FastPrompter

A tiny, portable scratchpad & snippet manager for Windows

One hotkey. Instant window. Your prompts, notes and drafts — always one keystroke away.

English · Русский
The main workspace. Your hierarchical notes on the left, a full Markdown editor on the right. Everything is saved instantly and stays exactly where you left it.

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Press Alt+X anywhere — in your browser, IDE, terminal — and FastPrompter pops up at your cursor with everything you keep: auto-saved scratchpads (silos), reusable snippets on F1–F10, per-project tabs, and an archive. Press Esc, it vanishes. Everything lives in one folder, saved in real time. No cloud, no accounts, no telemetry.

✨ What it does

Writing in action. Enjoy real checkboxes, code highlighting, and clean visual structure in a lightweight, instant scratchpad.

Cursor

🗄️ Silos	Up to 100 auto-saved scratch slots per project — kill the app, your text survives
📋 Snippets	Named text blocks, pasted instantly with F1–F10
🗂️ Projects	5 independent tabs, each with its own silos, snippets and archive
📦 Archive	One click stores the current silo or snippet out of the way
📌 Pin, tick & tint	Hover a silo for tick/files/pin/archive buttons; silos tint by how recently you edited them. Silo line counters are separated by │ for quick reading
🌳 Hierarchy	Drag a silo onto another to nest it as a child; right-click to collapse parents
🖱️ Wheel everything	Wheel flips pages & switches tabs, Ctrl+wheel walks silos or zooms text
✍️ Markdown editor	Live highlighting, real checkboxes, auto-bullets, --- dividers, Ctrl+E headers with timestamp
💻 Code blocks	``` fences render monospace with syntax tints, auto line numbers, one-click copy and folding
📁 File container	Per-silo asset drawer: drop any files in, drag them out, preview images, link originals, Explorer-style views — plain folders you can read without the app
🗂️ Folder Templates	Build predefined folder structures inside your silo's file container with a single click
💾 Silo backup	Ctrl+Click the 📁 button to save the silo text as a file — Copy, Copy + Clear, or Cancel
🗃️ Fold sections	Collapse # headers and code blocks like a real Markdown editor
🔍 Smart search	Multi-word AND matching — type foo bar to find silos containing both words in any order
🦓 Readability	Zebra stripes, line numbers with clickable margin marks, word wrap, zen mode
🎨 6 vintage themes	Win95-style bevels, warm amber-on-black, OLED — plus a full custom color editor
🎵 Sounds	Optional UI clicks and a typewriter tick, with volume control
📄 Drop Zones	Drag files to the editor to choose from 4 actions: insert text, insert clickable link, copy to silo Files, or create shortcut in silo Files
🕒 Analog clock	Optional mini analog clock in the header bar, next to the date/time widget
⌨️ Bindable shortcuts	Rebind every in-app hotkey from the Settings panel — two slots per action, with dynamic tooltips
🌍 22 languages + flags	English, Russian, Ukrainian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic, Hebrew, Estonian — each with a drawn flag icon, switchable live in Settings. Plus a bonus «Дед» angry-grandpa voice 👴
🗑️ Trash	Middle-click to trash a silo — text and files are safely moved to _trash, never permanently deleted
↩️ Undo everything	Ctrl+Z covers text and silo operations (clear, trash, move)

ИНСТРУКЦИЯ / INSTRUCTION

🇬🇧 English

Sit down, pour some tea. Here's what this little program actually does, no computer talk.

• The magic knock (Alt+X) — you press one key combo and the notepad appears right where your mouse is. Press Esc — it's gone. Like a cuckoo clock, but useful.
• Silos — imagine a shelf with 100 labeled jars. Every jar holds one piece of text. You never press "save" — the moment you stop typing, it's already in the jar. Power goes out? The jar's still full.
• Snippets — your favorite phrases on speed-dial. Press F1–F10 and the whole text pastes itself wherever you are. Like rubber stamps, but for words.
• Projects (tabs) — five separate shelves. One for work, one for the novel, one for the shopping lists. Each shelf has its own jars, stamps and attic.
• Archive — the attic. One click and a jar goes up there, out of sight but never thrown away.
• Pin 📌 — nail a jar to the top of the shelf so it never wanders off.
• Tick ✅ — put a "done" sticker on a jar. Click again — sticker's off.
• Color tint — jars you touched recently glow warmer, old ones fade cooler. You see at a glance what's fresh.
• Family jars (hierarchy) — drop one jar onto another and it becomes its child: sits underneath, shifted right. Fold the parent to hide the kids. Drag the kid out — it grows up again.
• Trash, not fire — middle-click a jar and it moves to a trash folder as a plain text file. Nothing in this program ever burns; you can always dig it back out.
• The writing desk (editor) — write with **bold**, checkboxes you can click, bullet lists that continue themselves, --- divider lines, and Ctrl+E turns a line into a dated title.
• Code blocks — put ``` around code and it becomes a proper terminal window: typewriter font, line numbers, a copy button, and a fold arrow to tuck it away.
• Folding ▾ — big text? Click the arrow next to a title and the whole section hides under it, like folding a map.
• The drawer (📁 Files) — every jar has a real drawer for files. Throw ANY files in — pictures, videos, whatever. It's just a normal folder on your disk; open it in Explorer anytime, the program doesn't hold your stuff hostage. Rename the jar — the drawer follows.
• Drop zones — drag a file onto the desk and four big buttons appear asking what to do: paste the text, paste a link, copy into the drawer, or leave a shortcut. Like a butler asking "where shall I put this, sir?"
• Folder templates — one click builds your usual folder skeleton (IN, OUT, temp...) inside the drawer. For people who start every project the same way.
• Search 🔍 — type red car and it finds jars containing both "red" AND "car", in any order.
• Themes — six coats of paint, all vintage Windows 95 style: dark gold, amber, pitch black. Or mix your own colors.
• Sounds — optional clicks and a typewriter tick-tick-tick, with a volume knob.
• The clock — date and time in the corner, with seconds, a "Morning/Night" word and even a tiny real analog clock with hands, if you fancy it.
• Scale — one knob makes the WHOLE program bigger or smaller, 50–150%. For young eyes and old.
• Shortcuts — every key combo can be re-taught in Settings. Two slots each, so Alt+X and F15 can do the same thing.
• Two languages — the whole interface speaks English or Russian; switch in Settings.
• Undo everything — Ctrl+Z un-does not just typing but silo operations too: cleared a jar by accident? Un-clear it.
• Your stuff stays yours — everything lives in one data/ folder next to the program. Copy the folder to a USB stick — that's your backup, that's the whole install. No cloud, no accounts, nobody watching.

