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Show HN: A keyboard-centric clipboard history app for macOS (clipbook.app)
141 points by Ikryanov 5 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 117 comments
Hey HN,

As a Software Engineer, I frequently copy and paste content. The fact that macOS clipboard buffer can keep only one item is very frustrating. It’s very annoying to copy → switch app → paste → switch app → copy → switch app → paste, and so on. Losing items I copied hours ago and having to find and copy them again is a waste of time.

I tried many third-party clipboard managers like Alfred, Raycast, Paste, Maccy, etc. While great, they didn't fully meet my needs.

As a developer, my requirements are:

1. Keyboard-centric operation to avoid using the mouse. I don’t want to waste my time moving my hands from the keyboard.

2. Display many clipboard history items at once. I don’t like the idea with big tiles, so I can see only 5-7 history items on my 32” monitor.

3. Full content preview for each clipboard item.

4. Quick search functionality.

So, I created ClipBook for my own use. After months of development, daily use, and positive feedback from my colleagues, I decided to share it publicly. It’s free. All data is securely stored on your computer. I’m planning to make it open source as well.

If you try it out, please let me know if you found it useful, if you have anything you’d like me to add, or if you have any other feedback.

Happy to answer any questions. Much appreciated.




Love that the app displays shortcuts on the lower left. Why I use Maccy: -Handles images -Removes formatting -Has shortcuts -Offers search -Is installed with Homebrew

I often copy huge (+70000) rows of excel sheets. Makes Maccy sluggish. Superlarge clipboard entries I’d like to purge somehow. After X mins if larger than Y?


I thought copy in excel only copied the range and it was during paste that data was copied. This is why you can’t make changes to your sheet between copy and paste.


FYI, there's an alternate clipboard in macOS called the kill ring (influenced by Emacs) that lets you cycle through previously killed text. The default property is called NSTextKillRingSize. There's a bit of config to do but it still works (Sonoma 14.5 as of this writing) for native macOS apps. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Co...


What I've discovered is that I don't even want a menu. I want to hold the command key, tap the v key several times, and just have it cycle through until I get the one I want. It'd only release the past when I let up off of command (each tap of V would replace the previously pasted item with the next in this queue/ring). Command-C would just copy into the ring to the first position. Use another hotkey to remove an item, I guess. I don't need a visual history.


IIRC Flycut did that. Loved it but it only copied text and was abandoned a long time ago.


Umm should I not be using Flycut? It's still on the app store.


I'm still a daily-driver of Flycut and love it.


I'm really surprised no one has mentioned flycut as an option which has almost every feature mentioned, and is open source https://github.com/TermiT/Flycut.


Happily using flycut the last few years and it's been amazing. So yeah my question is how clipbook is better than flycut ?


Not familiar with flycut, but had a look through their issues. There are a few security-related, and a bunch of iCloud stuff. Eg, this one to add the option to disable iCloud sync, which is still open after 4 years:

https://github.com/TermiT/Flycut/issues/200

From that it seems clipbook may be better for people who care about local-only or have other security-related concerns (perhaps related to workplace policy, for example). Maybe someone who knows more could weigh in?


Interesting, I've been using raycast clipboard that even stores images. Instead of cmd+shift+v i use cmd+shift+p which is much quicker to pull up.


Copied content never leaves your computer and is encrypted on your local hard drive. Passwords copied from any password managers and other transient data are ignored by default. https://www.raycast.com/extensions/clipboard-history


Both of those combinations pretty commonly used in other applications

cmd+shift+v -> unformatted paste

cmd+shift+p -> command palette

I use Karabiner and use right_command+v for the clipboard launcher without interfering with the other apps.


Can you explain the cmd+shift+p a bit more? I use raycast as well, but need to opt+space+”c…l…I…”


The only thing missing from raycast clipboard is ability to paste previous 'copy's with a keyboard shortcut.


Abandonware.


I do cmd+ctrl+v


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looks cool can you mirror installer on github?


Fixed. I will mirror installer on GitHub as well. Thanks for the idea!


