating system and works in every web app. Same email login, snippets round-trip via JSON between surfaces.
Same library, every editor
Get TypeFire, build your snippet library once, and stop re-creating the same scaffolds in every tool you use.
Free forever · macOS 12+ · Apple Silicon native