Cliplex

A fast, private, native clipboard manager for macOS — history, snippets, and quick actions, with instant search.

A lightweight menu-bar app that remembers what you copy, stores reusable snippets, runs quick clipboard actions, and finds any of it instantly with full-text search — all from a panel that opens right at your cursor. No telemetry, no account, no cloud. Nothing leaves your machine.

brew install --cask ron537/tap/cliplex

_{Other install options · macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon & Intel · Free & MIT · Open the panel with ⌘⇧V}

⭐ If Cliplex saves you a paste, star the repo — it genuinely helps.

Why Cliplex?

Most clipboard managers force a trade-off: great search but no snippets, or snippet folders but no search — and quick actions rarely show up at all. Cliplex brings clipboard history, snippet folders, quick actions, and instant search together in one fast, native, MIT-licensed app — with per-item global shortcuts and zero telemetry.

Feature	Cliplex	Other clipboard apps
Clipboard history	✅	✅
Snippet folders	✅	⚠️ often missing
Quick actions (open URL/app, transforms)	✅	❌ rarely
Instant full-text search	✅	⚠️ sometimes
Per-item / folder global shortcuts	✅	⚠️ limited
Cursor-anchored quick panel	✅	❌ rarely
100% local, no telemetry	✅	⚠️ not always
Free & open source	✅ MIT	⚠️ often paid or closed
Native macOS app (Swift / SwiftUI)	✅	⚠️ varies
All of the above, in one app	✅	❌

_{✅ built-in · ⚠️ partial / varies by app · ❌ not available. “Other clipboard apps” reflects the typical state across popular macOS alternatives; individual apps differ and features evolve.}

Highlights

• Clipboard history — text, rich text, images, files, and color swatches, with most-recently-used ordering and pinning.
• Snippets — reusable text organized into folders, shown as a collapsible tree. Use {clipboard} to weave in whatever you copied last.
• Quick actions — open a URL/app/path or transform the clipboard (Base64, JSON pretty/minify, URL-encode, case, hash, trim…) in one keystroke.
• Instant search — SQLite FTS5 as-you-type over history, snippets, and actions.
• Cursor-anchored panel — a non-activating panel that opens where your mouse is and never steals focus, so paste lands in the app you were using.
• Per-item shortcuts — assign a global hotkey to any snippet, action, or folder.
• Quick paste — ⌘1–⌘0 for the top items; ⏎ to paste the selection.
• Privacy by default — concealed/password clips and configured apps are never stored; the database is entirely local.

Screenshots

Library — manage snippets & actions	Settings

_{Screenshots use generic demo data and are regenerated with tools/screenshots/.}

Create snippets & actions

Build a reusable snippet or a one-keystroke action in seconds — type {clipboard} to weave in whatever you copied last.

New snippet	New action

_{Demos use generic demo data and are regenerated with tools/screenshots/.}

Install

Note

Release builds are ad-hoc signed but not notarized (Cliplex is free and doesn't carry a paid Apple Developer certificate). The app is safe and runs fine — macOS just shows a one-time Gatekeeper prompt for a downloaded build. See first launch below. Building from source has no prompt.

Download: grab the latest Cliplex-<version>.dmg from the Releases page, open it, and drag Cliplex to Applications.

Homebrew:

brew install --cask ron537/tap/cliplex

Build from source (no Gatekeeper prompt):

git clone https://github.com/Ron537/Cliplex.git
cd Cliplex
./scripts/build-app.sh      # build + bundle + sign
open build/Cliplex.app

First launch

Because downloaded builds aren't notarized, the first time you open Cliplex macOS says "Apple could not verify Cliplex is free of malware." To allow it:

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, and click Open Anyway next to the Cliplex message, then confirm.

Or, from Terminal, remove the download quarantine flag:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Cliplex.app

You only need to do this once.

Open the panel with ⌘⇧V. Auto-paste needs Accessibility permission (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility); the dev build signs with a stable self-signed certificate so the grant persists across rebuilds.

Verify the build

Release builds aren't notarized, so if you want extra confidence the DMG is genuine, verify its checksum and build provenance:

# Compare against the SHA-256 published on the release page (SHA256SUMS.txt):
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Cliplex-0.1.0.dmg

# Verify the Sigstore build attestation (proves it was built by the release
# workflow from this repo, on GitHub-hosted runners):
gh attestation verify ~/Downloads/Cliplex-0.1.0.dmg --repo Ron537/Cliplex

FAQ / Troubleshooting

"Apple could not verify Cliplex is free of malware." Expected for a free, un-notarized build. Approve it once via System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Cliplex.app. See First launch.

The panel (⌘⇧V) opens but pasting doesn't work. Auto-paste needs Accessibility permission. Grant it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, then toggle Cliplex off/on if it was already listed.

Nothing is being captured from some apps. By design — clips marked concealed/transient (password managers, etc.) and apps in your exclusion list are never stored. See PRIVACY.md.

Where is my data? How do I reset it? Everything lives in ~/Library/Application Support/com.ron537.cliplex/. Quit Cliplex and delete that folder to start fresh.

Does Cliplex phone home / sync / collect analytics? No. Zero network access, no telemetry, no account. Everything is local.

Stack

• Swift (Swift Package Manager), macOS 14+
• AppKit menu-bar agent + SwiftUI content
• GRDB.swift — SQLite + FTS5
• No App Sandbox (a clipboard manager must read the global pasteboard and synthesize ⌘V via Accessibility)

Project layout

Path	Purpose
Sources/CliplexKit/	Testable, UI-independent core: storage (Database), models, FTS Search, MacClipboard, ClipboardMonitor, Capture (privacy filter), Settings, Accessibility, Paste (CGEvent ⌘V), PanelLayout
Sources/Cliplex/	The menu-bar app: status item, hotkeys, PanelController, the SwiftUI panel + Library/Settings windows, Theme, LoginItem
Tests/CliplexKitTests/	Swift Testing suite
Resources/	Info.plist, entitlements, bundled fonts
scripts/	Build/bundle/sign and test helpers
tools/screenshots/	Reusable screenshot pipeline (generic demo data)
assets/branding/	Vector logo masters; regenerate icons with scripts/gen-icons.sh
site/	GitHub Pages landing page + changelog template. Preview locally with node scripts/serve-site.mjs (builds _site/, serves on :8080, live-rebuilds)

Build & run

# Build, bundle, and sign Cliplex.app (creates a self-signed dev cert on first run)
./scripts/build-app.sh
open build/Cliplex.app

# Run the tests
./scripts/test.sh

Toolchain notes (Command Line Tools, no full Xcode)

The scripts inject what the Command Line Tools toolchain needs; if you invoke swift directly you may need them too:

• A safe.bareRepository=all git override (the machine's global config may set it to explicit, which blocks SwiftPM's bare dependency repos).
• Framework/library search paths for the Swift Testing runtime — see scripts/test.sh.

With full Xcode installed, swift build / swift test work without extra flags.

Privacy

See PRIVACY.md. In short: everything is stored locally in ~/Library/Application Support/com.ron537.cliplex/cliplex.db, there is no network access, and password-manager / concealed clips are ignored.

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. For security reports, see SECURITY.md.

License

MIT. Cliplex links GRDB.swift and KeyboardShortcuts (both MIT) — see THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md. Bundled fonts are licensed under the SIL Open Font License — see Resources/Fonts/README.md.