🇷🇺 По-русски»

Садись, наливай чай. Рассказываю, что эта программка делает, без компьютерной зауми.

• Волшебный стук (Alt+X) — нажал комбинацию, и блокнот выскочил прямо у мышки. Нажал Esc — исчез. Как кукушка из часов, только полезная.
• Сило (ячейки) — полка со ста подписанными банками. В каждой банке — один текст. Кнопку «сохранить» жать не надо: перестал печатать — оно уже в банке. Свет вырубили? Банка целая.
• Снипеты — любимые фразы на быстром наборе. Жмёшь F1–F10 — и весь текст сам вставился, где бы ты ни был. Как печати-штампы, только для слов.
• Проекты (вкладки) — пять отдельных полок. Одна для работы, одна для романа, одна для списков в магазин. У каждой полки свои банки, штампы и чердак.
• Архив — чердак. Один клик — банка уехала наверх: с глаз долой, но не выброшена.
• Пин 📌 — прибил банку к верху полки, чтоб не уползала.
• Галка ✅ — наклейка «сделано» на банку. Кликнул ещё раз — снял.
• Подкраска — банки, которые трогал недавно, светятся теплее, старые остывают. Сразу видно, где свежее.
• Семейные банки (иерархия) — бросил банку НА другую — стала дочкой: сидит под ней, сдвинута вправо. Родителя можно сложить — дети спрячутся. Вытащил дочку — снова взрослая.
• Корзина, не костёр — средняя кнопка мыши по банке — и она уехала в папку-корзину обычным текстовым файлом. Тут ничего не горит: всегда можно достать обратно.
• Письменный стол (редактор) — пишешь с **жирным**, кликабельные чекбоксы, списки сами продолжаются, линии-разделители ---, а Ctrl+E делает из строки заголовок с датой.
• Код-блоки — обернул код в ``` — и он стал как в терминале: машинописный шрифт, номера строк, кнопка «скопировать» и стрелка, чтоб свернуть.
• Сворачивание ▾ — текста много? Клик по стрелке у заголовка — вся секция спряталась под него, как карта сложилась.
• Ящик (📁 файлы) — у каждой банки есть настоящий ящик для файлов. Кидай ЧТО угодно: картинки, видео, черновики. Это обычная папка на диске — открывай в проводнике когда хочешь, программа твоё добро в заложниках не держит. Переименовал банку — ящик переехал следом.
• Зоны броска — тащишь файл на стол, и выскакивают четыре больших кнопки: вставить текстом, вставить ссылкой, положить в ящик или оставить ярлык. Как дворецкий: «куда изволите?»
• Шаблоны папок — один клик — и в ящике построился твой привычный скелет папок (IN, OUT, temp...). Для тех, кто каждый проект начинает одинаково.
• Поиск 🔍 — набрал красная машина — найдёт банки, где есть И «красная», И «машина», в любом порядке.
• Темы — шесть покрасок, все под старый Windows 95: тёмное золото, янтарь, чистый чёрный. Или намешай свои цвета.
• Звуки — по желанию щелчки и печатная машинка тык-тык-тык, с ручкой громкости.
• Часы — дата и время в углу: с секундами, словом «Утро/Ночь» и даже крохотными настоящими стрелочными часами, если захочешь.
• Масштаб — одна ручка делает ВСЮ программу крупнее или мельче, 50–150%. И для молодых глаз, и для наших.
• Горячие клавиши — любую комбинацию можно переучить в настройках. По два слота: пусть Alt+X и F15 делают одно и то же.
• Два языка — весь интерфейс говорит по-русски или по-английски; переключается в настройках.
• Отмена всего — Ctrl+Z отменяет не только буквы, но и дела с банками: случайно очистил — верни как было.
• Твоё добро — твоё — всё лежит в одной папке data/ рядом с программой. Скопировал папку на флешку — вот тебе и бэкап, и вся установка. Без облаков, без аккаунтов, никто не подглядывает.

