CopyCauldron

A fast, native macOS clipboard manager that lives in your menu bar. Captures text, files, and images; supports pinning, search, drag-out workflows, keyboard navigation, and one-tap auto-paste.

Features

• Universal capture — text, file URLs (copied from Finder), and images (e.g. ⌘⌃⇧4 screenshots). Image files (PNG/JPG/HEIC/etc.) get inline thumbnails.
• Image OCR — captured screenshots run through Vision (VNRecognizeTextRequest) in the background; recognized text folds into search so you can find a screenshot by what it says. Hover an image row for a preview of the recognized text; right-click → Paste OCR text to paste the text instead of the image.
• Smart row icons — text items are auto-categorized: URL, email, hex color (with a real color swatch), JSON, IP, UUID, Git SHA, Unix/ISO timestamp, base64, currency, hashtag, mention, phone.
• Source app context — new clipboard items remember the best-effort source app, show it in row metadata, and include app names / bundle IDs in search.
• Search — instant filter across the entire history. When the search field is active (or a filter is set), a chip row appears with All / Text / Images / Files to narrow the list by kind; a ✕ inside the search field clears query + filter + focus in one click.
• Hover preview — linger on a long text item for ~600ms to see a scrollable preview without copying it.
• Pinned items — keep favorites at the top, immune from the history-size cap and the Clear button. Configurable max (default 20, up to 100).
• Keyboard-first — global hotkey opens the panel, then ↑/↓ to navigate, Return to activate, p to pin/unpin, / to search, Esc to close.
• Pin shortcuts — press 1–9 then a–o, q–z while the panel is open to instantly paste pinned items #1–#34. (p is reserved for pin/unpin.)
• Quick switcher HUD — second hotkey (default ⌘⌥V) pops a compact overlay anchored to the text caret of the focused field, showing your most-recent unpinned items. Press 1–N (configurable 2–9) or the matching home-row letter (a / s / d / f / g / h / j / k / l) to paste — both labels are shown next to each row so neither requires memorization. ↑/↓ + Return for keyboard nav, Shift+key to invert plain-text mode for that paste, Esc to dismiss. Falls back to mouse cursor positioning when the focused app doesn't expose a text caret.
• Persistent panel, two modes — the panel stays open until you press Esc or click the X in its header. Use the pin in the header to flip between "floating above other windows" (always on top) and "regular window" (other apps can come forward over it). Move the panel by its top handle, resize it from any edge.
• Drag out items — drag text, images, and files from the panel into other apps. Cmd-click to build a multi-select set, then drag any of the selected rows to drop them all together (mixed text + image + files works natively — the target app picks the type it accepts).
• Rich-text aware — captures RTF and HTML alongside plain text so styled paste round-trips. Toggle plain-text mode in Preferences or hold Shift while activating to invert it for one paste.
• Auto-paste — opt-in: the selected item is pasted directly into the target app (requires Accessibility permission). CopyCauldron remembers the most recently activated non-CopyCauldron app and pastes there.
• Global hotkeys — two customizable combos: one for the main panel (default ⌘⇧V), one for the quick switcher HUD (default ⌘⌥V).
• Auto-open on hover — opt-in: panel opens when you hover the menu-bar icon.
• Capture sound — opt-in audio feedback when something lands in history (Tink / Pop / Glass / Ping). Off by default.
• Right-click actions — Reveal in Finder, Open, Copy path as text (files); Save as…, Open in Preview, Paste OCR text (images); Open in browser (URLs).
• Robust file references — files copied from Finder are tracked by inode via bookmark data, so Reveal / Open / drag-out follow renames and moves; when the file is genuinely gone, an alert tells you instead of silently doing nothing.
• Menu-bar context menu — right-click the cauldron icon for Preferences or Quit.
• Launch at login — toggle in Preferences.
• Auto-expire — optional retention window (Off / 1h / 24h / 7d) automatically purges old unpinned items. Pinned items are never expired.
• App exclusions — choose apps in Preferences whose copied items should never enter history.
• Local-only — all history lives on your Mac; nothing is sent anywhere.

