Feature Request: Native Code Snippets support (like Zed/VS Code)

[rayachristian]

When writing structured technical documents or presentations in MarkText (such as custom Markdown flavors with semantic containers, slide layouts, or complex diagram blocks like Mermaid and WaveDrom), I find myself repeatedly typing or copying/pasting the same boilerplate structures.

Currently, there is no native, user-configurable way to trigger rapid code expansions (snippets) in MarkText.

I would love to see a native Snippets feature implemented in MarkText, similar to how modern editors like Zed or VS Code handle them.

For those unfamiliar, a snippet is a reusable block of text or code that can be inserted into a document using a shortcut trigger (prefix) followed by the Tab key. It supports:

• Tabstops ($1, $2, etc.): Allows the cursor to jump quickly between predefined fill-in fields using the Tab key.
• Placeholders (${1:default_value}): Pre-fills fields with default text.
• Context-awareness (Block vs. Inline):
• Block-level: Only triggers on a fresh, empty line (perfect for layouts, tables, YAML headers, or diagram fences).
• Inline: Triggers anywhere inside a sentence (perfect for small spans like custom highlights or badges).

I have tried using external clipboard managers or operating system text-expansion tools, but they lack context-awareness and do not support dynamic tabstops/placeholders inside the editor buffer.

Following Zed's lightweight approach, this could be configured via simple, user-editable JSON files (e.g., markdown.json for block-level snippets and markdown-inline.json for inline ones) located in the user configuration directory.

Example snippet definition:

{
  "Slide Columns Layout": {
    "prefix": "slide-cols",
    "body": [
      ":::::::::::::: {.cols-full}",
      ":::: {width=${1:50}%}",
      "${2:Left Column Content}",
      "::::",
      ":::: {width=${3:50}%}",
      "${4:Right Column Content}",
      "::::",
      "::::::::::::::",
      "$0"
    ],
    "description": "Insert a 2-column slide layout container"
  }
}

This feature would immensely boost productivity for power users who leverage MarkText for advanced document generation, technical writing, and slide-deck creation.

Thank you for your amazing work on MarkText!