VanishClip

A clipboard history that forgets by design.

VanishClip is a tiny native Windows clipboard history tool built around one simple idea: remember while you work, forget when you exit.

Core offline. Plugins permissioned. Sync optional.

What It Is

VanishClip v0.1 is a C++ / Win32 clipboard utility for text clipboard history. It is designed to stay small, local, and predictable:

• Native Windows app
• Session-only clipboard history
• Lightweight tray utility
• No account, cloud service, telemetry, or background sync
• Plugin marketplace groundwork with explicit per-action network consent

Current Features

• Watches Windows text clipboard changes through native Win32 APIs.
• Stores CF_UNICODETEXT clipboard entries in memory only.
• Keeps the latest 100 text items by default.
• Deduplicates repeated text entries.
• Opens with Ctrl+Shift+V.
• Supports search, keyboard navigation, Enter-to-copy-back, and Esc-to-hide.
• Provides a tray icon and tray menu.
• Provides a native Win32 settings window.
• Provides a native Win32 Plugin Marketplace window.
• Plugin Marketplace opens offline and only connects after explicit user action and confirmation.
• Downloaded plugin packages are checked with SHA-256 before installation.

Privacy Design

VanishClip is built around a session-only privacy boundary:

• Clipboard history lives in process memory only.
• Clipboard history is cleared when the app exits.
• settings.json does not store clipboard history, current clipboard text, search text, or selected history items.
• The core app does not upload clipboard contents.
• The core app does not perform telemetry.
• The Plugin Marketplace does not connect when opened.
• Check Updates asks for confirmation each time.
• Refusing network confirmation makes no network request.
• Network consent is not stored as a long-term authorization.

See docs/privacy-notes.md for a practical verification checklist.

Lightweight Profile

VanishClip intentionally avoids large UI frameworks and embedded browsers. Current Release x64 builds are roughly 443 KB, with observed idle memory around 1.75 MB in the current test environment.

The core app does not use .NET, WPF, WinForms, WinUI, MAUI, Qt, Electron, Tauri, WebView, Chromium, Skia, SQLite, curl, OpenSSL, or third-party network libraries.

Plugin Model

VanishClip v0.1 includes plugin marketplace and policy groundwork, not a broad general-purpose plugin runtime promise.

Plugins are permissioned and risk-labeled. Plugins are disabled by default after installation. Network-capable plugins and plugins that bundle native DLLs are treated as high risk.

The Plugin Marketplace uses WinHTTP only after explicit user confirmation for the current action. It does not upload clipboard contents.

See docs/plugin-policy.md for plugin categories, permission risk levels, and v0.1 restrictions.

v0.1.3 is defining draft plugin.json and marketplace index schemas for future plugin distribution metadata. The current app does not execute plugin code, and the plugin execution ABI is not open.

Schema review guidance lives in docs/plugin-schema-review-checklist.md.

v0.1.3 is also defining the plugin package format and future install safety boundaries:

• docs/plugin-package-format-v0.1.md
• docs/plugin-install-security-v0.1.md

These documents are design and policy groundwork. Plugin code still is not executed, and the plugin execution ABI remains closed.

Build

Use the provided Release x64 build script:

D:\VanishClip\scripts\build_release_x64.bat

Or build the solution directly from a Visual Studio Developer shell:

msbuild D:\VanishClip\src\VanishClip.sln /m /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64

The expected output is:

D:\VanishClip\src\build\Release\VanishClip.exe

Current Status

v0.1.2 release preparation:

• v0.1.1 privacy persistence audit completed.
• High DPI and multi-monitor window positioning improved.
• Keyboard flow verified.
• Plugin Marketplace empty states and error messages improved.
• Plugin Marketplace bottom layout adjusted.
• Release x64 build verified with 0 warnings / 0 errors.

Non-Goals For v0.1

VanishClip v0.1 intentionally does not include persistent clipboard history, cloud sync, accounts, telemetry, image history, file history, rich text history, OCR, AI features, plugin ratings, plugin payments, WebView marketplace UI, background plugin updates, remote code execution, or always-running background plugins.