Install, step by step — with pictures

Every step of getting Snippets Vault on your machine and wired into your AI coding agent. Two ways to install — pick one:

⚡ One command (easiest)

One paste, everything automatic — Node.js check, install, agent wiring, free trial:

curl -fsSL https://snippets-vault.pages.dev/install.sh | bash

Windows PowerShell: powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://snippets-vault.pages.dev/install.ps1 | iex"

🖼 Manual, step by step (this page)

Six small steps with pictures — you see exactly what happens on your machine. Takes about two minutes. You need Node.js 22+ installed.

Check: node -v should print v22 or newer. Don't have it? Get the LTS from nodejs.org.

1Download the zip

Go to the home page and press the big Download button — or use this direct link: download/snippet-vault.zip (about 300 KB). The file lands in your Downloads folder.

snippets-vault.pages.dev Download snippet-vault.zip ~300 KB → Downloads

2Unzip it to ~/snippet-vault

Open a terminal (Terminal on macOS/Linux, PowerShell on Windows) and run:

terminal $ unzip ~/Downloads/snippet-vault.zip -d ~/snippet-vault inflating: ~/snippet-vault/mcpServer.cjs ... inflating: ~/snippet-vault/scripts/setup.js ... $ cd ~/snippet-vault

Windows: right-click the zip → Extract All… → extract to C:\Users\you\snippet-vault, then open PowerShell in that folder.

Everything after this step runs from inside that folder — the zip extracts flat, so running commands from your home folder fails with Could not read package.json.

3Install its dependencies

Still inside ~/snippet-vault:

terminal — ~/snippet-vault $ npm install --omit=dev added 58 packages in 9s found 0 vulnerabilities $

--omit=dev keeps it lean — exactly what the product needs, nothing else.

4Start your free 14-day trial

The vault works for licensed accounts. Start the trial with your email — no card, one trial per email, and it works on any machine:

terminal — ~/snippet-vault $ node scripts/license.mjs trial --email you@example.com activated: plan=trial, valid until 2026-10-06 saved to ~/.snippet-vault/license.json check any time: node scripts/license.mjs status
The license dialog: current status, key and email fields to activate, and the free 14-day trial form
Prefer clicking? The same trial and activation live in the web UI's license dialog.

5Connect it to your AI agents

One command looks for every supported agent on your machine (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, ZCode, Oh My Pi…) and wires the vault into the ones it finds:

terminal — ~/snippet-vault $ node scripts/setup.js Claude Code ✓ connected Codex ✓ connected Gemini CLI ✓ connected OpenCode not installed — skipped Restart your agent to pick up the vault.
The agents dialog: a scan of the machine listing each AI coding tool with a status pill - connected, detected, or not installed
The same list lives in the web UI under agents — with a button per tool to connect, reconnect, or install.

Nothing installed yet? The command prints which agents it looked for, so you can install one and re-run it later. Restart your agent after this step — agent CLIs only read MCP config at startup.

6Open the vault and try it

Start the local web app:

terminal $ snippets-vault Snippets Vault — http://localhost:8787 opening in your browser… also: snippets-vault stop | snippets-vault status no launcher? cd ~/snippet-vault then npm run web
The Snippets Vault local web app: topbar with savings counter, agents and license buttons; folders on the left, snippet list in the middle, stored code on the right
You're in. Folders on the left, snippets in the middle, the stored code — and what it saved you — on the right.

To prove it works end to end, ask your agent in a project folder:

Save this debounce helper to the snippet vault as "debounce-ts" with keywords debounce, timers, typescript
Search the vault for the debounce snippet and paste it exactly

If the snippet shows up in the web UI and the second prompt returns the same bytes, the whole loop works: save once, paste exact bytes forever.

?If something goes wrong

  • "Could not read package.json" — you're in the wrong folder. Run cd ~/snippet-vault first: every command after step 2 runs from inside the extracted folder, which the zip creates flat (no extra nesting).
  • "Cannot find module …/scripts/setup.js" — same cause: the commands were run from your home folder instead of ~/snippet-vault.
  • Node.js version warning — Node 22 LTS runs the compiled build; newer versions (23–26) run the built-in JavaScript tier. Both work. If you ever see a bytecode error, switch to Node 22: nvm install 22 && nvm use 22.
  • Your agent says "/mcp failed" — either the agent wasn't restarted after step 5, or this install isn't licensed yet. Run node scripts/license.mjs status; if it says no license found, start the trial or activate your key, then restart the agent.
  • The site looks stale — hard-refresh with Ctrl+Shift+R (⌘+Shift+R on macOS) to bypass the cache.
  • Antivirus complained — the shipping build rewrites its own code at build time (anti-tamper). Compare your download's SHA-256 with the value published in version.json; the guide lists the vendor false-positive forms.

Every installer run is logged to ~/.snippet-vault-install.log — include it if you ask for help.

✓That's the whole install

Six small steps, about two minutes, no account needed for the trial — and one license key works on every machine you own.

Download Snippets Vault Read the user guide