sPaste

A keyboard-first clipboard history for macOS, in the spirit of Ditto on Windows, Maccy on macOS and Parcellite on Linux, with vim keys and filters by type and time.

Why another clipboard manager

Maccy is very good, and sPaste borrows its idea: a small panel on a hotkey, nothing else. Two things are missing there for a keyboard user:

• A normal mode. In sPaste the panel opens with j and k moving the selection, counts (5j), gg and G, / searching from the newest item, ? from the oldest, and n and N repeating the search. In Maccy every key types into the search field.
• Filters by type and time. fi shows only images, ff only files, ft only text, and :since 2h or :until yesterday narrow the list by time.

The history is a plain folder: one file per item and a text index, so pruning or deleting an item removes its file and nothing stays readable on disk.

Part of uSuite

sPaste is a utility of the uSuite organization, built to the same rules as the sSuite tools: one job, plain text config, keyboard first, Swift and Apple frameworks only, nothing uploaded. It shares the keymap grammar and config code of scommon.

Install

Requires macOS 26 or newer, on Apple silicon or Intel. Download sPaste-<version>.zip from the latest release, open it, and move sPaste.app to Applications. sPaste lives in the menu bar; choose Launch at Login in its menu or Settings to keep it running.

The first open: sPaste Not Opened

The release is signed ad hoc, not with a paid Apple Developer ID, so Apple has not notarised it. The first time you open a downloaded copy, macOS stops it with "Apple could not verify sPaste is free of malware". Choose Done, then allow it once, either way:

• System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down to Security, and next to the line saying sPaste was blocked to protect your Mac, choose Open Anyway, confirm with your password or Touch ID, then Open.
• Or in Terminal, remove the download flag macOS checks: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/sPaste.app

From then on that copy opens like any app; each new version you download asks once more. A copy you build yourself never carries the download flag.

If you turn on paste on Enter, macOS asks to add sPaste under Privacy & Security > Accessibility. A new version is a new signature to macOS, so after an update the old entry can stay in place: System Settings shows sPaste switched on, but pasting does not work. Switching it off and on, or removing and adding it again, does not always replace that entry. Quit sPaste, run this in Terminal, then reopen sPaste and allow it again; Settings tells you when it is needed.

tccutil reset Accessibility io.github.usuite.spaste

What it reads and writes

sPaste reads the clipboard, which is its job. It has no network code: nothing is collected, sent or uploaded.

• ~/.config/spaste/ (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/spaste/), created on first launch: config and keymap, plain key value text written with comments.
• ~/Library/Application Support/sPaste/history/, created on first launch, readable only by you (mode 700): one file per item and a text index. Pruning or deleting an item removes its file. Items marked concealed or transient by a password manager are never written, and ignore_app skips any app you name.
• Export Config in Settings writes a zip of config and keymap where you choose in a Save panel; :export in the panel writes it to the path you give, or to the Desktop when you give none, and macOS may ask once for the Desktop. The history is never exported.
• Accessibility, only if you turn on paste on Enter, to press Cmd+V for you.

This release is not sandboxed yet, which is why macOS does not ask before sPaste writes these folders. The next minor version moves sPaste into the App Sandbox: its files will live in its container, with your current settings and history moved there on first launch.

Use

Shift+Cmd+C opens and closes the panel (hotkey in the config). Enter copies the selected item back to the clipboard and closes the panel; press Cmd+V where you want it. paste_on_enter yes pastes for you, which needs Accessibility access. The full key list is in docs/keys.md.

Build

make test, make app, make run. Swift 6.2 and macOS 26 or newer. MIT licence.