Free & open source · macOS 14 Sonoma or later
Everything you copied, one keystroke away.
Clipstack keeps a searchable history of the text and images you copy, right in your menu bar. It never leaves your Mac.
For macOS 14 or later · No account · No network access
Clipstack is a Mac app. You can download it here and move it to your Mac, or come back to this page from your Mac.
A focused Mac utility, not another dashboard.
Clipstack does one job: it helps you find something you copied earlier and puts it back on your clipboard.
Instant search
Type to search your history as you go. Matching ignores case and accents, covers the source app's name, and can be filtered to text or images.
Text and images
Clear text previews and image thumbnails, with a type label, the app you copied from and when you copied it.
Keyboard first
Open it with a shortcut, move with the arrow keys and press Return to copy. ⌘1–9 copies one of the first nine items directly.
Pause in one click
Capture status is always visible. While paused, Clipstack doesn't read the clipboard at all, and anything copied during a pause is never saved.
Exclude apps
Copies from password managers are skipped by default. You can add any other app. Copies that an app marks as concealed are never recorded.
You set the limits
Keep items for a day, a week, 30 or 90 days, or until you delete them. You can also cap the number of items and skip anything too large.
Private by design.
Your clipboard can hold passwords, private messages and financial details. Clipstack treats it that way.
- Stays on your Mac. No accounts, sync, telemetry or analytics. The app runs in the macOS App Sandbox without network access.
- Honours "don't record this". Copies marked as concealed or transient are always skipped. Most password managers mark their copies this way.
- Deleting really deletes. When an item is deleted or expires, it's removed from disk, including its image files.
- No special permissions. Clipstack never types or pastes for you, so it doesn't need Accessibility access. You press ⌘V yourself.
- Not encrypted by Clipstack. History is stored as ordinary files that only your user account can read. It's protected by your Mac login and FileVault, if you use it.
Exactly what is stored, and where
Plain text, and images saved as PNG with small thumbnails. For each item Clipstack also stores when it was copied and which app was in front at the time. Nothing else.
This folder is excluded from Time Machine. Settings shows its location and opens it in Finder.
Built for your keyboard.
Open Clipstack, type a few letters, press Return, then paste. Your hands stay on the keyboard.
You can change the global shortcut to ⇧⌘V or ⌥⌘V, or turn it off, in Settings.
Install in a minute.
Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
Download and unzip
Download Clipstack.zip, then double-click it to unzip it.
Move it to Applications
Drag Clipstack.app into your Applications folder.
Open it
Double-click Clipstack.app.
Find it in your menu bar
Clipstack has no Dock icon. Click the clipboard icon at the top of your screen, or press ⌃⌥⌘V.
Prefer to build it yourself?
The code is short, readable Swift. You need Xcode 15 or later.
# clone and test git clone https://github.com/mohabbis/clipstack cd clipstack swift test # build a sandboxed Clipstack.app scripts/build-app.sh open build/Clipstack.app
Questions
Does Clipstack paste for me?
No. Choosing an item puts it back on your clipboard and returns you to the app you were using, and you press ⌘V yourself. That's why Clipstack doesn't need Accessibility permission.
What won't it capture?
Anything copied while capture is paused. Anything copied while an excluded app is in front. Copies an app marks as concealed or transient. Files copied in Finder. Items over your size limit. Whatever was already on the clipboard when Clipstack started.
How does it know which app I copied from?
macOS doesn't report which app wrote to the clipboard, so Clipstack uses the app that was in front at the time. That's accurate for normal copying, but it can miss copies made by background tools or scripts. The concealed-copy markers that password managers set don't depend on this and are always honoured.
Does it sync between my Macs?
No, deliberately. There's no cloud, account or network access. History stays on the Mac where you copied it.
How do I remove everything?
Choose Clear History from the ⋯ menu or in Settings → Storage. That deletes all stored text and images. To uninstall, quit Clipstack and move it to the Trash.
Is it free?
Yes. Clipstack is free, and its source code is on GitHub.
Never lose a copy again.
Free for macOS 14 and later.