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Open-source clipboard archive · macOS 14+

# Every clip leaves a trace.

An open-source clipboard manager for macOS — local-first, searchable by meaning, and ready to hand your history to AI tools without ever touching the cloud.

Download for macOS
View source

- 100% on-device
- MIT licensed
- No account, no cloud

Activity — daily count & yearly heatmap
MCP — connect Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Cursor
Main window — history, full-text & semantic search, tags
Text · Images · Video · Files · URLs · Rich text ✦ Offline semantic search ✦ Built-in MCP server ✦ Menu bar · Quick Paste · Snippets ✦ Text · Images · Video · Files · URLs · Rich text ✦ Offline semantic search ✦ Built-in MCP server ✦ Menu bar · Quick Paste · Snippets ✦
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What it does

## A quiet archive of everything you copy.

### Capture & reuse

Auto-captures text, images, video, files, URLs and rich text. Double-click to copy any entry back. Re-copying floats an item up instead of duplicating it.

- Paste as plain text & trim whitespace
- Soft-delete trash with restore & retention
- Global hotkeys for window & snippets

### Search & organize

Full-text and offline semantic search across text and OCR content. Slice history with operators, then keep what matters with tags and pins.

- `app:Safari` · `since:2d` · `before:2026-05-01`
- Favorites, pins, tags & custom titles
- Multi-select merge for same-type clips

### Content awareness

ClipTrace reads what it stores. Images get OCR-indexed, links get cleaned, and text is parsed for the formats developers live in.

- Rich hover preview & image OCR
- Detects timestamps, Base64 & JSON
- Strips utm_*, fbclid, gclid from URLs

### Export & stats

Take your archive anywhere and watch your own rhythm — a GitHub-style heatmap of everything you've copied this year.

- JSON export by type, date, favorite & pin
- Per-item export to text, PNG & more
- Daily counts, 14-day chart & yearly heatmap

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Search that understands

## Find it by meaning — not just the exact word.

ClipTrace embeds your clips on-device with Apple's NLEmbedding, so a search for “meeting notes” surfaces that “1:1 sync agenda” you pasted last week. No hosted embedding API. No data leaving your Mac.

app:Safari since:2d before:2026-05-01 type:image
semantic
0.94
1:1 sync — agenda & blockers from Notes · 4d ago
TEXT
0.88
Standup recap screenshot OCR matched · from Slack
IMG
0.81
Q3 planning doc link trackers stripped
LINK
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AI-native

## Your clipboard, as a tool your AI can call.

The app binary doubles as a Model Context Protocol stdio server. Point Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor at it and they can search, read, tag and organize your clipboard — locally, with the tools you allow.

claude_desktop_config.json

    {
      "mcpServers": {
        "clipboard": {
          "command": "/Applications/ClipTrace.app/Contents/MacOS/ClipTrace",
          "args": ["--mcp"]
        }
      }
    }

Exposed tools

search_clipboard list_recent get_clip list_tags list_recent_activity tag_clip untag_clip favorite_clip pin_clip delete_clip restore_clip create_snippet

MCP can expose clipboard contents to the client you configure — every tool can be toggled off. Read the privacy notes before enabling it for sensitive workflows.

Works with Claude Desktop·Claude Code·Cursor
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Privacy by construction

## It stays on your Mac — because there's nowhere else for it to go.

Clipboard history, OCR text, tags and embeddings never leave the device. There's no account to create and no server to trust. When you do want control, every dial is in your hands:

Read the privacy notes →

- Pause capture whenever you want
- Exclude specific source apps
- Honor sensitive pasteboard markers
- Strip URL tracking parameters
- Disable any or all MCP tools
- Hide the window from screen recording
- Delete history — soft or for good
- Set a retention period & auto-clean

## Start keeping a trace.

Free and open source. Download the latest DMG, drag ClipTrace into Applications, and your clipboard remembers from here on.

Download the DMG Build from source

macOS 14.0 Sonoma or later · Signed with a stable identity so Accessibility survives updates