CmdCV — Clipboard Manager for macOS

A private, local-only clipboard manager for macOS. Everything you copy stays on your Mac — encrypted, searchable, and one keystroke away.

Download for macOS View on GitHub

Free & open source · MIT · macOS 14+ · Apple silicon

Why CmdCV

🔒 Local only

Ships with no network entitlement at all — phoning home is impossible, not just promised. No sync, no analytics.

🔑 Encrypted at rest

History is stored in an encrypted database; the key lives in the macOS Keychain and unlocks transparently at login.

⌨️ Keyboard-first

Hit ⌘⇧V for a Spotlight-style panel — type to search your history, ↵ to put a clip back on the clipboard.

🙈 Respects secrets

Skips items password managers mark concealed or transient, and honors a per-app exclude list you control.

🖼️ Images, not just text

Copied images and screenshots are captured as thumbnails; pick one to drop it straight back on your clipboard. A Capture images toggle and a 10 MB size cap keep it in check.

🧭 Lives in the menu bar

No Dock icon. Your 10 most recent clips sit one click away — plus pause, quick-open, and settings.

How it works

Copy anything.Press ⌘C in any app — or grab a screenshot. CmdCV quietly saves it — plain text, rich text, or an image — encrypted, on your Mac.
Summon it.Press ⌘⇧V anywhere and a search panel appears over whatever you’re doing.
Find it.Type to filter your whole history; move with ↑↓ or the mouse.
Paste it.Press ↵ (or double-click) to put the clip back on your clipboard — then ⌘V as usual.

The ⌘CV menu-bar icon also keeps your 10 most recent clips one click away.

Privacy by design

It can’t phone home.CmdCV declares zero network entitlements, so the macOS App Sandbox blocks every connection at the OS level. No sync, no telemetry, no accounts, no update pings — there’s nowhere for your clipboard to go.
Encrypted on disk.Your history lives in an AES-GCM-encrypted database; the key is generated on-device and stored in your login Keychain. It never leaves your Mac.
Skips your secrets.Clips that password managers flag as concealed or transient are never saved, and you can exclude any app so nothing copied from it is recorded.
Nothing to take on faith.It’s open source under the MIT license — read every line, or build it yourself.

Everything it does

Captures plain text & rich text (RTF)
Captures images & screenshots as thumbnails
Puts a selected image back on the clipboard
Capture-images toggle + separate image history
Instant search across your full history
Automatic de-duplication (re-copying bumps to top)
Configurable history size (default 300)
Encrypted on-device (AES-256-GCM)
Rebindable global hotkey (default ⌘⇧V)
Menu-bar list of your 10 latest clips
Per-app exclude list you control
One-click pause & clear history
Launch at login
Menu-bar only — no Dock icon

Keyboard

⌘⇧VOpen the quick-open panel (rebindable in Settings) ↑ ↓Move the selection ↵ / double-clickCopy the selected clip to the clipboard EscDismiss (also dismisses when you click away)

Install

CmdCV is ad-hoc signed but not notarized (it’s a free, open-source project), so on first launch macOS Gatekeeper blocks it. On most Macs you can allow it without Terminal:

Open the DMG and drag CmdCV to Applications.
Double-click CmdCV once; macOS blocks it — click Done.
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll to Security.
Next to “CmdCV was blocked…” click Open Anyway, then confirm.

If you see “CmdCV is damaged” or the button is missing, strip the quarantine flag, then open it:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/CmdCV.app

On a managed/work Mac that may fail with “Operation not permitted” — macOS App Management protects /Applications and sudo can’t override it. Clear the flag on the DMG before installing instead, then drag it in with Finder:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/CmdCV.dmg

First launch — Keychain. macOS asks whether CmdCV may use “CmdCV Encryption Key” in your login Keychain — click Always Allow. That key encrypts your clipboard history on-device and never leaves your Mac.

Only needed once, on first launch. Building from source instead gives a copy signed with your own Xcode identity that opens with no warning.

Build it yourself

Rather build from source? It’s a standard Swift + SwiftUI app, project generated with XcodeGen:

git clone https://github.com/prprasad2020/cmdcv
cd cmdcv
xcodegen generate
open CmdCV.xcodeproj   # set your Team under Signing & Capabilities, then Run

Signed with your own Apple ID, it opens with no Gatekeeper warning. Tests: bash Scripts/test.sh.

FAQ

Is it really local-only?

Yes. The app has no network entitlement, so the macOS App Sandbox blocks all network access at the operating-system level. There is no code path — and no permission — for your data to leave the device.

Why does macOS warn me on first launch?

CmdCV is ad-hoc signed but not notarized, so macOS flags it on first launch. Allow it from System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway, or build it yourself for a clean signature — see the Install section above.

Will it capture my passwords?

It ignores clips that password managers mark as concealed, so passwords copied from them aren’t stored. You can also add any app to the exclude list so nothing copied while it’s active is recorded.

Can I change the hotkey?

Yes — open Settings from the menu-bar icon and record any shortcut you like. You can toggle launch-at-login there too.

Is it free? Open source?

Both. CmdCV is free and MIT-licensed — the full source is on GitHub.

Which Macs are supported?

macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, on Apple silicon.