Pesto Clipboard

January 18, 2026 · View on GitHub

Pesto Clipboard Icon

Fresh, free, and open-source clipboard management.

Website: pestoclipboard.com

Features

  • Menu Bar App: Lives in your menu bar, out of the way
  • Clipboard History: Stores 500+ clipboard items (text, images, files)
  • Search: Quickly filter your clipboard history
  • Global Hotkey: Open history with Cmd+Shift+V (customizable)
  • Plaintext Paste: Strip formatting when pasting
  • Launch at Login: Start automatically when you log in

Screenshot

Pesto Clipboard Screenshot

Requirements

  • macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later

Installation

Homebrew

brew install matthewpick/pesto-clipboard/pesto-clipboard

Manual Download

  1. Download the latest .dmg from GitHub Releases
  2. Open the DMG and drag Pesto Clipboard to Applications
  3. Launch from Applications

Building from Source

Prerequisites

  • Xcode 15.0 or later
  • macOS 14.0 or later

Steps

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/yourusername/pesto-clipboard.git
cd pesto-clipboard

  2. Open Xcode and create a new macOS App project:

    • Product Name: PestoClipboard
    • Team: Your development team
    • Organization Identifier: com.yourname
    • Interface: SwiftUI
    • Language: Swift
    • Storage: None (we use programmatic Core Data)

  3. Add the source files from PestoClipboard/ to your Xcode project

  4. Add the KeyboardShortcuts package:

    • File > Add Package Dependencies
    • Enter: https://github.com/sindresorhus/KeyboardShortcuts
    • Add to target: PestoClipboard

  5. Configure the project:

    • Set deployment target to macOS 14.0
    • Add Info.plist entries (see PestoClipboard/App/Info.plist)
    • Ensure LSUIElement = YES for menu bar only app

  6. Build and run!

Keyboard Shortcuts

ShortcutAction
Cmd+Shift+VOpen clipboard history
1-9Quick paste item by number
Up/DownNavigate history
ReturnPaste selected item
Shift+ReturnPaste as plain text
DeleteDelete selected item

Data Storage & Privacy

Clipboard history is stored in a Core Data SQLite database at:

~/Library/Application Support/PestoClipboard/

Security: The app runs in a macOS sandbox, so other sandboxed apps cannot access your clipboard history. Data is not encrypted at the app level — we rely on macOS FileVault (full-disk encryption) for data-at-rest protection, which is enabled by default on most Macs.

App Exclusions: You can exclude specific apps from clipboard monitoring in Preferences. Common password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, etc.) are excluded by default.

To forcefully delete all clipboard history, quit the app and run:

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/PestoClipboard/

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments