Clipboard History

Everything you copy is kept on your Mac, so you can find it, preview it and paste it again later.

Open it

Type clipboard and press ↵ on Clipboard History. To open it from anywhere, give it a hotkey in Settings → Clipboard → History (there's none until you pick one). Pressing that hotkey again closes it.

The list is on the left, grouped Pinned, Today, Yesterday, This Week and Earlier. The selected entry's preview is on the right, with Information under it: the app it was copied in, its type, its size (characters and words, or an image's dimensions) and when you copied it.

Saiki keeps text (with its formatting), links, email addresses, colours, images and files. Copying the same thing again moves it back to the top instead of adding it twice.

Find an entry

Type to search. Every word you type has to match the entry's text, its title or the app it came from; case and accents don't matter. Older entries and images whose text matches arrive a moment later, below the first results.

Press ⌘P to show only one type: Text Only, Images Only, Files Only, Links Only, Emails Only or Colors Only. Choose All Types to go back. Leaving Clipboard History resets the filter.

Paste, copy and more

Key	What it does
`↵`	Paste to the app you were in (its name is on the action). Needs Accessibility.
`⌘↵`	Copy to Clipboard.
`⌃⌘↵`	Paste as Plain Text, on entries that kept their formatting.
`⇧⌘F`	Pin Entry or Unpin Entry. Pinned entries stay at the top and are never deleted by retention.
`⌘X`	Delete Entry.
`⇧⌘X`	Delete All Unpinned Entries…, after a card asks first: `⌘↵` deletes, `esc` keeps them.
`⌘O`	Open in Browser on a link, or Show in Finder on a copied file.
`⌘K`	Every action for the selected entry.

Some entries have more in ⌘K:

Copy Text from Image (⇧⌘C) on an image whose text was read. See below.
Save Image As… (⇧⌘S) on an image: PNG, JPEG, HEIC, AVIF, TIFF or PDF, saved into Downloads. Needs the File Converter on. See Convert files.
Convert to… (⇧↵) on copied files, while they still exist. See Convert files.
Copy Clean Link (⇧⌘L) on a link with tracking parameters, when the URL Cleaner is on. See URL Cleaner.

Text in copied images

When you copy a screenshot or a picture with words in it, Saiki reads the text on your Mac a moment after you stop typing, one image at a time. Searching then finds the image by those words.

The text is only for searching and for Copy Text from Image: pasting the entry pastes the picture, never the text. To copy the text of whatever picture is on the clipboard right now, use the Copy Text from Clipboard Image command (see Copy Text from Screen).

Turn it off in Settings → Clipboard → History → Find text in copied images.

Secrets are hidden

With Hide keys, tokens and card numbers on (Settings → Clipboard → Privacy, on by default), a copied API key, access token, private key, JSON web token or card number is stored as [redacted: kind]. Pasting that entry from the history later pastes the placeholder, not the secret. The copy you just made still pastes normally with ⌘V: only the saved history changes.

It recognises keys and tokens from AWS, GitHub, GitLab, Stripe, Slack, Anthropic and OpenAI, PEM private keys, JWTs, and card numbers that pass the card checksum. Text read from images is checked the same way.

What's never kept

Passwords and other concealed copies. Password managers, browsers and macOS mark some copies as secret or temporary; those are always skipped.
Password managers. Copies made in Passwords, Keychain Access, 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, Dashlane and Enpass are always ignored.
Apps you choose. Add any app in Settings → Clipboard → Ignored Apps → Add App…, and nothing copied in that app is recorded.
Very long text. Text over 32,000 characters isn't kept.
Saiki's own copies, such as a calculator answer pasted for you.

Everything stays on your Mac. While Clipboard History is off, nothing is recorded at all.

How long it's kept

Settings → Clipboard → History → Keep history for: 1 week, 1 month, 3 months (the default), 6 months, 1 year or Forever. Older entries are deleted as soon as you change it, except pinned ones.

To start over, choose Clear History… on the same card. A confirmation asks first, and pinned entries stay.

Paste as Plain Text

The Paste as Plain Text command pastes whatever is on the clipboard now, without fonts, colours or links, into the app you were in. It uses the app's own Paste and Match Style when the app has one (⌥⇧⌘V); otherwise Saiki pastes plain text and then puts your formatted clipboard back.

Give it a hotkey in Settings → Quick Tools → Paste as Plain Text, so it works without opening the bar. It needs Accessibility. For an older entry, use ⌃⌘↵ in Clipboard History instead.

Settings

Open Settings → Clipboard.

Setting	What it does
Clipboard History (switch at the top)	Off: nothing is recorded and the command leaves search.
History → Clipboard History	A hotkey that opens it from anywhere.
History → Keep history for	1 week to Forever. Default 3 months.
History → Find text in copied images	Reads the words in copied pictures for search. On by default.
History → Clear History…	Deletes every unpinned entry, after a confirmation.
Privacy → Hide keys, tokens and card numbers	Stores secrets as `[redacted: kind]`. On by default.
Ignored Apps	The password managers you have installed, the apps you added, and Add App…

Copy a link without tracking. The URL Cleaner can take tracking parameters out of every link you copy before it reaches the history. It's off by default; see Quick tools.