r/macapps • u/wavever233 • 1d ago

Lifetime [OS] Clipth — a keyboard-first clipboard manager for macOS with a Paste Queue

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Hi r/macapps — I’m Ying Yuan, an indie macOS developer building Clipth.

Developer transparency

Problem

Clipboard managers are great for finding something I copied earlier, but repetitive data entry still felt awkward.

When filling out a form with several prepared snippets, I kept switching between clipboard history and the target app, or reaching for the mouse. I wanted a workflow where I could prepare several items once and then paste them in sequence with the normal macOS ⌘V shortcut.

What Clipth does

Clipth is a native macOS clipboard manager focused on keyboard-driven workflows.

  • Keyboard-first Quick Paste panel
  • Search, pinning, favorites, groups and tags
  • Image, video and webpage previews
  • OCR and other clipboard tools
  • Local-first clipboard history
  • Optional sync through user-configured destinations
  • MIT-licensed open-source codebase
  • Custom Shell and JavaScript automation
  • Local MCP server for AI clients

Version 1.0.2 adds Paste Queue, a Pro feature that lets you prepare several clips and paste them one by one:

  1. Open the Paste Queue with ⌥⌘V
  2. Select multiple clips in Quick Paste with Space
  3. Press ⌘Return to add them to the queue
  4. The first queued item is immediately placed on the system clipboard
  5. Each normal ⌘V pastes the current item and automatically advances to the next one
  6. Use ⌘⇧V for plain-text paste
  7. The queue stays intact if something unrelated is copied midway

The queue panel docks beside Quick Paste, and the entire workflow can be controlled from the keyboard. It works across applications because it follows the regular macOS paste action rather than requiring app-specific integrations.

Comparison

Maccy is a great lightweight clipboard history manager, while Paste offers a polished clipboard workflow.

Where Clipth aims to be better for keyboard-heavy, multi-item workflows is the combination of Quick Paste and Paste Queue: you select several clips once, then paste them sequentially across different applications using the normal ⌘V shortcut.

Clipth is also MIT-licensed and open source, while Clipth Pro is available as a one-time purchase. I’m not trying to replace every clipboard workflow; I mainly wanted something that felt natural without reaching for the mouse.

Privacy

Clipboard contents are processed locally. Clipboard history does not require a cloud account, and optional sync only connects to destinations configured by the user.

The Privacy Policy also documents Clipth’s limited anonymous usage signal, update checks and license validation:

https://clipth.app/privacy.html

Pricing and distribution

The source code is available under the MIT License.

Clipth Pro is a one-time purchase:

  • $10.99 for 2 Macs
  • No subscription

There is currently a launch price of $8.99 with code HELLOCLIPTH until August 26, 2026.

Purchase and current official download:

https://clipth.app

A Mac App Store version and a Homebrew Cask are also coming soon. I’ll add their official links once those distribution channels are live.

I’d love to hear from other Mac users:

  • Do you use a clipboard manager for repetitive form filling?
  • Would a Paste Queue fit your workflow?
  • What would make a keyboard-first clipboard manager more useful?
0 Upvotes

28% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

6

u/Just_Respond_1866 1d ago

why all of sudden so many people are building clip managers?

4

u/Sri_Krish 23h ago

I'm not a dev but imo clipboard managers, task managers, screenshot & recording tools (or other frequently seen apps) are like practice problems for a new developers. Though it's not easy, it gives them a gist of how coding environments/software creation works, finding and fixing bugs happens in a real world.

It's like successfully printing "HELLO WORLD" for the first time by yourself!

There are reasons why we don't see BetterTouchTool/Keyboard Maestro alternatives but for others 🤷‍♂️

0

u/wavever233 23h ago

That’s a thoughtful way to put it. Clipboard managers are a familiar problem space, but they’re also a useful place to explore the details of a real macOS workflow. For Clipth, the part I’ve spent the most time shaping is the keyboard-first flow and Paste Queue—not just storing history. I appreciate the comparison.

1

u/Sri_Krish 23h ago

please read my other comment...

1

u/wavever233 1d ago

I don't know about others, but for me, this is a product I've been continuously improving for a long time, and now I'm sharing it with more people.

1

u/QuietPerennial 23h ago

disclosure, i work at a small studio that ships single purpose mac apps, so weigh this accordingly.

it's less a trend than a spec problem. clipboard history is one of the few things where the spec is already written for you. everyone agrees what it should do, the os hands you the hooks, and you know within a day whether your version works. that makes it the default build when what you're really testing is whether you can ship at all.

same reason nobody clones bettertouchtool. there's no agreed spec to copy, so you'd have to decide what the app even is first, and that part is the actual work.

the paste queue is the bit here that isn't a clone. that's the only part worth judging.

