Snippy

Snippy is a code snippet manager where the entire application — API server, web interface, CSS, JavaScript — compiles into a single Go binary. No external files, no runtime dependencies, no npm install. You download one file, run it, and everything works.

The Single-Binary Approach

The main constraint I set for this project was that everything had to ship as one executable. Go's embed package makes this possible: HTML templates, CSS, and JavaScript are compiled directly into the binary at build time.

//go:embed static/*
var staticFiles embed.FS

//go:embed templates/*
var templateFiles embed.FS

The result is a ~10MB binary that you can drop on any machine and run. No Docker, no file system expectations, no config files required to get started.

How It Works

Snippy runs a small HTTP server that serves both the web UI and a REST API. Snippets are stored locally in a SQLite database (also embedded — no external database needed). The CLI commands talk to the same API, so you can use whichever interface fits your workflow.

• Save snippets from the terminal or the web UI
• Tag and organize across languages and categories
• Fuzzy search by name, tag, or content
• Copy to clipboard with one keystroke

Why Go

Go was the right choice here specifically because of the single-binary goal. The embed package, static compilation, and cross-compilation support mean I can build for Linux, macOS, and Windows from one machine. The binary starts instantly and uses minimal memory — it's the kind of tool that can run in the background without you noticing.