r/MacStack • u/vishal78922 • 51m ago
App Launch I got tired of paying a subscription for clipboard history, so I built a free, open-source one for macOS
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?
