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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Pieces OS? How does it work?

PiecesOS​

MacOS

Click the “P” icon in your menu bar and view your update status in the dropdown

Pieces for VS Code​

Select Extensions, search Pieces for VS Code, and you’ll see the version next to the title.

Pieces for JetBrains​

Select Settings > Plugins…> search Pieces > see version

Pieces for Obsidian​

Select Settings > Community Plugins > see version under Pieces for Developers

Pieces for Jupyterlab​

Select Extension Manager > see version next to jupyter-pieces

How can I discover useful snippets within the Pieces for Developers Desktop App?​

Try using Snippet Discovery to discover snippets from an existing project or file.

For Best Results: We recommend that users add 5-10 project-specific snippets to their repository before performing Snippet Discovery on a local project.

Why?

Pieces trains Snippet Discovery on the common themes within a project to better extract what you need, when you need it.

How do I leverage the Pieces Actions Menu to maximize user flow?​

The Actions Menu offers a wide range of valuable features that allow users to more efficiently manage and edit their content. By streamlining these processes and minimizing interruptions to the user's workflow, this feature helps to increase productivity and optimize the user's experience.

These options are accessible through a keyboard shortcut, ensuring that users can quickly navigate the menu without the need to break their focus.

Keyboard Shortcut

macOSWindows
⌘ + ReturnCTRL + Enter

How does "Sort by Suggested" differ from "Sort by Last Added"?​

The Pieces for Developers desktop app provides users with a few options to sort their snippets. In addition to alphabetical sort and sorting by language, you can sort by suggested or by last added.

  1. Sort by Suggested
    • This will resurface previously saved snippets and reorder your list or gallery to put relevant snippets closer to the beginning.
    • It's useful for quickly accessing relevant snippets from your current workflow.
  2. Sort by Last Added
    • This view displays your snippets in the order in which they were saved. New snippets are at the beginning.
    • It's useful for users that want to stay up-to-date with their latest saves.

Can I edit a snippet in the Pieces for Developers Desktop App?​

Yes! Users can easily modify their selected snippet by clicking the edit button within the snippet's text field.

Keyboard Shortcut

macOSWindows
⌘ + ECTRL + E

To Cancel Edits, simply press the Escape key.

To Save Edits, hit the Save icon in the top right corner of the edit window. After making an edit, a success notification will verify the changes have been saved.

Overall, this feature provides a more efficient and streamlined way for developers to make quick edits to their code snippets.

Can I modify my Confirmation Notification Settings?​

Yes. Users can minimize noise levels by toggling off confirmation settings for various actions in the Pieces for Developers Desktop App.

Navigate to Settings -> Customize -> Confirmation Settings

You can toggle the following confirmations:

  • Created snippet
  • Created snippet tag(s)
  • Created related link(s)
  • Added related person(s)
  • Detected sensitive(s)

Additional settings that can be toggled:

  • Shareable link updates
  • Sensitive alerts when generating a shareable link

How do I get started with the Pieces + GitHub Integration?​

Important:

  • Only accounts with matching primary email addresses will be linked.
  • If the accounts do not match, a new, separate account will be created.

1. Link your Account

Settings -> Connect Accounts -> Connect to Google

Verify your connection to the Pieces Cloud before moving forward

2. Authorize with GitHub

Settings -> Connect Accounts -> Connect to GitHub

After selecting the GitHub icon, a "Link your Account" menu will come into focus.

Note: Verify your connection through the settings section "Manage Cloud Integrations".

Check​

At this point, you should:

  • Be logged in to Pieces with a personal email and/or Google account
  • Be connected to your Pieces Cloud
  • Be authorized via GitHub connection

How do I Export a Gist to GitHub?​

  1. Generate a shareable link in the Pieces desktop app
  2. Inside this menu, select the option "Share as GitHub Gist"
  3. You will see a GitHub Menu
  4. You can give your snippet a custom Name & Description (optional)
  5. Click "Create" to share to GitHub

Note: Gists can be set to private in the Share a Gist menu, though they are public by default.

How do I Import a Gist to the Pieces for Developers Desktop App?​

Prerequisites to Import from GitHub:

  1. Connect to Pieces OS
  2. Sign in to Pieces via your personal email or Google account
  3. Authenticate with GitHub
  4. Your sign in account must be linked with GitHub account. Mismatched accounts will fail when attempting to Import from GitHub.

To Perform a Gist Import

  1. Choose “Discover” above your Snippet Carousel
  2. Choose “Select Gists”
  3. Make sure Pieces account is connected to your GitHub account
  4. Browse your Gists in the Desktop App and select the ones you'd like to import
  5. Done!

If I delete a Gist in GitHub, will the snippet also be deleted in the Pieces Desktop App?​

Deleted Gists will not be deleted in Pieces for Developers.

