Native · Apple Silicon · Free
A clipboard
that remembers
Cmd+C wipes out the thing before it. NeClip keeps everything you copied — text, images, files — and pastes any entry in two keystrokes. A native menu, a global hotkey, zero telemetry.
Copied → got distracted → lost it
The macOS clipboard remembers exactly one thing. You copy a contract number, then a link — and the number is gone. The familiar loop: switch back, find it, copy it again.
Clipy, the classic of the genre, drags along 30+ dependencies, Firebase analytics and legacy database-migration code among them. And the Spotlight history built into macOS can do neither auto-paste, nor hotkeys, nor images.
NeClip keeps only what matters: history, hotkey, auto-paste, search. ~700 lines of Swift, 2 dependencies, zero network requests.
Everything stays on your Mac
A local database
The history sits in SQLite in Application Support. No cloud, no account, no sync.
Zero network requests
NeClip never goes online at all. Any firewall will show it — there are no requests.
Passwords are not written down
What you copy in 1Password and other password managers is marked ConcealedType — NeClip ignores that.
What it does
A history of everything
Text, images (with previews in the menu), files. Copying something again lifts the entry to the top instead of breeding duplicates.
The menu at your cursor
⌘⇧V opens the history where you are working. The keys 1–9 and 0 paste instantly.
Auto-paste
Pick an entry and NeClip puts it into the active app itself. No need to press Cmd+V afterwards.
Live search
A search field right in the menu — it filters the history as you type, and looks inside the contents too.
Exclusions
A list of apps that nothing gets recorded from. Password managers are on it out of the box.
Snippets with folders
Canned text — reply templates, bank details, promo codes. ⌘⇧B opens them in a menu of their own.
OCR on images
Text on copied screenshots is recognised locally (Vision, Russian and English) — and search finds it.
Settings without the extras
History limit 10–1000, title length, previews, launch at login. That is the lot.
Three steps
Download and open
DMG → drag NeClip to Applications and launch it. The app is notarized by Apple, so there are no warnings.
Allow auto-paste
One switch in System Settings → Privacy → Accessibility. You can skip it — then entries are only copied.
Copy as usual
NeClip remembers quietly. When you need something — ⌘⇧V and a key from 1–9.
How small it is
The dependencies: GRDB (SQLite) and HotKey (global hotkeys, ~200 lines). Everything else is standard Apple frameworks — AppKit, SwiftUI, ServiceManagement.
NeClip vs the rest
| NeClip | Clipy | Maccy | Paste | Raycast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | $9.99 (App Store) | $29.99/year | $8–10/mo |
| Open source | Yes, MIT | Yes, MIT | Yes, MIT | No | No |
| Native on Apple Silicon | Yes, arm64-only | Yes (since v1.3) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dependencies | 2 | 30+ (Firebase, RxSwift, Realm) | ~5 | — | — |
| Telemetry | No | Firebase Analytics | Optional | Yes | Yes |
| Network requests | Zero | Firebase + Sparkle | Updates | iCloud sync | Cloud |
| Auto-paste | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Search in the menu | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Snippets | Yes, with folders | Yes | No (pins) | Yes | Yes |
| OCR on images | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Images and files | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| App size | ~4 MB | ~30 MB | ~10 MB | ~50 MB | ~200 MB |
Maccy and Paste do more — pinned entries, sync, themes. NeClip picks the minimum: one menu, one hotkey, nothing on top.
Signed and notarized by Apple
The DMG is signed with a Developer ID certificate and has been through Apple notarization — macOS opens the app straight away, with no Gatekeeper warnings and no workarounds.
The sources are open all the same — you can read every line and build it yourself: swift build -c release.
Changelog
- Steadier auto-paste: the delay before focus returns is up to 300 ms
- The "Allow auto-paste" item opens the right pane of System Settings straight away
- Menu bar icon: template mode, and a fallback when the system symbol is unavailable
- Snippets with folders: an editor, a submenu in the history, a separate Cmd+Shift+B hotkey
- OCR: text on copied images is recognised (Vision, Russian and English) and turns up in search
- RTF: text formatting is kept and pasted; hold Option while picking to paste without formatting
- Update check: a menu item that compares versions and opens the download page — no automatic requests
- Clipboard history: text, images, files
- The global Cmd+Shift+V hotkey — the menu opens at the cursor
- Auto-paste through Accessibility (a simulated Cmd+V)
- Quick pick with the keys 1–9 and 0
- Live search right in the menu
- Dedup: copying something again lifts the entry to the top
- The ConcealedType filter — passwords never reach the history
- Excluded apps (password managers by default)
- Image previews in the menu, history limit up to 1000
- Launch at login (SMAppService)
- SQLite + GRDB, arm64-only, Swift 6
Questions and answers
Locally on your Mac — in an SQLite database in Application Support. No cloud, no server, no sync. Delete the app and the history goes with it.
No. Zero network requests. NeClip never goes online at all — check it in Little Snitch or a firewall.
Only for auto-paste: when you pick an entry from the menu, NeClip simulates Cmd+V into the active app. Without the permission everything still works, but the entry you picked is only copied to the clipboard — you paste it yourself.
Password managers (1Password, Bitwarden and others) mark what they copy with a special ConcealedType — NeClip ignores those entries. There is also a list of excluded apps: whatever you copy in them is not recorded.
Hold Option while picking an entry from the menu and plain text goes in, with no formatting. Without Option the formatting (RTF) is kept as in the original.
The build is arm64-only, for Apple Silicon (M1–M4). The sources are open: you can build it for Intel yourself with one swift build.
Clipy carries 30+ dependencies, Firebase analytics, RxSwift and legacy code for the migration off Realm among them. NeClip does the same core — history, hotkey, auto-paste — on 2 dependencies and ~700 lines of Swift. Without telemetry.
No. NeClip is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple: download the DMG, drag it to Applications, open it with a double click — no warnings and no workarounds.
No. The App Store sandbox forbids simulating Cmd+V, so auto-paste is impossible there. NeClip ships as a DMG, and updates live on this page.
Stop losing what you copied
Free, open source, no telemetry. Download it and it works.
