Does ClipHistory send my clipboard to the cloud?

No. Everything stays on your Mac. There is no account and no cloud sync. AI transforms only run when you trigger them, and they use your own API key sent directly to the provider you chose.

How many clips does it keep?

It keeps your last 150 unpinned clips automatically, and an unlimited number of pinned clips that you mark to keep permanently.

Which AI providers are supported?

Five: Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, and a custom endpoint. You supply your own API key for whichever you use.

$19.99 as a one-time payment for a 12-month license. There is no auto-renewal.

Will it run on my Mac?

It requires macOS 12 or later and is a universal binary, so it runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

A Developer Clipboard Tool for Mac That Stays Local

The default macOS clipboard holds exactly one thing. Copy a second value and the first is gone. For most people that is a minor annoyance. For developers it is a constant, low-grade tax: you copy an API key, then copy a curl command, and now the key is gone and you are scrolling back through your terminal to find it again.

A developer-focused clipboard tool fixes the part of your workflow you stopped noticing because you adapted around it.

What a developer actually needs from a clipboard tool

A clipboard built for coding work is different from a general note app. Three properties matter most:

History depth. You need recent items to still be there. ClipHistory keeps your last 150 unpinned clips automatically, plus an unlimited number of pinned clips you mark to keep forever.
Fast recall. A global shortcut beats reaching for the mouse. Press Cmd+Shift+V anywhere in macOS and the history opens where your cursor is.
Local storage. Tokens, connection strings, and snippets of proprietary code should not leave your machine. ClipHistory keeps everything on your Mac — no cloud, no account, nothing to sign into.

Recovering things you "lost"

The most common save is the boring one. You copy a UUID from a database row, switch to your editor, copy an import statement, and realize you still needed that UUID. Instead of going back to the database, you open the history and it is the second item in the list.

The same applies to multi-step terminal work. When you are assembling a command from three different sources — a hostname here, a flag there, a path from a README — the history lets you grab each piece in order rather than holding them in your head.

Snippets for the things you retype

Some text you copy once. Other text you type for the hundredth time: a license header, a .gitignore block, a standard error-handling wrapper, a SQL SELECT template. ClipHistory lets you save these as snippets so they are always one search away instead of buried in a scratch file.

Snippets are deliberate and permanent; history is automatic and rolling. Most developers use both: history for the last few minutes of work, snippets for the patterns that recur across projects.

Paste stack for ordered work

When you are filling out a form, scaffolding a config, or migrating values from one file to another, order matters. The paste stack lets you queue several clips and paste them one after another in sequence. Copy three values, then paste them into three fields without switching back and forth.

AI transforms, on your own terms

ClipHistory can run AI transforms on a clip — summarize, rewrite, translate, or clean up messy text — but it does this with your own API key. You connect one of five providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, or a custom endpoint), and requests go directly from your Mac to that provider. There is no ClipHistory account in the middle and no usage you cannot see.

For a developer this is practical: paste a stack trace and ask for a plain-language summary, clean the formatting out of text you copied from a PDF, or translate a comment without leaving your editor.

Why "bring your own key" matters

You already pay a provider, so you control cost and quota. You also control which model you trust with which text. If a clip contains something sensitive, you simply do not run a transform on it — nothing is sent anywhere unless you ask.

How it fits a normal day

A realistic loop looks like this:

You copy several values while reading docs and code.
Cmd+Shift+V brings them back whenever you need one.
The patterns you repeat live as snippets.
Occasional cleanup or summarizing happens through your own AI key.

None of this requires changing how you work. It removes the friction of the single-slot clipboard and the scratch files you use to work around it.

Boards for project context

Beyond the rolling history, boards let you group clips and snippets by purpose. Open a board for the service you are debugging and its connection strings, sample payloads, and reference IDs are all in one place. When you switch projects, you switch boards instead of scrolling past unrelated history. This keeps the automatic history short-lived and the deliberate, project-specific material organized — two different jobs handled by two different tools.

Why not just use a notes app?

A notes app can store text, but it is not built for the copy-paste loop. It does not capture what you copy automatically, it is not one shortcut away from any cursor, and it has no concept of an ordered paste. A clipboard tool sits in the exact path between copy and paste, which is where the friction actually lives. That positioning is the whole point: you do not change apps to use it, it is simply there when you press the shortcut.

Requirements

ClipHistory runs on macOS 12 and later, ships as a universal binary for both Apple Silicon and Intel, and is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings.

Get ClipHistory for macOS — $19.99, a one-time payment for a 12-month license (no auto-renewal). Signed and notarized by Apple, universal binary, everything stays on your Mac. Download ClipHistory.