CutBox is a Macos developer focused clipboard history manager. It works only with text (no images, audio, video, blobs) but doesn't interfere with the system clipboard, or other clipboard managers, if you need copy/pasteboard history for things like that. It's main features are: Fuzzy matching, regexp search, favorites and the ability to transform text by pasting multiple clipboard entries at once, and/or using JavaScript to process text, before you paste it.
brew tap cutbox/cutbox
brew intall cutbox
When you first run CutBox Macos will prompt you that the developer cannot be identified.
Please read this post from Apple.
If you a happy about installing apps that are open source on your Mac, you can do this in the terminal.
sudo spctl --master-disable
I only recommend this if you feel comfortable using free software that you can code audit. CutBox is code audited by Codacy. However it doesn't participate in Apple's anti opensource gatekeeper / notarisation system or any other parts of Apple's Walled Garden.
CutBox will be free and open forever, and is licensed under GNU/GPL3, so the source is always available.
Dmg/.app builds are produced by Github Workflow actions, so you can also inspect the entire test/deploy/delivery chain. (as of Sept 2022)
Before CutBox can paste for you (when you select something and hit enter that is.) You have to enable it to control the keyboard.
Go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy -> Accessibility
Unlock and add CutBox to the list of apps (also switch on the check box next to its icon).
Do the same for input monitoring...:
Go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy -> Input Monitoring
Make sure CutBox is in the list and its checkbox is on.
These work best before CutBox is run. (Macos will suggest restarting CutBox anyway, wait for the CutBox icon to appear before changing a checkbox in security preferences.)
FYI If you're upgrading, you'll need to remove and re-add the new CutBox.app.
CutBox keeps your pasteboard cut/copy history and lets you paste anything back to your current app by searching for items.
As well as copy / paste history you can:
- Make items favorite
- Select and paste multiple items joined as a single piece of text.
Anything else?
- You can send your pasted text through Javascript functions
Get the current release:
https://github.com/cutbox/CutBox/releases/download/1.4.21/CutBox.dmg
You can also compile yourself... Compile instructions
Any text you copy on MacOS is saved to CutBox's history.
CutBox Search is activated using a global hotkey:
Cmd + Shift + V
(This can be customized in preferences.)
With the CutBox window open, search for anything you copied.
Press Enter and the selected item will paste into your current app.
To exit just press Esc.
Press Cmd + s to toggle through search modes, fuzzy match, regexp/i or regexp.
More information is in the wiki
If you find a bug, click here to tell me what happened.
- Pull requests must have test cover, existing tests should not break.
- Open an issue if tests are already failing, so I know I need to fix them.
- Code must pass the quality checks as used by Codacy.
git clone git@github.com:CutBox/CutBox
gem install cocoapods
cd CutBox
pod install
cd ..
To build CutBox.app:
bin/build
open CutBox/build/
Run the local CutBox.app with terminal logging...
CutBox/build/CutBox.app/Contents/MacOS/CutBox
There's a Gitter channel if you have problems getting up and running (https://gitter.im/CutBox)
CutBox is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
CutBox is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.