Ok, I'll be that guy. But what stops a very clever hacker from creating something useful and seemingly naive as this, but adding some hard to find backdoor in it. I was about to just install it but then stopped and thought, what could be the easiest RCE out there. Make a useful app, a catchy domain name, professional landing page, get social proof by getting it to HN front page and have zero people comment what I'm currently commenting... There is no link to source, no link to LinkedIn profile of the creator. I'm sure this is a legit app, but makes me wonder, am I the only paranoid person here?


I actually had the same thought after I had installed it and noticed that the binary was over 600MB. Sure, it's probably just Electron, but still, it was just enough to get me to hold off on actually trying it for now.


It's actually not Electron, it appears to be Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF), which is what Spotify desktop app uses. I'm speaking completely separately from OP's product:

CEF was supposed to be more efficient than Electron, but I think that framework heavily missed the mark. I'd be interested to know why the dev chose CEF instead.


Last year I answered on SO about the difference between Electron and CEF and which one to chose: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70620182/whats-the-diffr...

I actually use an Electron-like framework to make ClipBook, but it's not Electron and not CEF. It's Electron for C++ developers. It's called Molybden SDK. I'm one of the creators of this SDK. I decided to use it, because I know it really well and it allows me to write using C++ and closely work with the operating system. It's very important when you build a software like ClipBook.


There are three downloads: for Mac Apple Silicon, Intel, and Universal.

You see the 600MB binary, because it's probably Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel) DMG. To have a smaller size it's better to download DMG for your Mac CPU architecture. You can find all three versions at https://clipbook.app/download/

I should say that even Apple Silicon or Intel app will still be ~330MB. It's because of the SDK I use to build this app.


I'm the creator. Thanks for your comment. It's not about paranoid. It's critical thinking and I believe everybody should use it during the Internet epoch.

I'm not hiding and you can easily find me in social networks: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimir-ikryanov-9334915/ - GitHub: https://github.com/vladimir-ikryanov

I will definitely need to share the source code of ClipBook, so anybody can analyze it or build their own copy of the app.


Yeah, I absolutely need open source for this and me building it fully myself. I wouldn't be able to trust it otherwise, unless it came with the OS itself.


any functionality to exclude passwords from making it into the history? This is the most annoying thing with Maccy for me (I literally have complex wrapper scripts that turn it on and off when I'm using my password manager which are flaky and annoying to maintain).


Have you tried CopyQ? I've not used it on MacOS, but on Windows and Linux it can exclude based off window title: https://copyq.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html#how-to-omit-...


+1 to copyq. It has a lot of funcionality, you can exclude apps to save clip on log (passwords managers), yo can do personal snippets, images, even create your own scripts.... It has a bit deeper than anything else I tried and yet simply enough to run as is....


That’s one of the most requested feature for now. I will definitely add it, so you can add any app to the list of software that must be ignored. Thanks for your feedback!


Are there special "password" copy methods that mark a clipboard element as such so your app could exclude that instead of relying on an apps list (of course if that other app would use this method)?


One way to implement this would be to have a checkbox to ignore passwords/single words

When checked ignore anything that has a space

Slick UI. Well done.


Those already using Keyboard Maestro will find that its built-in Clipboard Switcher is awesome and has all of these features. And you can set up a custom system-wide shortcut … with Keyboard Maestro.

My preferred shortcut is Meta + Q.

(I use Karabiner Elements to set Caps Lock to Meta while pressed, and to Escape when tapped. And I also use it to set Right Command + H/J/K/L to work like arrow keys. Makes flipping through the clipboard history a breeze.)


I really like the simplicity of this app, but it seems to miss a lot of copy events? Just tested by copy & pasting 9 unique lines in Notes, but Clipbook shows only 3 lines in the history. This is on an M3 Pro running 14.5


Just checked this scenario on macOS 14.4.1 M3 Max. Works well and copy everything.


I've been meaning to look for this since switching from Linux at work - will try it out when open source for sure.

