zi snippet

Summary

Source a local or remote file directly by URL. Use this to load single-file scripts, Oh My Zsh library files, Prezto modules, or any raw Zsh file without treating it as a full plugin repository.

Syntax / Usage

zi snippet [-f] {url|shorthand}

-f — force redownload, bypass the local cache.

Supported shorthands (expand to raw GitHub URLs automatically):

Shorthand	Expands to
`OMZ::`	`https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/raw/master/`
`OMZL::`	OMZ `lib/`
`OMZP::`	OMZ `plugins/`
`OMZT::`	OMZ `themes/`
`PZT::`	`https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto/tree/master/`
`PZTM::`	Prezto `modules/`

Details

Downloaded snippets are cached in $ZINIT[SNIPPETS_DIR] (default: ~/.local/share/zinit/snippets). On subsequent shell starts Zinit sources from the cache rather than re-fetching. Use -f or zi update {URL} to refresh the cache. When using the svn ice, an entire subdirectory can be cloned via Subversion (useful for multi-file OMZ plugins). The as"completion" ice tells Zinit to treat the sourced file as a completion function rather than a script to source.

Examples

# Raw URL
zi snippet https://gist.githubusercontent.com/hightemp/5071909/raw/

# Oh My Zsh library and plugin
zi snippet OMZL::git.zsh
zi snippet OMZP::git

# Oh My Zsh theme
zi snippet OMZT::robbyrussell

# Prezto module
zi snippet PZTM::environment

# Multi-file OMZ plugin via SVN
zi ice svn
zi snippet OMZP::gitfast

# Single-file completion snippet
zi ice as"completion"
zi snippet OMZP::docker/_docker

Caveats / Common Mistakes

Shorthands like svn and cloneopts do not work with snippets — they are plugin-only ices. If a snippet silently loads stale content, use -f to force a fresh download.