clipbara

Clipbara is a clipboard manager for macOS that keeps a searchable history of everything you copy. Press Cmd+Shift+V and a card-style panel slides up at the bottom of the screen without stealing focus from the current app; clicking a clip once puts it back on the clipboard so you can paste it yourself. It requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later. The DMG and Homebrew builds are free; the Mac App Store build is a one-time purchase. Both are built from the same repository and use different bundle identifiers, so they keep separate histories that can be moved between builds with JSON export and import. Only one should be run at a time, since both register the same global shortcut. Installation options include the Mac App Store, a Homebrew cask (brew install --cask mobrava/tap/clipbara), or a signed and notarized DMG from GitHub Releases. The DMG build updates itself through Sparkle; the sandboxed App Store build updates through the App Store. Core features include support for text, rich text, HTML, images, links, files and colors; search by content, title or source app with type and date filters; Pinboards for frequently reused clips; Quick Look preview inside the panel; paste as plain text either always or per paste; excluded apps so password managers are never recorded; configurable history limit, appearance and launch at login; and JSON export/import. Keyboard controls include Space for Quick Look, Esc to clear search or close, Cmd+Shift+Delete to clear unpinned history, and arrow keys to move between clips. Global shortcuts and the Quick Look key are configurable. Privacy is a central design point: history is stored locally with SwiftData, with no account, server or analytics, and capture, search, preview and paste all work offline. The DMG build only contacts the network for Sparkle update checks. The app deliberately does not synthesize keystrokes to paste on the user's behalf, avoiding the extra permission needed to control other applications. The project is written in Swift 6 with strict concurrency, using SwiftUI hosted in an AppKit NSPanel and SwiftData for storage, with KeyboardShortcuts for global hotkeys and Sparkle for updates. It is licensed under GPLv3, with the Mac App Store edition dual-licensed separately. Builds from source require Xcode 16+ and XcodeGen. The README notes the app was previously named PasteClip until August 2026.