Are the keybindings customisable? I'm accustomed to Super-c showing my list and Super-v pasting, so now of course I keep messing up because selections aren't copied automatically, Super(Cmd)-c is doing it and not showing a list, and erasing my previous clip...

I don't mind too much relearning muscle memory, but I do want to be able to customise a binding so I can settle on something common cross-platform.


The feature to customize keyboard shortcuts in the app is #2 on the list of requested features.

I will let you know when I implement it and open source the project.


It's always hard to trust and install desktop apps unless they're open source or coming from a well known dev. But looks promising and useful.


I will make it open source. It's not a problem at all. Thank you for your comment.


That would be very helpful - I also find it hard to trust without seeing code! I've been using Paste which charges something like $20/year. Maybe you can set up a donation link/Github sponsor or so.


Interesting. Will check this out but the Launchbar clipboard manager seems to also meet all the requirements, if you don’t mind pressing spacebar to Quick Look any of the “clips” in your history (I mostly use this for checking images)


Looks amazing, love the simplicity

Does it support images? Can text clipboard items be edited on the clipboard before pasting?

Are you planning on adding snippets?

Alfred works really well for me in terms of snippets and clipboard history

Except for one use case: quick edits

For that, I end up having to paste the content somewhere, change it, (sometimes having to additionally re-copy, then paste in the final destination)


I didn't enable support for images. It's on the product roadmap. I would like to add support for files too.

As for quick edits — I do the same trick too. I will add the quick edit functionality. I miss it too.

I'm not planning to add snippets. Alfred and Raycast are really good at this.


Glad to hear this update is coming.


Looks great. I use the clipboard history extension for Raycast: https://www.raycast.com/extensions/clipboard-history. I find it really useful.


Shameless plug: i worked on the same concept but for snippets and recurrent texts you are copying pasting all the time

You can check here (osx only): https://shortexts.com/


> I tried many third-party clipboard managers like Alfred [...] While great, they didn't fully meet my needs.

> As a developer, my requirements are:

> 1. Keyboard-centric operation to avoid using the mouse. I don’t want to waste my time moving my hands from the keyboard.

> 2. Display many clipboard history items at once. I don’t like the idea with big tiles, so I can see only 5-7 history items on my 32” monitor.

> 3. Full content preview for each clipboard item.

> 4. Quick search functionality.

But... Alfred literally does all of these? It's part of the paid features though and thankfully yours is free. But still, the functionality is mostly there and I'm actually curious about comparing what you've built versus theirs. https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/clipboard/


Alfred is cool, but I didn't find a way to resize the clipboard history window, so I can see more content in the preview panel. Same issue (for me) in Raycast. No way to make the clipboard history window bigger.

Maybe it's just me and there's a way to enable window resizing in Alfred/Raycast?


Okay, that's fair, and I agree, that is something that's lacking in Alfred.

The closest I can think of is expanding one item's preview by pressing Shift after Cmd+Opt+C but not the history window itself.


I was wondering the same. I'm very happy with Alfred and I use the clipboard history a lot. There is just no way back to having only 1 item kept in memory!


What I'd like to see with a product like this is integration with vim registers: If I yank to anything other than OS clipboard, I see it in the history but not as the latest clipboard item.


I like the app website. It is simple and easy to read and a bonus point for dark mode support. Is ClipBook a native macOS app? What technologies did you use to make it?


Thanks for your feedback. I love the dark mode too.

ClipBook is written using Molybden SDK. It allows building UI using modern web frontend frameworks like React, Vue, Angular and write business logic using C++. In case of ClipBook: UI — React + shadcn/ui, business logic — C++ + Cocoa. I wouldn't say it's a native macOS app. I would call it a hybrid app that combines web and desktop technologies to build cross-platform desktop apps quickly.


The UI looks great, but 245MB and closed source makes it seem slightly sus for something that has full access to your clipboard.


This size comes from the SDK I use to build the app — Molybden SDK. It's like Electron, but for C++ developers. This SDK allows me to create UI using React and the business logic using C++.

As for access to the source code — I see that it's very important for lots of people, so I will open the source code on GitHub. It's not a problem at all.


