Crafty-Snap

an automated Snapcraft generator that builds snap packages from your project’s metadata.

Why this exists

Let’s be honest: the Snap Store is struggling, and a big part of the problem is how difficult it is to create snaps. The rules are strict, the documentation is scattered, and there’s no real guide that explains how to package modern apps without losing your mind.

I’m a massive Canonical fan — truly — but Snapcraft dropped the ball here. Most projects already have metadata files like pyproject.toml, requirements.txt, Cargo.toml, or package.json. Snapcraft should have been able to use these to generate a working snapcraft.yaml. That’s a reasonable expectation.

So Crafty‑Snap aims to fill that gap.

Right now the repo is empty, but the goal is to build a tool that reads your project’s metadata and generates a snapcraft.yaml automatically. If this works, maybe we’ll finally see more snaps in the store.

This is one of those “I can’t promise anything, but I’m giving it a shot” projects.

Roadmap

• pyproject.toml
  • Start with Python + PySide6 support (the easiest place to begin)
• requirements.txt
  • Natural extension of Python support
• Cargo.toml
  • Rust has similar structure and is easy to parse
• package.json
  • The big one — needed for SnapDock and other Electron/Node apps

Expectations

Like I said, I don’t expect miracles. But if Canonical isn’t going to solve this problem, I might as well try.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/ZFordDev/Crafty-Snap.git
cd Crafty-Snap

Create a virtual environment

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Install KeyPlus in editable development mode

pip install -e .
crafty-snap
# or 
crafty-snap init #makes the place holder snapcraft file

What to expect

terminal out put

Crafty-Snap: R&D for Snapcraft packaging.
Nothing works yet, but it's a start.
Stay tuned...

yaml file

# Generated by Crafty-Snap (R&D mode)
name: example-app
base: core22
version: '0.1'
summary: Example snap generated by Crafty-Snap
description: |
  This is a placeholder snapcraft.yaml generated during R&D. you will need to wait for the real thing to be implemented.

STANDARDS

Because Crafty‑Snap is still in early R&D, it is not required to follow the full ZFordDev standards at this stage.