Clipnest quietly keeps everything you copy and hands it back with one shortcut. Search it, preview it, and paste it into the app you were already using.
Free · macOS 14+ · Apple silicon & Intel · ~2 MB · How to open it the first time
Clipnest understands what you copied, so the preview always fits the content.
Press ⇧⌘V in any app and the nest floats in. Search as you type, pick with the keyboard, and you’re back in seconds.
Snippets are detected automatically and previewed in a monospaced editor with line numbers and light syntax tinting.
Copy #hex, rgb(), hsl() or oklch() and get a big swatch plus every other format, one click to copy.
Links show their domain and path, screenshots show as thumbnails, and copied files keep their real Finder icons.
Pin what you reuse, or make Boards like “Snippets” or “Brand colors” and drag clips onto them. Pinned and boarded clips are never trimmed.
History lives only on your Mac. Password managers are excluded out of the box, and anything an app marks as concealed or transient is skipped.
The nest is built for your hands to stay on the keys. Arrow through clips, tab across filters, and paste without ever leaving the app you’re in.
Auto-paste uses macOS Accessibility to press ⌘V for you. It’s optional — without it, Clipnest copies your pick and you paste it yourself.
Paste the selected clip into the previous app
Paste as plain text, formatting stripped
Quick-pick one of the first nine clips
Pin or unpin the selected clip
Jump to the next filter: Text, Code, Links…
Remove a clip from history
Open the Library from the menu bar for a full window: smart collections and your Boards in the sidebar, every clip as a card, and a large preview on the side. Choose how many clips to keep, how long to keep them, and which apps to ignore in Settings.
No. Clips are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Clipnest on your Mac and nowhere else. The only network request is an optional check for a newer version.
Clipnest skips anything copied while 1Password, Bitwarden, Keychain Access or Passwords is in front, plus any copy that an app marks as concealed or transient. You can add more apps in Settings → Privacy, or pause capturing from the menu bar.
Only so it can press ⌘V in the app you came from after you pick a clip. It’s optional: skip it and picking a clip just puts it on the clipboard.
Yes — choose ⇧⌘V, ⌥⌘V, ⌃⌘V or ⌃⌥V in Settings, or turn the shortcut off and use the menu bar icon.
500 clips by default. You can pick anywhere from 100 to 5,000, and optionally forget clips after a day, a week, a month or longer. Pinned clips and clips on Boards are always kept.
Clipnest is distributed directly from this website. Here’s how to open it the first time.
Install it, press ⇧⌘V, and your clipboard finally remembers.