gifgrep

What does gifgrep do?

Use gifgrep to search GIF providers (Tenor/Giphy), browse in a TUI, download results, and extract stills or sheets.

GIF-Grab (gifgrep workflow)

• Search -> preview -> download -> extract (still/sheet) for fast review and sharing.

Quick start

• gifgrep cats --max 5
• gifgrep cats --format url | head -n 5
• gifgrep search --json cats | jq '.[0].url'
• gifgrep tui "office handshake"
• gifgrep cats --download --max 1 --format url

TUI + previews

• TUI: gifgrep tui "query"
• CLI still previews: --thumbs (Kitty/Ghostty only; still frame)

Download + reveal

• --download saves to ~/Downloads
• --reveal shows the last download in Finder

Stills + sheets

• gifgrep still ./clip.gif --at 1.5s -o still.png
• gifgrep sheet ./clip.gif --frames 9 --cols 3 -o sheet.png
• Sheets = single PNG grid of sampled frames (great for quick review, docs, PRs, chat).
• Tune: --frames (count), --cols (grid width), --padding (spacing).

Providers

• --source auto|tenor|giphy
• GIPHY_API_KEY required for --source giphy
• TENOR_API_KEY optional (Tenor demo key used if unset)

Output

• --json prints an array of results (id, title, url, preview_url, tags, width, height)
• --format for pipe-friendly fields (e.g., url)

GIF asset hygiene

• Before recommending or using an animated GIF URL, verify it resolves successfully, has Content-Type: image/gif, and is actually animated (multiple frames or loop metadata; e.g. inspect with file, identify, or a small script).
• Record attribution/license/source URL alongside the asset.
• Do not hotlink when a local asset is needed: download/copy it into the project and reference the local file.

Environment tweaks

• GIFGREP_SOFTWARE_ANIM=1 to force software animation
• GIFGREP_CELL_ASPECT=0.5 to tweak preview geometry