explaingit

p0deje/maccy

★ 19,906SwiftAudience · vibe coderComplexity · 2/5MaintainedLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Lightweight clipboard manager for macOS that keeps a searchable history of everything you copy and lets you quickly retrieve past items with a keyboard shortcut.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Maccy))
    What it does
      Clipboard history
      Search and retrieve
      Pin favorites
      Paste without formatting
    How to use
      Keyboard shortcut
      Type to search
      Enter or Option+Enter
    Privacy features
      Ignores passwords
      Ignores sensitive data
      Temporary disable option
    Tech stack
      Swift
      macOS native
    Installation
      GitHub releases
      Homebrew package

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Quickly retrieve a URL or code snippet you copied earlier without digging through browser history or files.

USE CASE 2

Keep frequently-used text snippets (email templates, code blocks) pinned at the top for instant access.

USE CASE 3

Paste formatted text as plain text to remove styling when copying from web pages into documents.

USE CASE 4

Work with sensitive data safely knowing passwords and private info are automatically excluded from history.

Tech stack

SwiftmacOS

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

Maccy is a lightweight clipboard manager for macOS. When you copy text, images, or other content, your Mac normally remembers only the last thing you copied. Maccy keeps a running history of everything you have copied and gives you quick access to any of those previous items through a searchable pop-up menu you trigger with a keyboard shortcut (Shift + Command + C by default). The workflow is simple: press the shortcut, type a few characters to search your copy history, then press Enter to copy the selected item again or Option + Enter to paste it directly. You can also pin items to keep them permanently at the top of the list, paste without formatting to strip rich text styles, and delete individual items from history. The app sits in the menu bar so it is always accessible without interrupting your work. Maccy is designed with privacy in mind. It automatically ignores clipboard content marked as transient or concealed, including password manager entries from apps like 1Password and KeeWeb, so sensitive data does not end up in your history. You can also temporarily disable history capture when copying sensitive data and re-enable it afterward. It is available as a free download from GitHub releases or via the Homebrew package manager, requires macOS Sonoma 14 or higher, and is written in Swift with a native macOS interface. The project is open source under the MIT license.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to set up Maccy on my Mac and configure the keyboard shortcut to something I prefer.
Prompt 2
How do I pin my most-used text snippets in Maccy so they stay at the top of my clipboard history?
Prompt 3
Explain how Maccy's privacy features work and what data it automatically ignores from password managers.
Prompt 4
Walk me through installing Maccy via Homebrew and verify it's running in my menu bar.
Prompt 5
How do I temporarily disable clipboard history capture in Maccy when I'm copying sensitive information?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.