Snippets

Snippets are saved chunks of text expanded by typing ;name inside an $EDITOR compose buffer. They’re meant for the bits of email you write the same way every time:

• “schedule a 15-min chat” closers
• recruiter responses
• decline templates
• one-liner postscripts

The TUI doesn’t intercept; expansion happens on the editor side via mxr’s compose helper. The snippet store is global and lives in your config.

CLI

mxr snippets list
mxr snippets set sig "— Bhekani · planetaryescape.io"
mxr snippets set decline "Thanks for thinking of me — passing for now. Best of luck with the search."
mxr snippets remove decline

Output formats: --format table|json|jsonl. Pipe to jq to script.

Use it in a draft

Open a compose buffer:

mxr compose --to alice@example.com --subject "..."

In your editor, type ;sig and run mxr-compose-expand (the helper installed alongside mxr; bound by default in the supplied vim/neovim/helix snippet — see your editor docs). The token expands inline.

For a quick one-shot reply:

mxr reply MESSAGE_ID --body-stdin <<EOF
Sounds good — see you Friday.

;sig
EOF

Examples

mxr snippets set followup-3d "Bumping this — has there been any movement since last Tuesday?"
mxr snippets set intro "Hi {first_name}, copying the team on this thread."
mxr snippets set followup "Following up on {thread_subject} ({today})."
mxr snippets set ack "Got it, will follow up by EOD."

Built-in tokens

Snippet bodies — and any text you type directly into the compose buffer — may reference these tokens. They are resolved at send time, once your draft has a to: and subject::

Token	Resolves to
{first_name}	First whitespace-delimited token of the recipient’s display name. Falls back to the email’s local part if no display name is set. Handles "Last, First" directory-export order.
{full_name}	Full display name of the recipient (the first address in to:).
{thread_subject}	Draft subject with leading Re: / Fwd: / Fw: chains stripped.
{today} / {date}	Today’s date in your local timezone (YYYY-MM-DD).
{year}	Current year (YYYY).

A token with no value (e.g. {first_name} when the draft has no recipient yet) is left literal so the send-time validator can warn about it instead of silently producing “Hi ,” in your message.

Custom {var} tokens you invent ({deadline}, {cc_team}, …) are treated as user-fillable — they pass through unchanged and are flagged at send-time, so you don’t ship a message with a half-edited template.

# Show me what's installed; pipe to jq for scripts.
mxr snippets list --format json | jq -r '.[].name'

TUI

There’s a read-only Snippets browser modal:

• Ctrl-p (palette) → “Snippets”
• j/k to navigate, body preview on the right, Esc to close

CRUD goes through the CLI on purpose — your editor is the canonical place to draft prose, not a TUI form.

See also

• Compose — the $EDITOR workflow that snippets ride on
• LLM features — when you want the system to draft, not just paste
• CLI: snippets — every flag