Project file 02 / Clipboard manager

OpenPaste

An open-source clipboard manager that keeps everything you copy on a visual shelf, one shortcut away.

Electron
React
TypeScript
Vite
Vitest

Overview

OpenPaste is an open-source clipboard manager for macOS, Windows and Linux. Everything you copy, from text and links to code, colors, images and files, lands on a visual shelf that slides up with one shortcut. Type to find what you need, pick it with the arrow keys, and OpenPaste pastes it straight into the app you were using. Your history stays on your computer. Version 1.0.0 is out, and the website has installers for every platform plus a browser demo with sample data.

What you can do

A shelf that shows what you copied

Each copy becomes a card that looks like its content: a copied color fills its card, images go edge to edge, links lead with the site name, and code keeps its shape. Every card notes the app it came from and when.

Find it and paste it

Start typing to search everything, or narrow it down with filters like is:image, is:code or app:slack. Return pastes into the app you were using, Shift+Return pastes plain text, and any card can be edited or renamed first.

Pinboards

Save snippets, replies and brand colors to named, colored pinboards. Pinned items are never cleaned up automatically.

Private by default

History is stored as plain files on your computer. Copies from password managers are skipped, whole apps can be ignored, and capturing can be paused at any time.

How it works

Copy things as usual. OpenPaste saves each one along with the app it came from.
Press ⇧⌘V (Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows and Linux) to slide up the shelf, then type to search.
Pick a card with the arrow keys and press Return to paste it into the app you were using.

Behind the build

No native modules

Pasting uses each system's own tools: CoreGraphics through osascript on macOS, a long-lived PowerShell helper on Windows, and xdotool or wtype on Linux. There is nothing to compile, so the app builds on any machine.

Watching the clipboard

No operating system offers a portable “clipboard changed” event, so OpenPaste compares a cheap signature every 500 ms, and on Windows skips reading entirely when the clipboard sequence number hasn't changed. Images are stored by content, so copying the same screenshot twice saves it once.

Built in the open

The shelf is virtualized with TanStack Virtual, and the same UI runs in a browser against a mock of the app's bridge, so it can be worked on without Electron. Vitest covers search, classification and the history store, and GitHub Actions checks every pull request and builds installers for all three platforms when a version is tagged. It is MIT licensed.