I deleted a Gist from GitHub. Can I recover the original Gist?​

Yes, a Gist can be recovered if you saved the original snippet in Pieces.

To Redo a Gist:

  1. Locate the desired snippet in the Pieces desktop app
  2. Navigate to the shareable link within the snippet's information view
  3. Click the GitHub icon to view the "Share as GitHub Gist" menu This will repopulate your GitHub Gist list with the selected snippet

What are the key benefits of the Pieces for GitHub Integration?​

1. Enhanced Collaboration​

By automatically capturing relevant Git history, including collaborator profiles, commit messages, and related pull request and branch links, Pieces enables users to search their snippets via collaborator profiles, making it easier than ever to know who to reach out to or add to a pull request, ultimately enhancing collaboration.

2. Fully Configurable​

The context captured by the Git Context feature is fully editable, searchable, and shareable, giving users complete control over their snippets and making it easy to find and reuse code. Additionally, all the context information is configurable in the Pieces Settings, allowing users to customize their experience to best fit their needs.

3. Context Awareness​

Pieces for Developers makes it easy for developers to save from their IDE and allow the Pieces GitHub integration to automatically include a list of people who made commits to the code, enabling them to understand who wrote and interacted with the code. This feature is particularly useful for teams who want to collaborate more effectively.

How do I toggle Light & Dark Mode?​

To toggle between Light Mode and Dark Mode, use the Keyboard Shortcut:

macOSWindows
⌘ + Shift + TCTRL + Shift + T

Or navigate to the Pieces User Settings -> Customize -> Toggle Light Mode.

What is Pieces OS? How does it work?​

Pieces OS is the background service that enables Pieces to work locally and handles communications with any integrations. Without Pieces OS, Pieces for Developers will not be able to save your snippets or interact with any of your plugins.

Pieces OS also enables our cloud-enabled features like link sharing.

Head over to https://code.pieces.app/install to get started.

I'm Disconnected from Pieces OS. Now what?​

If you're unable to connect to Pieces OS:

  1. Navigate to your applications folder from the Finder window
  2. Locate Pieces OS & open the application

If you merely closed the app on accident, the steps above should resolve your connection issue.

Still not Connected?​

You may need to install Pieces OS.

Head over to https://code.pieces.app/install to get started.

Still not Connected?​

If you're still disconnected after installing Pieces OS, check your OS compatibility. If that fails, please contact us at support@pieces.app.

What are Collections?​

Collections allow users to save curated groups of code snippets from the cloud-hosted Pieces Collections site. This makes it easy for developers to reference similar code snippets together and quickly access them when needed.

Where can I find Collections?​

Keyboard Shortcut:

macOSWindows
⌘ + Shift + CCTRL + Shift + C

You can also add collections from the "Add a Piece" menu.

How do I convert a saved image to code or text?​

  1. Open the Pieces for Developers Desktop App.
  2. In the snippet list or carousel, focus on the image you want to extract code or text from.
  3. Click on the "View as Code" button in the menu to the right of the window.
  4. Pieces uses OCR to detect and extract code or text from the image, which will then be displayed on the screen.
  5. You can now copy, modify, and share the extracted code as needed.

It's important to note that the accuracy of the extracted code or text may vary depending on the quality of the image and the complexity of the code.

How many languages does Pieces Desktop App Support?​

Pieces supports nearly 40 programming languages, and adds more all the time.

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

What is Activity View?​

In Activity View, developers can quickly and easily navigate back to their most recent work, making it an essential feature for anyone who wants to stay organized and productive.

What's inside?​

In Activity View, you can see when you add or adjust context for your snippets, including:

  • Related links
  • Tags
  • Descriptions
  • Snippet names
  • Snippet languages
  • Related people
  • Created snippets
  • Snippet titles
  • Snippet references

Keyboard Shortcut:

macOSWindows
⌘ + Shift + ACTRL + Shift + A

Is this a manual process?​

No. This feature updates in real time as users work, providing a comprehensive view of their recent activity, including recently opened snippets and files, edited code, and more.

Where do the suggested searches in the Global Search view come from?​

The suggested searches in Global Search view are made up of existing snippet tags from the user's personal repository. When a suggested search is clicked, users are directed to a list view of snippet names, titles, classifications, and commonly shared related tags and links. This powerful feature streamlines the search experience in Pieces for Developers and allows users to discover relevant code snippets with ease.

Why do I see an error for JCEF inside JetBrains IDE when I boot?​

If you also have the JCEF is not supported in this env or failed to initialize error, here is how you can fix it:

  • Go to Help -> Find action
  • Search and select "Choose Boot Java Runtime for the IDE"
  • In that popup, select a JetBrains runtime that has JCEF
  • Then restart the IDE and the error is gone.

Read more on the JCEF Errors and JCEF - Java Chromium Embedded Framework

Connect with our team and Get 1:1 Support​

Visit our website to live chat with our team, or email support@pieces.app.