Show HN: A keyboard-centric clipboard history app for macOS

Show HN: A keyboard-centric clipboard history app for macOS clipbook.app/...

Hey HN,

As a Software Engineer, I frequently copy and paste content. The fact that macOS clipboard buffer can keep only one item is very frustrating. It’s very annoying to copy → switch app → paste → switch app → copy → switch app → paste, and so on. Losing items I copied hours ago and having to find and copy them again is a waste of time.

I tried many third-party clipboard managers like Alfred, Raycast, Paste, Maccy, etc. While great, they didn't fully meet my needs.

As a developer, my requirements are:

1. Keyboard-centric operation to avoid using the mouse. I don’t want to waste my time moving my hands from the keyboard.

2. Display many clipboard history items at once. I don’t like the idea with big tiles, so I can see only 5-7 history items on my 32” monitor.

3. Full content preview for each clipboard item.

4. Quick search functionality.

So, I created ClipBook for my own use. After months of development, daily use, and positive feedback from my colleagues, I decided to share it publicly. It’s free. All data is securely stored on your computer. I’m planning to make it open source as well.

If you try it out, please let me know if you found it useful, if you have anything you’d like me to add, or if you have any other feedback.

Happy to answer any questions. Much appreciated.

Ok, I'll be that guy. But what stops a very clever hacker from creating something useful and seemingly naive as this, but adding some hard to find backdoor in it. I was about to just install it but then stopped and thought, what could be the easiest RCE out there. Make a useful app, a catchy domain name, professional landing page, get social proof by getting it to HN front page and have zero people comment what I'm currently commenting... There is no link to source, no link to LinkedIn profile of the creator. I'm sure this is a legit app, but makes me wonder, am I the only paranoid person here?

mortenjorck · a year ago

I actually had the same thought after I had installed it and noticed that the binary was over 600MB. Sure, it's probably just Electron, but still, it was just enough to get me to hold off on actually trying it for now.

rmdashrfv · a year ago

It's actually not Electron, it appears to be Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF), which is what Spotify desktop app uses. I'm speaking completely separately from OP's product:

CEF was supposed to be more efficient than Electron, but I think that framework heavily missed the mark. I'd be interested to know why the dev chose CEF instead.

Ikryanov · a year ago

There are three downloads: for Mac Apple Silicon, Intel, and Universal.

You see the 600MB binary, because it's probably Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel) DMG. To have a smaller size it's better to download DMG for your Mac CPU architecture. You can find all three versions at https://clipbook.app/download/

I should say that even Apple Silicon or Intel app will still be ~330MB. It's because of the SDK I use to build this app.

Ikryanov · a year ago

I'm the creator. Thanks for your comment. It's not about paranoid. It's critical thinking and I believe everybody should use it during the Internet epoch.

I'm not hiding and you can easily find me in social networks: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimir-ikryanov-9334915/ - GitHub: https://github.com/vladimir-ikryanov

I will definitely need to share the source code of ClipBook, so anybody can analyze it or build their own copy of the app.

Deleted Comment

xandrius · a year ago

Yeah, I absolutely need open source for this and me building it fully myself. I wouldn't be able to trust it otherwise, unless it came with the OS itself.

reboot81 · a year ago

Love that the app displays shortcuts on the lower left. Why I use Maccy: -Handles images -Removes formatting -Has shortcuts -Offers search -Is installed with Homebrew

I often copy huge (+70000) rows of excel sheets. Makes Maccy sluggish. Superlarge clipboard entries I’d like to purge somehow. After X mins if larger than Y?

wodenokoto · a year ago

I thought copy in excel only copied the range and it was during paste that data was copied. This is why you can’t make changes to your sheet between copy and paste.

kickingvegas · a year ago

FYI, there's an alternate clipboard in macOS called the kill ring (influenced by Emacs) that lets you cycle through previously killed text. The default property is called NSTextKillRingSize. There's a bit of config to do but it still works (Sonoma 14.5 as of this writing) for native macOS apps. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Co...

NoMoreNicksLeft · a year ago

What I've discovered is that I don't even want a menu. I want to hold the command key, tap the v key several times, and just have it cycle through until I get the one I want. It'd only release the past when I let up off of command (each tap of V would replace the previously pasted item with the next in this queue/ring). Command-C would just copy into the ring to the first position. Use another hotkey to remove an item, I guess. I don't need a visual history.

jackthetab · a year ago

IIRC Flycut did that. Loved it but it only copied text and was abandoned a long time ago.

taejavu · a year ago

Umm should I not be using Flycut? It's still on the app store.

trandango · a year ago

I'm really surprised no one has mentioned flycut as an option which has almost every feature mentioned, and is open source https://github.com/TermiT/Flycut.

dimpalo · a year ago

Happily using flycut the last few years and it's been amazing. So yeah my question is how clipbook is better than flycut ?

robxorb · a year ago

Not familiar with flycut, but had a look through their issues. There are a few security-related, and a bunch of iCloud stuff. Eg, this one to add the option to disable iCloud sync, which is still open after 4 years:

https://github.com/TermiT/Flycut/issues/200

From that it seems clipbook may be better for people who care about local-only or have other security-related concerns (perhaps related to workplace policy, for example). Maybe someone who knows more could weigh in?

Unbiased8678 · a year ago

Interesting, I've been using raycast clipboard that even stores images. Instead of cmd+shift+v i use cmd+shift+p which is much quicker to pull up.

nilawafer · a year ago

Copied content never leaves your computer and is encrypted on your local hard drive. Passwords copied from any password managers and other transient data are ignored by default. https://www.raycast.com/extensions/clipboard-history

robertn702 · a year ago

Both of those combinations pretty commonly used in other applications

cmd+shift+v -> unformatted paste

cmd+shift+p -> command palette

I use Karabiner and use right_command+v for the clipboard launcher without interfering with the other apps.

pjot · a year ago

Can you explain the cmd+shift+p a bit more? I use raycast as well, but need to opt+space+”c…l…I…”

girishso · a year ago

The only thing missing from raycast clipboard is ability to paste previous 'copy's with a keyboard shortcut.

mathfailure · a year ago

Abandonware.

winstonp · a year ago

I do cmd+ctrl+v

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looks cool can you mirror installer on github?

Fixed. I will mirror installer on GitHub as well. Thanks for the idea!

eranation · a year ago

zmmmmm · a year ago

any functionality to exclude passwords from making it into the history? This is the most annoying thing with Maccy for me (I literally have complex wrapper scripts that turn it on and off when I'm using my password manager which are flaky and annoying to maintain).

accoil · a year ago

Have you tried CopyQ? I've not used it on MacOS, but on Windows and Linux it can exclude based off window title: https://copyq.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html#how-to-omit-...

volteret4 · a year ago

+1 to copyq. It has a lot of funcionality, you can exclude apps to save clip on log (passwords managers), yo can do personal snippets, images, even create your own scripts.... It has a bit deeper than anything else I tried and yet simply enough to run as is....

That’s one of the most requested feature for now. I will definitely add it, so you can add any app to the list of software that must be ignored. Thanks for your feedback!

eviks · a year ago

Are there special "password" copy methods that mark a clipboard element as such so your app could exclude that instead of relying on an apps list (of course if that other app would use this method)?

bosky101 · a year ago

One way to implement this would be to have a checkbox to ignore passwords/single words

When checked ignore anything that has a space

Slick UI. Well done.