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Managing Saved Materials

Editing a snippet in the Pieces desktop app

Learning How to Update and Edit​

Once you save a material, you can edit the snippet's visible features— its title and the contents of the resource itself. Access these features by clicking the pencil icon that is at the top of the Quick Action Menu on the right side of your Pieces Desktop App window.

  • By clicking inside the box where the code is in the center of the screen, you can edit the snippet directly
  • You can also access transformations that can create boilerplate code, add comments for you, and more.

Editing Saved Code Snippets and Text Notes Directly​

Once you select the code in the center of the Pieces Desktop App, you have freedom to manipulate the text/code however you see fit, with functionality similar to that of your IDE.

  • Your code syntax highlighting will update as you edit to ensure you are using valid syntax while making adjustments
  • You can right-click to cut, copy, paste, and select all

To exit Edit Mode, you can press Esc or select the 'Exit Edit Mode' pill, and you will be taken back to the List or Gallery View.

Renaming Saved Materials​

Renaming a snippet in the Pieces desktop app

Before renaming snippets, be sure to read about our AI title generation to get an idea of how title generation takes place.

To rename a snippet quickly, press ⌘/⌃ + R to toggle the title's Edit Mode. You'll notice the title highlights and you can begin typing immediately.

Reclassifying a Code Snippet's Language Association​

Reclassifying a snippet in the Pieces desktop app

Each snippet that is added to Pieces passes through our language models to classify the snippet for you. Our classifier is not 100% accurate, but becomes more effective as it learns from user behavior. Some things to note before diving in:

  1. The classifier learns based on the code you save to Pieces, so if you only save Javascript Snippets this will increase Pieces' bias to classify that language.
  2. Inside the Reclassification drawer, you can see the classification confidence, which is a guide to help you select the most accurate language for the code snippet when it is pasted. By reclassifying code when it is auto-classified as the wrong language, you're telling your local model to note the change that you made for the future, making it more likely to classify the language correctly next time.

Instant Language Detection Support​

One of our fundamental capabilities is Instant Language Detection, which automatically detects the language of your snippet and supports over 40 programming languages:

Supported Languages
  • Batchfile
  • C
  • Clojure
  • C#
  • C++
  • CoffeeScript
  • CSS
  • Dart
  • Erlang
  • Emacs Lisp
  • Elixir
  • Go
  • Groovy
  • Haskell
  • HTML
  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • JSON
  • Kotlin
  • Lua
  • Markdown
  • Matlab
  • Objective-C
  • Perl
  • PHP
  • PowerShell
  • Python
  • R
  • Ruby
  • Rust
  • Scala
  • Shell
  • SQL
  • Swift
  • TeX
  • Text
  • TOML
  • TypeScript
  • XML
  • YAML

Duplicating a Code Snippet​

When you need to transform or make slight adjustments to a code snippet you already have, you can duplicate a snippet with ⌘/⌃ + D, or by selecting the Duplicate + pill above your code in List View, and below it in Gallery mode.

Once you duplicate a snippet, you will notice the [Duplicate] YOUR_TITLE_HERE in front of the new snippet while your old title will remain unchanged.

Duplicates & Transformations​

When working with transformations, saving the original can be beneficial in case a snippet transformation does not come back well. There is a Save as Duplicate + pill that can be selected to save the original and the new transformed versions.

Learn more about Transformations to understand the full scope of things you can do!

Deleting a Saved Material​

Deleting a snippet in the Pieces desktop app

Just as quickly as you add, you can remove snippets as well. To delete a resource you can simply press Delete, or you can follow these steps:

In List View:

  • Select the Snippet that you would like to delete
  • Select the ... on the bottom of the Quick Action Menu
  • Scroll to the bottom of the Context Menu, and once you get to the last drawer, you will see a section labeled "Danger Zone"
  • Select the "Delete Piece" Icon (you can also press Delete from here as well)
  • A new drawer will confirm your choice to delete the resource
  • You can click Delete or press ⏎ to confirm
    • Please keep in mind that at this time, Pieces cannot retrieve a deleted resource
    • You can also choose “Don’t ask me again” to turn off the confirmation window