Lepton: A Powerful Open-Source Tool for Managing GitHub Gist Code Snippets

leptongithub gist clientcode snippet manageropen source toolcode organization

Published·Mar 26, 2019Modified·Mar 26, 2019

Do you programmers ever face the need to save code snippets for future reference? Should you paste them into a file, use a note-taking tool, or try something else? Everyone has their own method, but xiaoz believes that professional tasks should be handled by professional tools. While GitHub can host code and GitHub Gist can store snippets, Gist's built-in features are limited. Here, we recommend a third-party open-source client called Lepton for more convenient code snippet management.

Lepton Key Features

Unlimited public/private snippets
Unlimited tags
Language groups
Markdown support
Jupyter Notebook viewer support
macOS / Win / Linux clients
GitHub Enterprise support
Immersive mode
Customization options
Dashboard
Search functionality
Proxy support
Free to use

Installing Lepton

Lepton supports clients for macOS, Windows, and Linux. You can download the latest version from Lepton releases and install it. Since Lepton is a client based on GitHub Gist, you will need to authorize and log in using your GitHub account.

Usage

When creating a new code snippet, it is recommended to follow the format [title] description #tag1 #tag2. This allows you to add descriptions and keywords to the project, making it easier to search later.

You can use the shortcut Shift + Space to search and quickly find the code snippets you need.

Configuring a Proxy

Due to certain reasons, accessing GitHub Gist from within China can be very slow or even impossible. You can configure a proxy in ~/.leptonrc to access it. The content should look like this:

"proxy": {
        "enable": true,
        "address": "socks://localhost:1080"
}

Note: On Windows, the path is C:\Users\username\.leptonrc. If this file does not exist, please create it manually. For more details, refer to the official documentation: https://github.com/hackjutsu/Lepton/wiki/FAQ

Conclusion

If you know of better code snippet management tools, feel free to leave a comment and recommend them.

Lepton Project Address: https://github.com/hackjutsu/Lepton