CopyClip Guide — every feature explained

Open the panel

Press ⌘⇧V anywhere to open CopyClip over whatever app you're in. Pick the value you want and it pastes back into that app. Press Esc to dismiss without pasting.

CopyClip stays in your menu bar — click the icon any time for the panel, Settings, or to check for updates.

Browse & paste

Arrow keys move through the list; Return pastes the selected clip.
⌘1–⌘9 paste the first nine clips instantly.
⌘F jumps to the search box. Type to filter your history in real time — content, custom names, even the app you copied from.
Double-click any clip to paste it; double-click editable text to edit it first.

Single letters are shortcuts while browsing (see shortcuts), so press ⌘F first when you want to type a search.

Tabs & filters

Tabs narrow your history. Built-in tabs include Recents, Favorites, and one per content type — Sessions, Text, Images, Links, Files, Email, Phone, and Color.

The fastest way to switch is the / switcher: focus search, type / and the start of a tab name (e.g. /fav). Use ↑ ↓ to choose, Tab to complete the name, and Return to jump. The active tab then shows as a chip in the search bar — type after it to search within that tab, or press Backspace (or the chip's ✕) to return to Recents.

Right-click a built-in tab to Hide it. Manage everything — order and visibility — in Settings → Customization → Sidebar tabs.

Custom tabs

Create your own tabs to group clips — say a Work tab for snippets you reuse all day. Custom tabs are tag-style: a clip can live in several tabs and still appears in Recents.

Create & manage tabs in Settings → Customization → Sidebar tabs — name them, pick an icon and color, reorder, hide, or delete.
Add a clip by right-clicking it → Add to tab (or “New tab…”).
Right-click a custom tab in the sidebar to Rename, Hide, or Delete it. Deleting a tab keeps its clips in your history.

Transform actions

Select a clip and CopyClip shows actions that fit what you copied — right where you can act on them:

JSON / YAML — prettify, minify, validate, escape, list keys, convert JSON ↔ YAML or JSON → TypeScript.
cURL — convert to a fetch() call or Python requests.
SQL — format, or generate ORM model stubs.
Timestamps — human, UTC, relative, ISO 8601, or Unix.
URLs — strip tracking parameters, make a Markdown link, copy the page title.
Images & screenshots — extract text (OCR), convert HEIC → PNG/JPEG, image → PDF, or compress.
PDFs & files — PDF → PNG (every page), reveal in Finder, copy path, rename.
Colors — copy the hex value. Email — paste a +tag address.

Make the chips yours. Right-click any action chip to Hide it, or Reset to default actions to bring them all back. Reorder the full list in Settings → Customization → Transform actions. Paste always stays first.

Session Copy

Session Copy captures several snippets in order, then pastes them one after another — perfect for filling a form from a document.

Start with ⌃⌘S (or double-tap ⌘). Highlighted text becomes item 1.
Copy each value with ⌘C — a HUD in the corner shows what you've captured.
Finish with ⌃⌘↩ to enter paste mode.
Paste the next item at your cursor with ⌃⌘V (or click-to-paste). ⌃Esc cancels.

Finished chains can be saved as a single Session clip you can replay later.

Templates

Put {{name}} and {{company}} placeholders in a saved clip. When you paste it, Fill template lets you tab through the fields and paste a personalized version into Mail, Slack, or anywhere — one draft, many sends.

Downloads → clip history

Turn on Settings → Downloads → “Add downloads to clip history” and files that finish downloading show up in CopyClip as file clips automatically. The file stays in your Downloads folder — CopyClip just references it so you can paste or transform it without digging through Finder. macOS asks permission for the Downloads folder the first time.

Link preview, GIFs & Utils

Link preview — copied URLs can fetch a title and thumbnail (on-device), with copy-title and Markdown actions.
GIFs & Emoji — search and insert without leaving your keyboard (classic layout).
Utils — quick tools like timestamp and text conversions, with copy/paste output.

Pins, favorites & hidden clips

Pin (p) keeps a clip at the top of the current tab.
Favorite (f) adds a clip to the global Favorites tab.
Hide (h) tucks a clip away; toggle the eye button to view hidden clips.
Custom order — drag the ≡ handle to arrange clips exactly how you want, per tab.

Panel layouts

Choose how the panel appears in Settings → Panel layout: Classic (full window with sidebar), Drawer (compact), Sidebar (docked to a screen edge), or Minimal (a small strip). Every feature works in each layout.

Keyboard shortcuts

⌘⇧V — open / dismiss the panel
↑ ↓ — move selection · Return — paste · Esc — close
⌘1–⌘9 — paste clips 1–9
⌘F — search · / — tab switcher · Backspace (empty) — clear tab
e edit · r rename · p pin · f favorite · h hide · d delete · ⌘Z undo
⌃⌘S start Session Copy · ⌃⌘↩ finish · ⌃⌘V paste next · ⌃Esc cancel

Privacy

Your clips live on your Mac, not our servers. You can hide or delete anything, and CopyClip can ignore concealed/sensitive pasteboard data. See the privacy page for details.

Still stuck? Head to Support.