Share a code snippet

Guide · updated October 2026 · 2 min read

The fastest way to get another person to look at your code is a link that opens to exactly that code, with indentation intact and line numbers on the left. Not a screenshot, not an attachment, not a repository they have to clone.

Create the snippet

1. Paste the code into the editor at pastesite.com.
2. Pick the language from the Language list — JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Bash, SQL, Go, Rust, Java, C/C++, PHP, Ruby and more. Highlighting is cosmetic; the text is stored exactly as typed.
3. Give it a title that names the problem, not the file: "TypeError when parsing empty JSON body" beats "test.js".
4. Set an expiry if this is a one-off debugging exchange. Use unlisted if the code is not for the public feed.
5. Create and send the link. Anyone can read it without an account.

Getting it back out

Every paste has two views. The formatted page is for humans; /raw/<id> returns the exact text as text/plain with no HTML wrapper, which is what you want inside a script:

Download a paste into a file

curl -s https://pastesite.com/raw/AbC123xYz9 > snippet.py
python snippet.py

Password-protected pastes accept ?password=... or an x-paste-password header on the raw endpoint. The API guide covers creating pastes from a terminal with an API key.

What to include in the snippet

• The failing part plus a little context. Five lines of imports beat a whole file.
• The error message, verbatim. Paraphrasing an error hides the exact string someone would search for.
• What you expected. "Should return [] for an empty array" tells the reader where to look.
• Versions when they matter. Node 18 versus 22, Python 3.11 versus 3.13, a specific React minor.
• Nothing secret. No API keys, tokens, connection strings, customer data or internal hostnames.

Sharing a diff instead of a file

For review, a unified diff is more useful than the changed file. Choose Diff / Patch as the language and paste the output of git diff. The + and - lines get coloured, so the reader sees the change without reconstructing it.

Produce a readable patch

git diff --stat
git diff -U5 -- src/parser.ts

If you want to compare two versions of a snippet before sending, the text comparison tool runs entirely in your browser.

Frequently asked questions

Which languages get syntax highlighting?

Over 30: JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Bash, SQL, JSON, CSS, HTML, XML, YAML, TOML, Markdown, Diff, Dockerfile, C, C++, C#, Java, Kotlin, Swift, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, Lua, Perl, R, Scala, Dart, PowerShell and plain text.

Does the code run on the server?

No. Pastes are stored and displayed as text. Nothing is executed, evaluated or interpreted, which is also why sharing a snippet cannot do anything to the reader.

Can I get the code without the HTML page?

Yes — /raw/<id> returns plain text, suitable for curl, wget and shell pipelines.

Is a paste a good place for a whole repository?

No. A paste is one block of text with a 100,000 character limit. Use git for anything with more than a couple of files or any history.

Related: Share logs · Share JSON · Compare text · API & CLI.