Plopcut

한국어 안내 (README.ko.md)

Plopcut is a local-first macOS clipboard app. You deliberately capture selected text or a clipboard image, add a note and tags, and find it later in the Library. Every drop is stored as ordinary readable files on your Mac.

Plopcut does not watch your clipboard in the background. It reads the clipboard or the selected text only when you ask it to capture.

Beta. Plopcut is in beta. The beta build is not signed or notarized by Apple, so macOS blocks it the first time you open it (see Install). An official signed release will follow after testing. Please report problems in GitHub Issues.

What you can do

• Capture selected text with the global shortcut (default Shift+Command+C). The shortcut is changeable in Settings.
• Save the clipboard from the menu bar item (Save Clipboard).
• Add a title, a note, and tags in the save popup. The title is filled in for you and can be changed or reset to the automatic one. You can also choose to save plain text instantly, without the popup, in Settings.
• Browse the Library: search, filter by type or tag, and narrow by source (websites such as github.com, or apps such as Google Chrome or Terminal; pick several at once) and date.
• Read drops formatted: Markdown shows headings, lists, and code blocks; code is highlighted and has a copy button. If the format is guessed wrong, change it from the format menu. The saved file stays as it was.
• Edit a drop: change its title, note, and tags, or edit the text itself with Command+E. Saving an edit overwrites content.md; the earlier text is not kept.
• Pin drops you use often (Shift+Command+P). Pinned drops stay at the top of the list and in the sidebar's Pinned collection.
• Open the source of a drop (for example the URL of a Chrome page), copy its text, export it as Markdown, or move it to the Trash.

Install

Requirements: a Mac running macOS. The minimum supported macOS version is 14.

1. Download the latest Plopcut-<version>-beta.<n>.dmg from the Releases page (beta builds are marked Pre-release). Added with the first beta.
2. Open the disk image and drag Plopcut into Applications.
3. Try to open Plopcut. macOS refuses because the beta is not notarized. Allow it once:
   • Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about Plopcut, and choose Open Anyway. (On macOS 15 and later, right-click › Open no longer works.)
   • Or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Plopcut.app
4. Allow Accessibility and Automation when Plopcut asks (see Permissions below).

You can also build it yourself: sh scripts/make-app.sh release, then open PlopcutApp/.build/Plopcut.app. This needs Xcode and the Swift 6 toolchain.

Permissions after an update. Beta builds are signed ad hoc, so the signature changes with every build and macOS may forget the Accessibility or Automation permission. If capture stops working after an update, run tccutil reset Accessibility com.plopcut.app and allow Plopcut again. You will need to allow it once more when the signed official release replaces the beta. Your drops and settings are not affected.

First run

On first launch Plopcut asks where to keep your drops:

• Use the default folder ~/Documents/plopcut, or
• Choose another folder.

The dialog stays until you confirm one of these. Changing the folder later in Settings only affects new drops. Existing drops are not moved or copied.

Permissions

Plopcut asks for these only when a feature needs them. You can review their status in Settings.

Permission	Where to allow it	Why Plopcut needs it
Accessibility	System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility	Reads the selected text in the app you are using and, as a fallback, sends Command+C to copy it. Selected-text capture does not work without it.
Automation (Google Chrome)	System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation	Reads the URL of Chrome's active tab so the drop can keep its source link. macOS asks the first time. Without it, capture still works but the URL is not saved.
Clipboard	No Plopcut setting. Recent macOS versions may show their own prompt when an app reads the clipboard.	Reads the clipboard only when you run Save Clipboard.

Where your data is stored

• Drops: ~/Documents/plopcut/drops/<drop-id>/, one folder per drop, containing drop.json (metadata, including when it was pinned and the format you chose), content.md or image.png, and note.md. You can open these files with any text editor or Finder.
• Settings: ~/Library/Application Support/plopcut/settings.json.

Plopcut does not use a database and does not send these files anywhere. See docs/privacy.md.

Uninstall

1. Quit Plopcut.

2. Move Plopcut.app from Applications to the Trash.

3. Optional: remove the settings folder ~/Library/Application Support/plopcut

4. Optional: remove your saved drops in ~/Documents/plopcut. This deletes your drops. Copy the folder somewhere safe first if you want to keep them. Uninstalling the app does not delete them.

5. Optional: remove Plopcut from Accessibility and Automation under System Settings › Privacy & Security.

Privacy

All drops and settings stay on your Mac. Plopcut does not send data externally and contains no telemetry. Its only network request is the update check, which sends no data about you or your drops. Details and the basis for this claim: docs/privacy.md.

Log file and reporting a problem

Plopcut keeps a small local log to help with support. It is a plain text file at ~/Library/Logs/plopcut/plopcut.log (the previous one is plopcut.log.1; each file is at most about 1 MB). In Plopcut, open Settings and choose Show Log in Finder.

• It stays on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded or sent automatically.
• It contains only: a timestamp, app version, build and macOS version at start, the code of an error that was shown to you, in an alert or inline such as a failed autosave or a failed save in the save popup (for example storage_unreadable, permission_missing, save_failed), and permission status changes.
• It never contains drop text, images, notes, titles, tags, URLs, clipboard data or file paths.

To report a problem, attach plopcut.log (and plopcut.log.1 if it exists) to your message yourself, with a short description of what you did. You can open the file first to check it. Deleting the files is safe; Plopcut creates a new one.

Features not in this release

Database storage, cloud sync, OCR, AI features, collaboration, mobile apps, background clipboard monitoring, full-screen recording, permanent highlight overlays, and exact source-position restoration are intentionally excluded. See docs/release-scope.md.

Updates

Plopcut updates itself with Sparkle. It checks for updates automatically about once a day; you can turn this off in Settings › About, or choose Check for Updates in the app menu or the menu bar menu at any time. Each update is verified with an EdDSA signature before it is installed. Builds before this feature have no updater, so download one new version manually once. See docs/update-method.md. Plopcut is distributed as a downloadable DMG, not through the Mac App Store.

License

Plopcut is open source under the MIT License. It includes open-source packages for Markdown rendering and code highlighting; their licenses are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md, which is also inside the app (Plopcut.app/Contents/Resources). Contributions are welcome: see CONTRIBUTING.md. Report security problems privately as described in SECURITY.md.

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For contributors

This is a from-scratch Swift (SwiftUI and AppKit) implementation. An earlier Tauri + React prototype is not part of this repository; the spec and the behavior checklist record the behavior you need.

Start with AGENTS.md, then the implementation spec and the behavior checklist. scripts/make-app.sh builds a local Plopcut.app bundle for development.