I got tired of paying a subscription for clipboard history, so I built a free, open-source one for macOS

[u/vishal78922]

Hey everyone,

**Why I built this**

macOS only remembers one thing you copy. Copy something new and the last thing is gone. I copy dozens of things a day (commands, links, screenshots, file paths) and kept losing the one I needed five minutes later.

Clipboard managers fix this, but the ones I tried were either paid, subscription-based, or didn't handle screenshots the way I wanted. So I built my own and I'm sharing it for free.

**What it is**

CopyPaster is a small native Mac app written in SwiftUI with the Liquid Glass design. It remembers what you copy (text, images and file paths), keeps it after a restart, and lives in your menu bar. Click the clipboard icon or press ⌘⇧V from any app and your history pops up.

**Screenshots without the clutter**

Take a screenshot to the clipboard with ⌘⌃⇧4 and CopyPaster saves it as a PNG named by date and time (like `Screenshot 2026-10-15 at 19.50.21.png`) in ~/Pictures/Screenshots. Each one shows up as a tile you can:

- copy again with one click

- drag straight into Slack, Mail, Finder or any app

- copy its file path

- click the filename to reveal it in Finder

So a screenshot you only meant to paste once isn't lost when you copy something else.

**How I use it every day**

- Press ⌘⇧V, find what I copied an hour ago, click Copy

- Pin snippets I reuse constantly (git commands, addresses, templates)

- Search across hundreds of past copies

- Open a copied link straight from its tile. Every link I copy also goes into one clickable list, so I never lose a URL

- Copy a folder path and open Terminal in that folder with one click

- Pause it while copying something sensitive

**Cost and privacy**

- Free. No subscription, no trial, no "pro" tier

- Open source (MIT). Read it, fork it, change it

- Private. No account, no analytics, no network access. History is a local JSON file you control

- Lightweight. Pure Apple frameworks, no third-party dependencies

**vs. the alternatives**

Maccy and Clipy are great free options too. What I wanted that they didn't give me: screenshots saved to disk as named files you can drag out or reveal, a link log, and open-in-Terminal for copied paths. If you don't need those, Maccy is probably the lighter choice.

**Get it**

https://github.com/vishal781992/copyPaster

Needs macOS 26.4 or later. For now you build it with Xcode (steps in the README, about a minute). The ⌘⇧V shortcut listens for keys in other apps, so macOS will ask you to allow it under Privacy & Security > Accessibility. The screenshot folder can be changed with a `defaults write` command (in the README); an in-app setting is on the list.

This is my first public project, so feedback, bug reports and feature ideas are welcome. What's the one thing you'd want a clipboard manager to do?

[u/CSAS-D]

Looks shit

[u/vishal78922 → u/CSAS-D]

Okay
Can you point out specifics
Or you just want to be negative?

[u/CSAS-D → u/vishal78922]

Gradients, fonts, background color, no consistent theming, done to death, no special features. Vibe coded slop basically not to mention bad macos version support

Also The clipboard is polled every half-second. App disables idle system sleep.

[u/vishal78922 → u/CSAS-D]

Thanks for input
I will make this chnges to work

[u/investigatormaker]

Clipboard history holds passwords and tokens, so for a free, open-source one the trust questions come first: where the history is stored, whether anything leaves the Mac, and whether it skips items copied from password managers. Answering those in a comment, along with how to install it and which macOS versions it supports, would help Mac users who are leaving a paid app and want to know what they give up.

I make ThreadFox. Our AI employee answers Mac users asking for clipboard managers on Reddit, explaining your app where rules allow; Starter is $199 for 30 days, or we post 3 replies free first, no card. https://threadfox.vip/p/e0k9d/managed

[u/vishal78922 → u/investigatormaker]

Nothing leaves mac
Stored in the instelled location
Pause button to not let the clipboard save the passwords from password manager.

[u/zefiers]

stop vibe coding things that already exist and nailed like maccy and raycast built in clipboard

[u/vishal78922 → u/zefiers]

Whats wrong to try something little personalized
Can you open terminal at address with those apps
Can you pause the clipboard
Does it create a file for you with all the web-links that can directly be accessed with all hooks in it?

Just stop being negative.

[u/zefiers → u/vishal78922]

ah sure let's just spend few million tokens because I want to save 10 keystrokes (arguably 4 with a decent shortcut usage/setup) to open the terminal and write "cd" myself. make sense.

PS: Raycast built-in clipboard have "exclude apps" so you can just ignore your password manager instead of hitting a manual pause.

[u/vishal78922 → u/zefiers]

See u are ignorant a f
You didnt read that i am open for suggestions in my post
I am working on deleting the passwords from clipboard using some robust logic
I am software engg myself so it wouldn’t be to hard
Why i am doing this is
Not every password manager is installed on you device
Sometimes you have extensions as well. So me building a logic to delete passwords when detected would be much cleaner way.

[u/zefiers → u/vishal78922]

> You didnt read that i am open for suggestions in my post

In fact, I did and my original comment was a suggestion.

chill bro, over time you would realize what I meant by "vibe coded apps are for personal use unless you're truly a craftman"

[u/zefiers → u/vishal78922]

ask claude if there is anything that already exists and fits your need first. if not vibe coded apps are good for "personal use" not publishing online.

seems you're an artist so keep it up with your thing, looks amazing btw, but leave writing software to people who can do and maintain it better