📸 Screenshots

A distraction-free text area with red pins to keep your most important notes glued to the top of the list.


Smart Drop Zones. Drag a file in and choose exactly what happens next: embed it, link it, or safely tuck it away in the note's dedicated folder.

More screenshots

Old main interface.


Old what it does preview.


Additional view.


Additional view.


No data lock-in. Export your entire database for safekeeping or convert your notes to readable `.txt` files with one click.


Global Hotkeys. Rebind any action to fit your exact workflow and avoid clashes with other software.


Custom Timestamps. Tell the `Ctrl+E` shortcut exactly how to format your dates. Perfect for uniform journaling.


Project Bridges. Link a project tab directly to its real-world folder and executable so you can launch your work right from your notes.


Pure OLED Black. One of six vintage themes, designed to completely eliminate eye strain in the dark.


The Settings panel. Build the exact interface you want by toggling everything from line numbers to the tiny analog clock.


Built for heavy lifting. The app effortlessly handles huge walls of dense text without ever slowing you down.


Instant tweaks. Switch languages, swap themes, or scale the entire UI up to 150% right from the top bar.


Zen Mode. Hide the sidebars and settings to get a pure, focused canvas for long-form writing.

🚀 Quick start

Portable EXE — grab it from Releases, run it, press Alt+X. No install, no Python, no admin rights. The database lives in a data/ folder next to the EXE — run it from a USB stick if you like.

From source:

git clone https://github.com/vacterro/FastPrompter.git
cd FastPrompter
uv sync && uv run python FastPrompter.pyw    # or: pip install -r requirements.txt

Build your own EXE (~27 MB — unused Qt modules are stripped):

python tools/build.py

⌨️ Shortcuts

Global (rebindable, two slots each): Alt+X / F15 toggle window · Shift+Alt+X quick list · Alt+D sidebar · Alt+S lock window · Alt+E always on top · Alt+A hide on click-out

In-app keys (all customizable via Settings)

Key	Action
Ctrl+N	New empty silo
Alt+Up / Alt+Down	Previous / next silo
Ctrl+1–Ctrl+0	Jump to silo 1–10
F1–F10	Paste snippet 1–10
Ctrl+S	Save / update snippet
Ctrl+W	Insert --- divider line
Ctrl+E	Header + timestamp on current line
Ctrl+Return	Toggle checkboxes
Ctrl+B / I / U	Bold / Italic / Underline
Ctrl+F / Ctrl+H	Find / Replace
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Undo / Redo (text and silo actions)
Ctrl+Q	Cycle window through screen corners
Ctrl+D	Focus (zen) mode
Ctrl+Shift+S	Export silo to file
Esc	Close search → hide & save
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Q	Quit completely

Mouse gestures

Gesture	Action
Drag any empty space / header	Move the window
Drag the bottom-right corner	Resize the window
Wheel over silos / snippets / archive	Flip pages
Ctrl+wheel over silos	Select previous / next silo
Wheel over tab bar	Switch project
Ctrl+wheel in editor	Zoom font
Middle-click a silo	Move it to the trash (text + files land in data/files/_trash/)
Hover a silo	✅ tick, 📁 files, 📌 pin and 📥 archive buttons appear
Ctrl+Click 📁 button	Save silo text as a backup file (Copy / Copy + Clear / Cancel)
Drag files over editor	Four drop zones: insert as text, insert as link, copy to Files, or create shortcut in Files
Right-click a silo	Transfer to project, replace from, move to bottom…
Drop a silo ONTO another	Nest it as a child (1 level; its files can merge into the parent)
Shift+drop a silo onto another	Swap their places
Drag a silo between others	Reorder — dragging a child out promotes it back to top level
Right-click a parent silo	Collapse / expand its children

Three views of the FastPrompter workspace: settings panel, silo management, and the markdown editor in action.

📁 Your data

Everything is local and yours:

• Database — data/local_data_v15.db next to the EXE, saved in real time
• File containers — silo assets are plain folders under data/files/<project>/<silo-title>/, browsable in Explorer
• Markdown mirror — silos, snippets & archive exported daily as plain .md files to Documents\.fastprompter\ (on by default, toggleable), readable without FastPrompter
• Crash log — written next to the EXE; crashes are loud, never silent

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

🛠️ Under the hood

Python 3.11 + PyQt6, SQLite via the standard library, Win32 RegisterHotKey for global hotkeys, Nuitka for the single-file EXE. Sounds use QSoundEffect with a stdlib winsound fallback, which keeps the FFmpeg payload (~100 MB) out of the build entirely.

uv run pytest tests/         # 461 unit tests
uv run pytest tests_smoke/   # 104 integration tests — boots the real app offscreen

📜 License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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_{Built with Python, PyQt6 and ❤️ by vacterro}