Every copy, drawn for what it is
Links, colors, code, terminal commands, images, PDFs, notes — each copy gets its
own tile, so you find it by sight before you've finished typing.
Secrets stay secret
Drop an API key onto a sensitive category and it's redacted everywhere — in
the list, in search, in the preview. Only the first few characters show (you
choose how many), and a label like OpenAI key tells you what it is. Hold
⌥ to peek; let go and it's hidden again.
New in 1.3 — Preview BETA
Look first, paste second. Turn on Settings → Appearance → Show preview pane
and the panel widens with a large preview of whatever you select: a link's site, a color
with its shades, code in full, the whole image, a PDF's first page.
With the preview on, a click selects and a double-click (or Return)
pastes. With it off — the default — a single click pastes, just like before.
Features
| |
|---|
| 📋 Captures everything | Text, images, and files — automatically, as you copy. |
| 🖼 Rich tiles | Links, colors, code, terminal commands, images, PDFs, files, and notes each look like themselves. |
| 🗂 Categories | Create, rename, recolor, and reorder your own; one category per item, kept forever. |
| 🔒 Sensitive categories | Redacted in the list, search, and preview; hold ⌥ to peek. |
| 🏷 Labels | Name any item — labels show on redacted items and are searchable. |
| 📌 Pins | Pinned items skip the rolling limit and auto-expiry. |
| 👀 Preview pane beta | A large, per-kind preview of the selected item. |
| ✨ Liquid Glass | Native glass on macOS 26, frosted or translucent everywhere else. |
| 🎨 Accents & themes | Six accents, light/dark/system, four materials. |
| ⌨️ Keyboard-first | Every action has a shortcut; ⌘⇧V is rebindable. |
| 🧹 Self-tidying | A configurable cap (default 30) trims the oldest items, with optional expiry by age. |
| ⏸ Pause | Silence capture for an hour, until tomorrow, or until you resume. |
| 🚫 Per-app exclusion | Ignore copies made in the apps you choose. |
| 🪶 Light on memory | SQLite plus image files on disk, not in RAM (~40 MB idle). |
| 🛡 Private | Skips password-manager content, stays out of Spotlight and Time Machine. No account, no sync, no telemetry — nothing leaves your Mac. |
Keyboard shortcuts
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|
| ⌘ ⇧ V | Open / close the history panel (rebindable) |
| type | Filter the history live |
| ↑ ↓ | Move the selection |
| Return | Paste the selected item |
| ⌘ 1–9 | Paste the Nth visible item |
| ⇥ / ⇧ ⇥ | Next / previous tab |
| ⌘ P | Pin or unpin |
| ⌘ L | Label the selected item |
| ⌘ M | Move to a category |
| ⌘ N | New category |
| ⌘ K | Focus search |
| ⌘ Y | Show / hide the preview pane |
| ⌘ ⌫ | Delete the selected item |
| hold ⌥ | Peek at a sensitive item (preview pane) |
| Esc | Dismiss the panel |
Download
Grab the latest Yankit-<version>.dmg from
Releases, open it, and
drag Yankit into Applications. Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.
Builds that aren't notarized need a one-time approval. Open System Settings →
Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway, or run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Yankit.app
For one-touch paste, grant Yankit Accessibility access when prompted (System
Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility). Without it, Yankit still puts
your pick on the clipboard for a manual ⌘V.
How it works
Yankit lives in the menu bar — no Dock icon, no window in your way. A lightweight
monitor watches the system pasteboard and records each new copy into a local
SQLite database, with image and file payloads stored on disk so the database
stays small and fast. When you pick an item, it goes back on the pasteboard and
Yankit pastes it into wherever you were.
Two paths, one shared clipboard: the capture path records what you copy, the
recall path puts it back. The full design is in
ARCHITECTURE.md.
Build from source
Requires Xcode 15+ and XcodeGen. The
Xcode project is generated from project.yml, so it isn't committed:
brew install xcodegen
git clone https://github.com/AbyAbyss/Yankit.git
cd Yankit && xcodegen generate && open Yankit.xcodeproj
Press ⌘R to run and ⌘U to run the tests. A clipboard icon
appears in the menu bar.
Releasing
The version lives in one place — MARKETING_VERSION in project.yml — and
GitHub Actions builds, tests, packages a DMG, and publishes a release for exactly
that version. Trigger it with the Run workflow button on the Release action,
or by pushing the matching tag:
git tag v1.3.1
git push origin v1.3.1
Versions follow semver (1.3.1 patch, 1.4.0 minor, 2.0.0 major). See
docs/RELEASING.md for the full guide — bump rules, local
builds, code signing, notarization, auto-updates, the supporter download, and
Homebrew.
Updates
Yankit checks for new versions with Sparkle.
Use Check for Updates… in the menu-bar menu or in Settings → About. Every
update is verified against a signing key built into the app.
Support Yankit
Yankit is free and stays MIT licensed: grab the DMG from Releases or build it
yourself. No account, no trial, no paywall.
If it saves you time, a coffee keeps the updates coming:
Starring the repo, reporting bugs and telling a friend help just as much.
Support Yankit in Settings → About opens the
support page.
Roadmap
- A Homebrew cask (
brew install --cask yankit)
- Drag items out of the history panel
License
MIT — see LICENSE. Contributions welcome.
