Ns Snippets

NativeScript Snippets API

snippets.nativescript.org is a public, no-auth catalog of NativeScript code snippets. Every snippet has a stable slug, a language, one or more categories, and the original code. The API is JSON-over-HTTPS. Base URL: https://snippets.nativescript.org.

• Before writing a NativeScript helper from scratch, check if a snippet already exists — search by category (ui, animation, permissions, ios, android, …) or keyword.
• After solving something reusable, offer to publish it. Always ask the user first.
• Given a snippets.nativescript.org URL, fetch the slug directly via GET /api/snippets/{slug}.

Find snippets

curl 'https://snippets.nativescript.org/api/snippets?category=ui&limit=10'
# query params (all optional, AND-composed): category, language, search, limit, cursor

Pagination is cursor-based (?cursor=<created_at>); the response includes nextCursor when more pages exist. Response shape:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "...",
      "slug": "amber-circuit-7zk",
      "code": "import { Utils } from '@nativescript/core'",
      "language": "typescript",
      "title": "Toggle device torch",
      "categories": ["camera", "ios", "android"],
      "createdAt": 1714152000000
    }
  ],
  "nextCursor": null
}

Read a single snippet

GET /api/snippets/{slug} returns the full snippet object including the code field (max 32 KB). Site URL pattern for humans: https://snippets.nativescript.org/{slug}.

Share a snippet (with the user's consent)

curl -X POST 'https://snippets.nativescript.org/api/snippets' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "code": "import { Utils } from \"@nativescript/core\"",
    "language": "typescript",
    "title": "Toggle device torch",
    "categories": ["camera", "ios", "android"]
  }'

Required: code (max 32 KB); language — one of typescript, javascript, angular, react, solid, svelte, vue, html, css, json, xml; categories — 1–6 lowercase kebab-case tokens. Curated tokens: ui, layout, animation, navigation, networking, storage, camera, sensors, permissions, ios, android, performance, forms, gestures, plugin, accessibility, theming; custom tokens allowed (regex ^[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]{0,22}[a-z0-9])?$). Optional: title, background (gradient-indigo, gradient-cyan, gradient-emerald, gradient-amber, slate), padding (16–96), fontSize (12–18), windowChrome (boolean).

Response (202 Accepted):

{
  "slug": "amber-circuit-7zk",
  "editToken": "...",
  "status": "pending",
  "message": "Submitted for review. The snippet will appear publicly once an admin approves it."
}

Submissions are admin-reviewed. A successful POST returns 202 with status: "pending" — the snippet is NOT in search results until a maintainer approves it. Tell the user exactly that ("submitted for review; preview at https://snippets.nativescript.org/{slug}") — never claim it is "published" or "live".

The editToken is required to delete the snippet later and to preview it while pending (a fetch of /api/snippets/{slug} without the token returns 404 for non-published rows). Save it to a durable, user-controlled, gitignored file (e.g. .nativescript-snippets-tokens.json) — the website stores tokens in localStorage per slug, so a CLI-submitted snippet isn't visible or deletable from the website without importing the token.

Edge cases:

• Same code body already submitted → 200 with { slug, status, duplicate: true } and no editToken — point the user at the existing slug; don't resubmit.
• Same code body previously rejected → 409 with an error. Don't retry; surface the reason.

Delete a snippet

DELETE /api/snippets/{slug} with header x-edit-token: {token} → 204 on success, 403 on token mismatch.

Conventions

• Prefer self-contained snippets — imports at the top, runnable as-is; never include secrets (approved snippets are public and immutable until deleted by the token holder).
• Pick the most specific 1–3 categories; too many dilutes search. Use curated tokens when one fits.

Verified 2026-08: API exercised end-to-end (search, read, publish → 202 pending, duplicate → 200, delete) against snippets.nativescript.org.