Maccy

A lightweight clipboard manager for macOS.

Overview

Maccy is an open-source clipboard history manager for macOS. It runs silently in the background, recording all text you’ve copied. When you need to reuse any of them, you can quickly search and paste through a clean and efficient interface. Designed with keyboard-first principles, it aims to enhance your daily productivity.

Core Features

• Lightweight & Fast: Maccy has a minimal footprint, consumes very few system resources, and starts and responds extremely quickly—almost imperceptible.
• Keyboard-First Design: Optimized for efficient keyboard use. Use the global hotkey (default: ⇧⌘C) to quickly open the clipboard history window; all operations can be performed via keyboard.
• Clipboard History Preservation: Automatically saves all copied text, whether code snippets, URLs, email addresses, or file paths.
• Powerful Search & Filtering: Type keywords directly in the history list to instantly highlight and filter matching entries for fast retrieval.
• Multiple Paste Options:
  • Copy: Press Enter to copy the selected item to your clipboard.
  • Paste and Apply: Press ⌥ + Enter to immediately paste the selected content into the active application.
  • Paste as Plain Text: Press ⌥⇧ + Enter to paste content as unformatted plain text—ideal when you need to remove styling or formatting.
• History Item Management:
  • Pin (Favorite): Press ⌥ + P to pin important entries to the top of the list and assign a permanent numeric shortcut for quick access. Press again to unpin.
  • Delete: Press ⌥ + ⌫ to delete individual history items.
  • Clear All: Use the menu option or ⌥⌘ + 0 to quickly clear all unpinned history entries.
• Secure & Private: As a local application, all your clipboard history is stored only on your Mac and never sent to any server. All data remains on your device.
• Clean Native UI: Uses native macOS design, deeply integrated with the system, offering a beautiful and intuitive interface.
• Open Source & Free: Licensed under MIT, completely free. You can view the source code, understand how it works, and even contribute.

Benefits & Use Cases

1. Retrieve Anything: No more switching between windows to find previously copied content—especially useful when writing, coding, or processing data with frequent references.
2. Boost Workflow Efficiency: Pin frequently used texts (e.g., common replies, templates, commands) and access them instantly with keyboard number shortcuts, drastically reducing repetitive typing.
3. Recover Lost Copies: When you accidentally overwrite valuable clipboard content, Maccy acts as your “undo” tool.
4. Clean Paste Format: The one-click plain-text paste feature perfectly solves the issue of unwanted formatting when copying from web pages or rich documents.
5. Developer-Friendly: Ideal for copying and pasting code, commands, logs, error messages, etc. Its fast search functions make navigating large clipboard histories highly efficient.
6. System Resource Friendly: Unlike some bulky clipboard tools, Maccy is extremely lightweight and won’t slow down your system—making it the perfect choice for efficiency-focused users.

System Requirements

macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.

Installation

2. Using Homebrew (Recommended for Developers):

   brew install --cask maccy
   

Basic Usage

1. Open the Interface: Use the default hotkey ⇧⌘C, or click the menu bar icon.
2. Search Entries: Type directly to perform real-time search in the history list.
3. Select & Paste: Use ↑/↓ arrow keys to navigate, then:
   • Enter → Copy to clipboard.
   • ⌥ + Enter → Paste into current application.
   • ⌥⇧ + Enter → Paste as plain text.
4. Pin Important Items: Select an item and press ⌥ + P. After pinning, use ⌘ + followed by a number (e.g., ⌘1, ⌘2) to quickly access pinned entries.

Maccy is a tool that embodies "simplicity and practicality" to the fullest. It seamlessly integrates into your workflow—once you experience its convenience, you may find yourself unable to live without it.