Hi,

thank you very much for clipbook, it's what I was looking for to manage my clipboard simply. I have to read carefully for privacy but I think we are on the right track.


Thank you for your feedback. If you have any questions, please let me know.


Hey man. Your app is userful. I don't like to remember what i have input. Your app can help me to remember it. Thank you for sharing.


Thank you for your feedback. Appreciate that.


Only gripe... the default keyboard shortcuts are "paste un-formatted" in a lot of applications.

Seems like some other combination of keys would be better to use.


I will add functionality to customize ANY keyboard shortcut in the app. Thank you for your feedback.


Looks awesome! Congrats on the launch. Unfortunately, I can't download the Universal or Intel version, I'm getting a UserProjectAccountProblem error.


There was an issue with Google bucket. I fixed it. Should work well now. Thanks for the report.


> ClipBook stores everything you copy

Everything? I'm not seeing any screenshots in the... screenshot.


It doesn't support images yet. I work mostly with text, so in the first versions I added support of the text content only, but support of images and files on the product roadmap. Will add it later. Thanks for your note. Appreciate that.


Very nice and clean! Only feature request I have is to allow window repositioning and resizing :)


You can resize the window using mouse. Like any other regular window. I didn't implement the resizing feature using keyboard shortcuts yet.

As for repositioning window, you can drag the window by dragging the panel with the keyboard shortcuts on the left-bottom side of the window.


Ah yes, that's what I meant. I didn't try dragging with the shortcuts panel, that works, thanks!


This should do one thing.

Use sizeup or window managers instead


Thank you. Could you open the clipboard window on the active screen where the cursor is?


I think I can add this feature, so you can open the clipboard window on the screen with the currently focused window. I think a screen with the currently focused window should be treated as active. It's because I can keep my mouse cursor on secondary screen and work (type something) inside a window on the primary screen. Or just add both preferences, so you can decide yourself which screen should be treated as active.


To be honest I'm not sure which one is better. Where the mouse pointer or where your cursor is. Thank you for considering this.


Isn't ⌘ + Shift + V paste unformatted?


Very nice work.


does it make any network calls? any telemetry involved?


No network calls and access to external web servers (except when you check for updates). No logs and usage statistics. You can use it offline.


I was skeptical when I read the title "yeah, Raycast already does that" but when I visit the site and saw your copy, I am sold. Great work.


Thank you for the feedback. I hope ClipBook will be useful for you.


Looks nice. I will probably stick with Maccy as it is open source and gets regular updates: https://github.com/p0deje/Maccy


I switched to Maccy after using Clipy for the last few years. Clipy hasn't been updated for a while and doesn't have an arm release.

https://github.com/Clipy/Clipy


If anyone is looking for a similar cross-platform and open source solution, CopyQ[1] is handy and scriptable.

[1] https://hluk.github.io/CopyQ/


+1 to Copyq, IMO best clioboard manager. It has a lot of functions, yet simple to use as is.


+1 for CopyQ. Have been using it on Linux and Mac without problems.


I just use Alfred. Has clipboard history and so much more.

https://alfredapp.com/


Raycast is also a Spotlight replacement that's very good and has a built-in clipboard history manager.

https://www.raycast.com

Everything that the OP listed it does out of the box (keyboard control, previews, searchable, etc). I'm very confused at what they found it was lacking.


Raycast is great, although I'm a little annoyed that unlimited clipboard history is behind a $10/month paywall – annoying given that it's just a config setting, I'm running the compute and storage.


I just saw the parent comment about alfred, enabled the clipboard history extension in raycast, gave it a cmd+shift+v hotkey, and then read your comment about it being behind a paywall?

Are you talking about a different none-extension clipboard history? I'm not paying for it and it works nicely.


Raycast only keeps history for up to 3 months unless you pay for it, then you can choose 6/12/unlimited. That has always felt like a silly limitation, and quite disconnected from a $10/month price.


Yea, OP says it doesn't meet their requirements, but Alfred does every requirement they list. It is paid, but I paid 12 years ago and my license key is still working. Great dev(s?).


