gif-search

GIF Search

Search and download GIFs from Giphy or Tenor.

Prerequisites

Install gifgrep:

brew install steipete/tap/gifgrep
# GitHub: https://github.com/steipete/gifgrep

Or use curl with Giphy/Tenor APIs directly (no extra install, requires API key):

# Giphy free API key: register at https://developers.giphy.com/
# Tenor free API key: register at https://developers.google.com/tenor/guides/quickstart
export GIPHY_API_KEY=your_key_here
export TENOR_API_KEY=your_key_here

Commands

gifgrep (recommended)

gifgrep search "dancing cat"              # Search and preview
gifgrep search "excited" --limit 5        # Limit results
gifgrep download "celebration" --out ~/Downloads/  # Search and download
gifgrep trending                           # Show trending GIFs

Giphy API (curl fallback)

# Search GIFs
curl -s "https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/search?api_key=$GIPHY_API_KEY&q=QUERY&limit=5&rating=g" \
  | jq '.data[].url'

# Get direct GIF URL
curl -s "https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/search?api_key=$GIPHY_API_KEY&q=QUERY&limit=1&rating=g" \
  | jq -r '.data[0].images.original.url'

# Download first result
GIF_URL=$(curl -s "https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/search?api_key=$GIPHY_API_KEY&q=QUERY&limit=1&rating=g" \
  | jq -r '.data[0].images.original.url') && curl -s -L "$GIF_URL" -o ~/Downloads/result.gif

Tenor API (curl fallback)

# Search
curl -s "https://tenor.googleapis.com/v2/search?q=QUERY&key=$TENOR_API_KEY&limit=5" \
  | jq '.results[].url'

# Get media URL
curl -s "https://tenor.googleapis.com/v2/search?q=QUERY&key=$TENOR_API_KEY&limit=1" \
  | jq -r '.results[0].media_formats.gif.url'

Usage Examples

"Find a gif of a happy dog"

gifgrep search "happy dog" --limit 5 2>/dev/null || \
  curl -s "https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/search?api_key=$GIPHY_API_KEY&q=happy+dog&limit=5&rating=g" \
  | jq '.data[] | {title: .title, url: .url}'

"Download a celebration gif"

gifgrep download "celebration" --out ~/Downloads/ 2>/dev/null || {
  GIF_URL=$(curl -s "https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/search?api_key=$GIPHY_API_KEY&q=celebration&limit=1&rating=g" \
    | jq -r '.data[0].images.original.url')
  curl -s -L "$GIF_URL" -o ~/Downloads/celebration.gif
  echo "Downloaded: ~/Downloads/celebration.gif"
}

"Show trending GIFs"

gifgrep trending 2>/dev/null || \
  curl -s "https://api.giphy.com/v1/gifs/trending?api_key=$GIPHY_API_KEY&limit=10&rating=g" \
  | jq '.data[].title'

"Convert gif to mp4 (smaller file)"

ffmpeg -y -i input.gif -movflags faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p -vf "scale=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2" output.mp4

Rules

• Check if gifgrep is installed first: which gifgrep
• If gifgrep not installed, fall back to curl + Giphy API
• If neither gifgrep nor GIPHY_API_KEY/TENOR_API_KEY is set, show install/setup instructions
• Default content rating: g (general audiences) unless user explicitly requests otherwise
• Default download directory: ~/Downloads/
• Show GIF URLs in output so user can preview in browser
• Limit search results to 5 by default to avoid overwhelming output
• When downloading, report the saved file path
• Never cache or store API keys — read from environment only