Saved Library

Save, organize, and quickly access your frequently used regex patterns.

Overview

The Saved Library lets you:

• Save patterns with names and descriptions
• Organize with tags for easy filtering
• Search across all your saved patterns
• Version history to track changes over time
• Quick load patterns into the editor

Saving a Pattern

1. Create or load a regex pattern
2. Click the Save button in the header
3. Enter a name and optional description
4. Add tags for organization
5. Click Save Pattern

Pattern Metadata

Each saved pattern stores:

• Name — A descriptive title
• Pattern — The regex pattern itself
• Flags — Which flags are enabled
• Description — Optional notes about usage
• Tags — For filtering and organization
• Created/Updated — Timestamps

Organizing Patterns

Tags

Use tags to categorize your patterns:

• validation — Input validation patterns
• parsing — Data extraction patterns
• security — Security-related patterns
• work — Work project patterns
• personal — Personal project patterns

Filtering

Filter your library by:

• Tag — Show only patterns with a specific tag
• Search — Search by name or pattern content
• Date — Sort by recently updated

Version History

Every time you update a saved pattern, RegexLens keeps the previous version. This lets you:

• View history — See all previous versions
• Compare versions — Diff view shows what changed
• Restore — Roll back to any previous version
• Add notes — Document why you made changes

Viewing History

1. Open a saved pattern
2. Click the History button
3. Browse previous versions
4. Click any version to view or restore

API Access

Signed-in users can access their saved patterns via the API while authenticated with NextAuth.js. The server validates the HTTP-only session cookie from your browser session. Authorization: Bearer tokens are not supported — use same-origin fetch from the web app (cookies are included automatically), or pass the session cookie when testing with curl.

List Patterns

curl -sS "https://regexlens.dev/api/snippets" \
  -H "Cookie: next-auth.session-token=<session-token-from-signed-in-browser>"

Query Parameters:

• query — Search by name
• tag — Filter by tag
• limit — Number of results (default 20, max 100)
• cursor — Pagination cursor

Response:

{
 "items": [
  {
   "id": "abc123",
   "name": "Email Validation",
   "pattern": "^[\w.+-]+@[\w.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$",
   "flags": "gi",
   "description": "Basic email format validation",
   "tags": ["validation", "email"],
   "created_at": "2023-10-15T10:30:00Z",
   "updated_at": "2023-10-15T10:30:00Z"
  }
 ],
 "next_cursor": "def456"
}

Create Pattern

curl -sS -X POST "https://regexlens.dev/api/snippets" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Cookie: next-auth.session-token=<session-token-from-signed-in-browser>" \
  -d '{"name":"Phone Number","pattern":"\\(\\?\\d{3}\\)?[-.\\s]?\\d{3}[-.\\s]?\\d{4}","flags":"g","description":"US phone number format","tags":["validation","phone"]}'

Update Pattern

curl -sS -X PATCH "https://regexlens.dev/api/snippets/<id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Cookie: next-auth.session-token=<session-token-from-signed-in-browser>" \
  -d '{"pattern":"updated-pattern","notes":"Fixed edge case with area codes"}'

Delete Pattern

curl -sS -X DELETE "https://regexlens.dev/api/snippets/<id>" \
  -H "Cookie: next-auth.session-token=<session-token-from-signed-in-browser>"

Best Practices

Naming Conventions

Use clear, descriptive names:

• ✅ Email Validation (Basic)
• ✅ US Phone Number - Flexible
• ❌ regex1
• ❌ test pattern

Descriptions

Include in your descriptions:

• What the pattern matches
• What it doesn't match (edge cases)
• Example inputs
• Any caveats or limitations

Tags

Create a consistent tagging system:

• Use lowercase
• Be specific but not too granular
• Consider using project names as tags

Limits