Alfred is a good software, but I miss the possibility to resize the clipboard history window to see more content in the preview panel. Same issue (for me) in Raycast. If someone knows how to enable such possibility, please share with us.


It shows 15 items by default, which seems more than enough for me, and also offers search/filtering. But if for some reason that's not enough, then I guess it does miss out on that one item. I can't possibly imagine why you would need to see more results on the screen at one time, but everyone has different needs I suppose!


Maybe I wasn't clear. I was talking about the preview panel. Sometimes I copy content of a source code (*.cpp) file, and I need to quickly look at what I have copied in the preview panel. I have to scroll a lot to look at the source code. In ClipBook I just resize the clipboard history window to see more in the preview panel without scrolling.


Alfred just doesn't meet my requirements. The filters don't work for my needs.


+1 the Alfred devs are lovely people.


As does LaunchBar, the Great Grand-Parent of all cmd-space launchers.

While I can’t claim to have used it in the NeXT era, I am pretty sure I have since Mac OS X Beta

https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html


I thought Quicksilver was older, but you're correct, LB goes back to NS:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaunchBar#History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksilver_(software)#History


oh wow I always thought Quicksilver was the first one (after Spotlight of course)


BetterTouchTool also supports clipboard history, it's just not assigned to any shortcut by default.

https://docs.folivora.ai/docs/8_clipboardmanager.html


Another happy Alfred user here. Mostly for the clipboard history, snippets, workflows.


Same here, it’s simple and reliable.


Raycast has this built in. Don't see the need to install a separate application for this purpose. Aren't such launchers mainstream already?


I like and use Raycast, but I don't like the fact that I cannot resize Raycast window. It's pretty annoying, because I cannot see enough content in the clipboard history preview.


I really struggle with clipboard history apps because they are not very far from a keylogger and I don't want to have to trust a developer or third-party code with the contents of my clipboard. Am I being irrational?


Do you only use first party applications otherwise? Any macOS application can poll NSPasteboard and extract your clipboard history and so I don’t see the particular concern with this class of applications.


That’s entirely rational but unless you build from source (and honestly even if you do) there’s an attack vector present. The only real alternative is to review and allow list outgoing network traffic


I use Little Snitch religiously and for third-party apps I use occasionally I'm very pedantic with allowing them 10 minutes of network access at a time. It sounds painful to manage but in practice only a few apps are super chatty. Apps that are my daily drivers get more generous network access rules.


Passwords are excluded from clipboard history if everything is done correctly.


This is awesome, and I feel that this is indeed Alfred's Clipboard Manager on steroids. You did mention trying out Alfred. Without installing ClipBook but reading up on the features, what is missing from Alfred?

Alfred's Clipboard Manager is pretty navigable with the Keyboard; the history is as much as there (I don't know about being infinite), and I can also see the preview, etc.

I used to have Clipboard managers, but with Alfred + Powerpack, I did away with another program running on the menubar/background.

Edit/Update: I just checked Alfred and I can keep plain text, images, files list, for 3 months.


I don't mind to pay for a software. Most of the software costs like two cups of coffee. The only feature I miss in Alfred/Raycast is that I cannot resize the clipboard history window to see more content in the preview panel. I copy large text and source code files. It's hard to quickly look at the source code in a small preview panel.

Maybe it's just me and I didn't find a way to resize the window. If someone knows how to do this, please share with us.


Didn’t try your app but as a longtime Maccy user: What is Maccy missing from these 4 points?


I like Maccy, but it doesn't let me preview the full content. It crops the large text and adds "..." at the end. Also, I cannot select text in the Maccy's preview balloon/tooltip/popup. It just disapears if I try to work with the text in the preview balloon/tooltip/popup.


How does this tool make sure not to historize any passwords copied onto the clipboard?


I never thought about this. Thanks for asking. I will definitely add it, so you can add any app to the list of software that must be ignored.


See this site: http://nspasteboard.org/


Thank you so much!


Nice. I made https://xclippy.com which has same the features.


Xclippy looks nice. Upvoted your PH.




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