Maccy — Lightweight Open-Source Clipboard Manager for macOS

Introduction

Maccy is a lightweight, open-source clipboard manager for macOS that stores a history of copied items and makes them searchable. It stays out of the way in the menu bar and activates instantly with a keyboard shortcut, filling a gap that macOS does not address natively.

What Maccy Does

• Maintains a scrollable, searchable history of clipboard items
• Supports text, images, files, and rich content types
• Provides fuzzy search to quickly locate past clips
• Pins frequently used items to the top of the list
• Clears history manually or automatically on a schedule

Architecture Overview

Maccy is a native Swift application that monitors the macOS pasteboard using a polling timer. When a new clipboard entry is detected, it stores the content in a local Core Data database. The popup UI is rendered as an NSPopover anchored to the menu bar icon, with a text field for filtering results in real time.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install via Homebrew: brew install --cask maccy or download from the Mac App Store
• Requires macOS 12 Monterey or later
• Set the popup shortcut in Preferences (default: Shift+Cmd+C)
• Configure history size, ignored app list, and auto-clear interval
• Choose whether to store images and files or limit history to text only

Key Features

• Near-instant popup with sub-50ms launch time
• Fuzzy search across all stored clipboard entries
• Pin items so they persist even when history is cleared
• Ignore specific applications to prevent sensitive data capture
• Minimal memory footprint as a native Swift app without Electron

Comparison with Similar Tools

• CopyQ — Cross-platform clipboard manager with scripting; heavier and more complex
• Paste — Polished commercial macOS clipboard app with iCloud sync
• Alfred Clipboard History — Part of Alfred Powerpack; requires a paid license
• Flycut — Older open-source macOS clipboard manager with fewer features
• Ditto — Windows-only clipboard manager with network sync

FAQ

Q: Does Maccy sync clipboard across devices? A: No, Maccy stores history locally on the machine. Use Universal Clipboard for cross-device pasting between Apple devices.

Q: Is my clipboard history encrypted? A: Maccy stores data in a local Core Data store without encryption. Sensitive items can be excluded by adding apps to the ignore list.

Q: How many items can Maccy store? A: The default is 200 items, configurable up to 999. Older items are removed automatically when the limit is reached.

Q: Does it work with password managers? A: Maccy detects concealed pasteboard types used by many password managers and excludes them by default to avoid storing passwords.

Sources

• https://github.com/p0deje/Maccy
• https://maccy.app/