Requirements

• macOS 13 (Ventura) or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel Mac

Install

Pre-built (recommended)

1. Download CopyCauldron.app.zip from the latest Releases page.
2. Unzip and drag CopyCauldron.app to /Applications.
3. Launch it. The cauldron icon appears in your menu bar.
4. (Optional) Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, enable CopyCauldron, and relaunch — required for auto-paste.

First launch may require right-click → Open to bypass Gatekeeper since the app isn't notarized.

Build from source

CopyCauldron builds with the Swift command-line tools — no full Xcode required.

git clone https://github.com/codexjdub/CopyCauldron.git
cd CopyCauldron
./scripts/build.sh           # debug build → .build/CopyCauldron.app
./scripts/build.sh release   # release build
open .build/CopyCauldron.app

The build script:

• Compiles the Swift package
• Assembles the .app bundle and Info.plist
• Code-signs with a local identity (override via COPYCAULDRON_SIGN_IDENTITY="My Cert" ./scripts/build.sh) or falls back to ad-hoc

To make auto-paste survive rebuilds, sign with a stable self-signed identity by setting COPYCAULDRON_SIGN_IDENTITY to the name of your Keychain code-signing certificate.

Usage

Default shortcuts

Main panel (default ⌘⇧V):

Action	Shortcut
Toggle main panel	⌘⇧V (configurable)
Move selection	↑ / ↓
Activate selected item	Return
Activate with plain-text mode inverted	Shift + Return
Pin / unpin selected item	p
Paste pinned item #1–#9	1–9
Paste pinned item #10–#34	a–o, q–z (skipping p)
Toggle row into multi-select drag set	Cmd-click
Focus search field	/
Clear search → unfocus → close panel	Esc

Quick switcher HUD (default ⌘⌥V):

Action	Shortcut
Toggle quick switcher	⌘⌥V (configurable)
Move selection	↑ / ↓
Activate selected item	Return
Activate with plain-text mode inverted	Shift + Return
Paste item #1–#N directly	1–N or the matching home-row letter a / s / d / f / g / h / j / k / l (Shift+ inverts plain-text mode)
Dismiss without pasting	Esc or click outside

Click the menu-bar icon to open the main panel. Click any item to activate it, or drag items into another app. Use the top handle to move the panel; resize from any edge; click the pin to flip between floating-on-top and regular-window modes; click the X to dismiss. Right-click items for contextual actions.

Preferences

Open via the gear icon in the panel footer or by right-clicking the menu-bar icon.

• Permissions — Accessibility status with a deep-link to System Settings. Required for auto-paste; improves Quick Switcher positioning. Status auto-refreshes while the window is open.
• Appearance & Startup — text size, launch at login.
• Main Panel — record the main-panel hotkey, auto-open on hover.
• Quick Switcher — record the HUD hotkey, choose how many rows it shows (2–9). HUD positioning needs Accessibility (falls back to mouse cursor without it).
• Paste — auto-paste on selection. The toggle is disabled when Accessibility permission is missing — the section header flags the requirement.
• Capture — opt-in capture sound (Tink / Pop / Glass / Ping), plus the excluded-apps list (copied items from those apps never enter history).
• History — total history size (10–500), max pinned items (1–100), auto-expire window.

The "Plain" chip in the panel footer toggles plain-text-only pasting for text items, stripping rich formatting and compacting runs of extra blank lines; hold Shift while activating (or pressing a digit shortcut) to invert it for a single paste.

Privacy

• Clipboard history is stored locally in a SQLite database at ~/Library/Application Support/CopyCauldron/history.db.
• Images are cached as PNG files in the same directory under images/.
• Nothing is sent over the network. No telemetry.
• Excluded apps: add password managers, browsers, or any other app in Preferences → Privacy to prevent copied items from that app from entering history. Browser extensions appear as their host browser, so excluding a password-manager extension means excluding that browser.

License

MIT © 2026 codexjdub.

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Built with Swift, SwiftUI, and AppKit on macOS.