Now Available in Chrome: AI-Powered Snippet Recommendations

TextExpander Talk
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We’ve been previewing AI features in TextExpander for a few months now and talking about how we’re building to enhance human expertise rather than replace it. We’re taking our first step toward smarter Snippet search, curation, and library maintenance with AI.

What it does

Your Snippet library grows over time. That’s a good thing, until you’re responding to an email trying to remember whether a Snippet exists for the exact situation you’re responding to, or what the abbreviation was. AI Recommendations solves that.

Open TextExpander while you’re working in Chrome, and it looks at the context of what you’re working on to recommend the most relevant Snippets in your library. No abbreviation needed. No digging through Snippet Groups. Just the right content, right when you need it.

How to try it

  1. Place your cursor in any text box in Chrome

  2. Click the TextExpander icon or press Control + Period

  3. You’ll see “Recommended” Snippets based on what you’re working on

  4. Hover to preview, click to expand

You’ll need the Chrome Extension installed and must be logged in to your TextExpander account. That’s it!

(AI Recommendations is Chrome-only for now. Mac and Windows app support will come in the future.)

AI Recommendations

Why it’s useful

A few things I’d highlight: It’s especially good for large libraries where stuff gets buried. It surfaces Snippets you forgot existed, or didn’t know someone added. And for new team members who haven’t had time to learn the library yet, it closes that gap fast.

Also worth knowing: AI Recommendations runs entirely on your device. No data or content leaves your computer.

TextExpander MCP Server - Now in Early Access :magnifying_glass_tilted_left:

Now, for something a bit different. The TextExpander MCP Server connects your Snippet library to AI assistants that support MCP, so you can manage your library through conversation. Ask your AI assistant to create a Snippet Group, add or update a Snippet, or search your library. All without switching apps. Here’s an example of what it can do:

It’s currently in early access, so we’re looking for people who want to dig in and give feedback. You can start using it today. Check out the getting started guide here.

Excited about the TextExpander MCP Server? How do you plan to use it? Search, create, update, something else? Let us know in the replies.

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Hi Anand and the TextExpander team,

I’m incredibly excited about the early access release of the MCP Server. As a multiply disabled developer, context switching between a terminal, an editor, and a graphical interface drains a significant amount of my daily cognitive and physical energy. Being able to create, update, and search my snippet library entirely through text and CLI tools is a massive accessibility win.

I’m trying to integrate the TextExpander MCP server into my workflow, but I’m hitting a few strict security and configuration blockers.

My Setup:

I use a centralized MCP multiplexer (MCPMU) hosted on a Raspberry Pi, which I connect to via VS Code Remote-SSH. My main PC, where I actually code, runs Windows 11.

The Blockers:

  1. CloudFront 403 WAF Block: When routing the server through MCPMU, the interactive OAuth login link generates correctly. However, after authorizing, the callback fails with a CloudFront 403 “Request Blocked” error. It seems the AWS WAF is aggressively blocking the generic MCPMU client ID or the dynamic callback port.

  2. Domain Mismatch Crash: I attempted to bypass this using mcp-remote. This failed because the server advertises as mcp.textexpander.com/mcp but authenticates as mcp.textexpanderlabs.com. The core MCP SDK interprets this domain mismatch as a security threat and intentionally crashes.

  3. No Dynamic Client Registration (DCR): I tried bypassing mcpmu entirely by adding the server directly to VS Code Insiders. This resulted in a “Dynamic Client Registration not supported” error. Because there is currently no developer portal to manually generate a standard Client ID, I can’t proceed with the manual fallback.

My Questions:

  • Are there plans to open the firewall to allow standard OAuth flows from generic MCP clients like mcpmu?

  • In the meantime, is there a way to generate a manual Client ID, or preferably, a Personal Access Token (PAT) to bypass the interactive OAuth block entirely?

Thank you for building this! I’m really looking forward to getting it working!

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I’m a firefox proponent, So, when it gets over here, then I’ll worry about it. Thanks for the heads up.