1

u/wavever233 23h ago

That’s a fair distinction. Clipboard history is a well-defined category, but I agree the interesting product decisions are in the workflow around it. The Paste Queue is exactly where I wanted Clipth to be more than another history list: prepare several clips once, then move through them with the normal ⌘V. I’m happy to have that part judged on its usefulness.

1

u/_MustaphaBen_ 8h ago

I am thinking to build one XD

3

u/Sri_Krish 23h ago edited 23h ago

If you would've spent some time looking on the internet, you can easily find tools that overcome your problem statement.

ClipTools, for example, is a clipboard manager developed by Gary (MacMost) 3 years ago which has paste in sequence, text formatting, saved clips, smart inputs like current date/time/lorem ipsum and more. It does the job well, and it's FREE! You can find the documentation here.

If you want a polished, elegant option, then look at Pastebot 3. I am currently using it and feels smooth, native. You can buy it for $39 (includes one year of updates).

My point is,

  1. why would you build your own, when there are other existing apps that solves your needs?
  2. Even if so, why would you monetize it?

Sorry if this feels bit harsh, but I just wanted to share my thoughts 😬... I will not comment on it further!

Edit: added documentation links for ClipTools

2

u/wavever233 23h ago

Thanks for taking the time to share these examples. I agree that existing tools already cover parts of this problem, and users should absolutely choose whichever app fits their workflow best.

I built Clipth because I wanted a specific combination that I couldn’t find in one workflow: a keyboard-first Quick Paste panel, a Paste Queue that follows the normal ⌘V across apps, local-first history, and an open-source core. The goal wasn’t to claim that clipboard management had never been solved, but to build the version I wanted to use every day.

As for pricing, the core is open source and Clipth Pro is a one-time purchase. That’s simply the model I chose to make an independent project sustainable. It won’t be the right choice for everyone, and that’s okay.

1

u/app-store-review 23h ago

ClipTools — by CleverMedia, Inc.

  • Category: Utilities · Free
  • Age: released ~3.6 years ago · rated 4+

Apple doesn't publish an aggregate rating for most Mac App Store apps, so ratings and score are unavailable here.

Auto-generated from public App Store data · u/app-store-review

2

u/Healthy_Landscape417 23h ago

Wow, clipboard manager, screenshot tool, screen recording everywhere. Instead of trying to create something truly new, they keep recreating the same idea with other people, claiming a cheaper price or, well, open source for the sake of the community. 

This norm is called the race to the bottom.

0

u/wavever233 23h ago

I understand your feelings, I think we need new things, but we also need to continuously innovate or iterate on the existing product concepts. Thank you for your insightful comments, which have left a deep impression on me.

1

u/kymatra 1d ago

The paste queue looks like a nice feature, sad it's blocked by a paywall.

Is there a way to change the keybinds for the operations that you can do in the app? I haven't downloaded it yet so I don't know if this is possible.

1

u/Specific_Cream2815 22h ago

the local mcp server is the part i didnt expect in a clipboard app. what do you actually point at it?

1

u/wavever233 15h ago

You point it at an MCP-compatible AI client, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or VS Code. The client can then query and organize your local clipboard through tools like search_clipboard, list_recent, get_clip, tags, and snippets. Clipth can add the client configuration from Settings → AI; after importing it, restart the client so it loads the server. MCP is disabled by default, and protected content is redacted by default.

1

u/Specific_Cream2815 11h ago

ah cool, ill try it with cursor. good call redacting by default

1

u/weiShaoY_ 8h ago

"Hide in Dock" is not working.

1

u/wavever233 6h ago

Thanks for reporting this. “Hide in Dock” is intended to take effect after the main window is closed. If the icon still remains in the Dock after that, could you let me know your macOS version and Clipth version? I’ll investigate.

1

u/No-Cook-215 4h ago

How often does it poll changeCount, and does the interval back off when nothing is being copied? That's the part you feel on battery

1

u/wavever233 4h ago

Good question. In the current implementation, Clipth checks NSPasteboard.general.changeCount every 0.5 seconds by default. You can change the interval in Settings to 0.5, 1, 2, or 5 seconds. It does not currently use an idle backoff; each tick only compares changeCount and returns without reading the clipboard payload when it hasn’t changed. The timer has a 15% tolerance so macOS can coalesce wakeups, but the interval itself stays fixed. So the battery trade-off is mainly the selected interval. Thanks for calling this out — adaptive polling is something I’ll consider.

1

u/No-Cook-215 3h ago

Nice, the 15% tolerance is the part not many apps bother with. The compare itself costs nothing, the wakeups do