curl-able knowledge: the REST API for your base

First call in one paste

curl -X POST https://the-snip.com/api/v1/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer snip_YOUR_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"retry with backoff","type":"snippet"}'

Returns an array of matching items (truncated):

[
  {
    "id": "0198f2c1-4e2a-7d31-b3a4-9c6d2f8e1a07",
    "workspaceId": "…",
    "type": "snippet",
    "status": "approved",
    "title": "Retry with exponential backoff",
    "language": "typescript",
    "code": "export async function retry(fn, tries = 3) { /* ... */ }",
    "updatedAt": "2026-07-12T09:30:00.000Z",
    ...
  }
]

curl -X POST https://the-snip.com/api/v1/snippets \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer snip_YOUR_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"Retry with exponential backoff","language":"typescript","code":"export async function retry(fn, tries = 3) { /* ... */ }"}'

Returns 201 with the created item — agent writes land in review ("status": "in_review") until a human approves:

{
  "id": "0198f2c1-9b57-7aa2-8c11-2e5f7d4b6c93",
  "workspaceId": "…",
  "type": "snippet",
  "status": "in_review",
  "createdVia": "agent",
  "title": "Retry with exponential backoff",
  "language": "typescript",
  "createdAt": "2026-07-12T09:31:00.000Z",
  ...
}

curl -X PATCH https://the-snip.com/api/v1/items/ITEM_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer snip_YOUR_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"description":"Adds jitter between attempts."}'

Returns 200 with the updated item — updates are re-gated to review — or 404 when the id is not visible in your workspace.

Error shapes — exactly what failure looks like

Every error is {"error":{"code","message"}} plus machine-actionable fields. These are the real bodies, verbatim:

{"error":{"code":"invalid_json","message":"Body must be valid JSON"}}

{"error":{"code":"invalid_request","message":"Invalid request","details":[{"path":"title","message":"..."}]}}

{"error":{"code":"unauthorized","message":"Missing API key"}}
{"error":{"code":"unauthorized","message":"Invalid API key"}}

{"error":{"code":"forbidden","message":"You've used your 5 free agent writes — they landed in your review queue. Unlimited agent writes are part of Pro & Team ($8/user): https://the-snip.com/upgrade"}}
{"error":{"code":"forbidden","message":"Free plan cap reached (25 items). Upgrade for unlimited: https://the-snip.com/upgrade"}}

{"error":{"code":"rate_limited","message":"Rate limit exceeded (60/min per workspace). Retry in 21s","retry_after_sec":21}}

{"error":{"code":"not_found","message":"Not found"}}

Rate limit: 60 requests per minute per workspace, across all nine operations.

Hand this API to your LLM

Download a Markdown file that teaches any AI assistant this whole API — the nine operations, the review gate, the error contract. Paste it into your CLAUDE.md, project instructions, or system prompt.

The CLI

A zero-dependency, single-file CLI (Node >= 20, built-in fetch — nothing to install beyond Node) that wraps the same API. It adds no operations of its own.

curl -fsSL https://the-snip.com/cli -o ~/.local/bin/the-snip && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/the-snip

Windows: iwr https://the-snip.com/cli -OutFile the-snip.mjs then run commands as node the-snip.mjs <command> — no chmod or shebang on Windows.

Quickstart: the-snip login snip_...with a key from Settings → API keys, then you're in.

Add --json to any command to get the raw response body for scripts. Errors print the real server message — including upgrade URLs and retry_after on a 429.

Same base, native protocol

Prefer MCP? The hosted MCP server exposes the same nine operations as native tools for Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes and any MCP client. The REST surface fits a shared team API request library and anything that can run curl.