gifgrep

---
name: gifgrep
description: Search GIF providers with CLI/TUI, download results, and extract stills/sheets.
license: MIT
---

# gifgrep

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