ClipboardManager

A lightweight macOS menu bar app for clipboard history management. Built with Swift and SwiftUI.

Features

• Clipboard History — automatically stores copied texts (configurable limit: 20 / 50 / 100)
• Search & Filter — quickly find items in your history
• Pin / Favorites — pin important items so they stay at the top and never get removed
• Snippets — save frequently used texts as permanent snippets
• Content Type Detection — auto-detects URLs, emails, phone numbers, and color codes with distinct icons
• Source App Tracking — shows which app each item was copied from
• Text Transformations — right-click to transform text (uppercase, lowercase, capitalized, trimmed, URL encode/decode)
• Merge Items — select multiple items and merge them with a separator (newline, space, or comma)
• Export — export clipboard history as JSON or CSV
• Sensitive Content Protection — automatically skips passwords from password managers
• Global Keyboard Shortcut — customizable hotkey to open the panel from anywhere
• Persists history across app restarts

Requirements

• macOS 13 (Ventura) or later
• Xcode 15+ (for building)

Build & Install

1. Clone the repo

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd ClipboardManager

2. Install xcodegen (if not installed)

   brew install xcodegen

3. Generate Xcode project

   xcodegen generate

4. Open in Xcode

   open ClipboardManager.xcodeproj

5. Set signing

   • Click ClipboardManager project in the sidebar
   • Go to Signing & Capabilities
   • Select your Team (your Apple ID)

6. Build & Run

   • Press Cmd+R or click ▶ Run
   • Xcode will build and launch the app

7. Grant permissions (first launch)

   • macOS will ask for Accessibility permission — enable it in System Settings
   • To set a global shortcut: click the menu bar icon, then Settings → Change → press your keys

8. Install to Applications (optional)

   • In Xcode menu: Product → Archive or build with Release config
   • Or simply copy from build output:

     BUILT=$(xcodebuild -scheme ClipboardManager -configuration Release -showBuildSettings | grep "BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR" | awk '{print $3}')
     cp -r "$BUILT/ClipboardManager.app" /Applications/

Usage

Action	How
Open history	Click the clipboard icon in menu bar (or use your global shortcut)
Copy from history	Click any item in the list
Pin an item	Right-click → Pin
Delete an item	Right-click → Delete
Transform text	Right-click → Transform → choose format
Save as snippet	Right-click → Save as Snippet
Search history	Type in the search bar at the top
Merge items	Click Select → choose 2+ items → Merge
Switch tabs	Click History / Snippets in the tab bar
Change shortcut	Settings → Change → press key combo
Change history limit	Settings → History Limit (20 / 50 / 100)
Export history	Settings → Export JSON or Export CSV
Clear all history	Click "Clear" in header
Quit app	Settings → Quit App

Start at Login (optional)

System Settings → General → Login Items → add ClipboardManager.app

Project Structure

ClipboardManager/
├── main.swift              # App entry point
├── AppDelegate.swift       # Status bar, panel, hotkey wiring
├── ClipboardStore.swift    # Data model + UserDefaults persistence
├── ClipboardMonitor.swift  # NSPasteboard polling (0.5s timer)
├── HotkeyManager.swift     # CGEventTap global shortcut
├── ContentView.swift       # SwiftUI main UI (history list, search, merge)
├── SettingsView.swift      # Shortcut, history limit, export settings
├── SnippetStore.swift      # Snippet data model + persistence
├── SnippetView.swift       # Snippets tab UI
├── ContentTypeDetector.swift # URL, email, phone, color detection
├── TextTransformations.swift # Text transform operations
├── ExportManager.swift     # JSON / CSV export with NSSavePanel
└── Info.plist              # LSUIElement=true (no dock icon)

License

MIT