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Title:
Gistbar
URL:
https://nandomoreira.dev/en/lab/noctalia-gistbar

Gistbar

Plugin for Noctalia Shell that brings my GitHub gists to the bar: search by description, file name, language and content, copy from the keyboard, new gist from the clipboard, preview and edit, all through the gh CLI.

Problem

There are 95 accumulated gists, and finding a snippet meant opening GitHub, remembering which gist it was in and copying by hand. Creating a new gist with what was on the clipboard also went through the browser.

Decisions

A plugin of the shell itself, on the same architecture and the same visual kit as Daybar: logic in pure JavaScript functions tested with Vitest, QML only as the screen. All GitHub access goes through the gh CLI, so the plugin never touches a token, and content goes via stdin, never on the command line. Search ignores accents and covers content, which is why a gist exists, but description and file name weigh more. Content stays in a local cache with 0600 permissions and is only downloaded again when the gist changes. A new gist is born secret, because publishing by mistake is the worst possible failure here.

Outcome

Personal use on my desktop with CachyOS, published under the MIT license, with 151 tests. Tested on Noctalia 4.7.7; the port to Noctalia v5 is planned.

Shortcuts

  • Mod+G: opens gist search
  • Mod+Ctrl+G: creates a gist from the clipboard
  • ↑/↓: navigates the list
  • Enter: copies the first file of the gist
  • Shift+Enter: copies the gist link
  • Esc: clears the search
  • Ctrl+E: edits the description and the open file in the preview
  • Ctrl+S: saves the edit to GitHub

Links

---
title: Gistbar
url: https://nandomoreira.dev/en/lab/noctalia-gistbar
collection: lab
tech:
  - QML
  - JavaScript
  - Noctalia Shell
  - GitHub CLI
  - Vitest
date: 2026-10-10
---

# Gistbar

Plugin for Noctalia Shell that brings my GitHub gists to the bar: search by description, file name, language and content, copy from the keyboard, new gist from the clipboard, preview and edit, all through the gh CLI.

## Problem

There are 95 accumulated gists, and finding a snippet meant opening GitHub,
remembering which gist it was in and copying by hand. Creating a new gist
with what was on the clipboard also went through the browser.

## Decisions

A plugin of the shell itself, on the same architecture and the same visual
kit as Daybar: logic in pure JavaScript functions tested with Vitest, QML
only as the screen. All GitHub access goes through the gh CLI, so the plugin
never touches a token, and content goes via stdin, never on the command
line. Search ignores accents and covers content, which is why a gist exists,
but description and file name weigh more. Content stays in a local cache with
0600 permissions and is only downloaded again when the gist changes. A new
gist is born secret, because publishing by mistake is the worst possible
failure here.

## Outcome

Personal use on my desktop with CachyOS, published under the MIT license,
with 151 tests. Tested on Noctalia 4.7.7; the port to Noctalia v5 is planned.

## Shortcuts

- `Mod+G`: opens gist search
- `Mod+Ctrl+G`: creates a gist from the clipboard
- `↑/↓`: navigates the list
- `Enter`: copies the first file of the gist
- `Shift+Enter`: copies the gist link
- `Esc`: clears the search
- `Ctrl+E`: edits the description and the open file in the preview
- `Ctrl+S`: saves the edit to GitHub

## Links

- Repo: https://github.com/nandomoreirame/noctalia-gistbar

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