ClipBuddy Roadmap

ClipBuddy is a native macOS clipboard manager with a simple promise: remember everything you copy, make it instantly searchable, and keep 100% of it on your Mac. Here is what ships today, what is in testing, and what is planned after that.

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Shipping today

The full feature set is live on the Mac App Store right now:

• Searchable clipboard history: text, images, links, files, code, JSON. Searched in milliseconds.
• Snippets that expand as you type (new in 3.4): type a keyword in any app and it turns into the snippet, with tokens, fill-in fields and AI prompts. Details below.
• Markdown Notes (new in 3.4): a notes workspace on ⌥⌘N, with nearly 5,000 note and snippet templates. Details below.
• Universal Search: one query surfaces matching clips, emoji and Labels together. Search by meaning, token filters (app:, type:, has:), and saved smart folders. All on-device.
• On-device AI: summarize, rewrite/format, pull out action items or explain any clip with Apple’s on-device model (opt-in, Pro, macOS 26+). Nothing leaves your Mac.
• Screenshot text search + copy-text-from-image: find a screenshot by the words inside it, on-device Apple Vision.
• Screenshot redaction: cover passwords, API keys, faces with opaque boxes before sharing.
• MCP-ready mindset: all the on-device structure, tagging and search that the MCP server will expose is already built and working in the Mac app today.
• Built-in developer tools: CSV table viewer, two-clip diff, UUID/Unix-time/URL generators.
• Paste power: clipboard undo (⌘⌥Z), nine reusable slots, Paste Stack.
• Rules & automation: strip tracking links, auto-vault secrets, file screenshots, and more on copy.
• Copy Sessions, Collections, Snippets, Transforms: every power feature already live.
• Privacy-first architecture: no network entitlement, no account, no telemetry. 16 languages.

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New in 3.4: Notes and Snippets

Both workspaces shipped in ClipBuddy 3.4 on the Mac App Store. Free keeps up to 10 notes and 10 snippets; Pro has no limit.

Markdown Notes

Status: Shipped in 3.4

A Notes workspace for what you want to keep, not just until it ages out of history.

• Markdown editor: source with syntax colouring and a formatting toolbar, and a preview to read it rendered. Tables, callouts, maths, footnotes and fenced code coloured by its language.
• Linked notes: [[links]] between notes, backlinks, and a graph of how notes, tags and collections connect.
• Version history: every note keeps a timeline of snapshots you can compare with the current text and restore, with your current draft saved first.
• Find and replace with match case, whole words and regular expressions.
• Your files, your folder: keep notes on your Mac, or as .md files in a folder you choose, and open any Markdown file from Finder.

Snippets 2.0

Status: Shipped in 3.4

• Keyword expansion: switch on “Expand keywords as you type” in Settings, Snippets, and a keyword like ;addr turns into the snippet in any app. Off until you turn it on.
• Tokens and fill-in fields: {{date}}, {{clipboard}}, {{cursor}}, {{fill:Name}} and more, filled in when the snippet pastes.
• On-device AI (Pro): selection prompts and multi-step chains run on Apple’s on-device model (macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence). Nothing leaves your Mac.
• A code-aware editor: format, minify, check and convert JSON, YAML, TOML, CSV, SQL, HTML, CSS, Swift, Python and 17 more formats, with syntax colours.
• Find it fast: search a snippet by its abbreviation in the picker, or give it its own shortcut. Import from TextExpander, aText and Raycast (Pro).

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Coming soon

Built and being tested. It has no date yet.

Draw

Status: In testing

Diagrams you draw yourself, kept on your Mac and searchable like everything else.

• Start from a template: a blank canvas, a mind map, a tree, a flowchart, swimlanes or an org chart.
• A shape library: general, basic, flowchart, arrow, entity relation and UML shapes, plus your own saved shapes.
• Grow a diagram fast: click the arrow beside a shape to add the next step, then tidy it with Layout.
• Take it anywhere: export as PNG, SVG or PDF, copy it as an image, or copy it as Mermaid.

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Further out

These are planned. None of them has a date yet, and none is in development today.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server

Status: Planned

Connect ClipBuddy directly to Claude Desktop, Cursor, Zed, and any local AI agent workflow. A local, sandboxed MCP server exposes your clipboard history to coding agents via stdio transport, so they can query your clipboard history, retrieve code snippets, inspect recent terminal outputs, and pass context without manual copy-paste roundtrips.

Key details:

• 100% offline: stdio transport only, zero network egress
• Read-only by default: agents can read, not write
• Per-query permission prompt (opt-in)
• Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, Zed, and any MCP-compatible client
• No API key, no account, no telemetry

One config line in ~/.config/claude/mcp.json and your AI agents have your clipboard context.

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ClipBuddy for iPhone

Status: Planned

Your clipboard history on your phone. A native iOS companion app with features built specifically for mobile:

• Custom iOS keyboard extension: paste any saved clip into any iOS app, from Messages to Notes to Slack, without switching apps
• Lock Screen & Action Button widgets: your most-used clips one tap away from the Lock Screen
• Camera Vision OCR: point your camera at a menu, whiteboard, or receipt and it lands in your clipboard as searchable text
• Private peer-to-peer sync with your Mac (via E2E encrypted CloudKit)

Built entirely in Swift/SwiftUI. No Electron, no web views.

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ClipBuddy for iPad

Status: Planned

Engineered for the way iPad power users actually work:

• Stage Manager floating palette: keep ClipBuddy as a floating companion beside your main workspace, always reachable
• Split View native support: dock it beside Notes, Pages, Keynote, or any app and drag clips directly in
• Drag and drop: drag a clip from ClipBuddy directly into Notes, Procreate, or any drag-accepting app
• Apple Pencil OCR: circle text in a diagram or handwritten note and extract it as a searchable clip
• Full hardware keyboard shortcuts: ⌘⇧V opens it, all Mac-style shortcuts carry over

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Private End-to-End Encrypted Sync

Status: Planned

Your clipboard, seamlessly across all your Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, and iPad) with zero compromise on privacy:

• AES-256 encryption with keys sealed in your local Keychain before anything leaves your device
• iCloud CloudKit transport: your existing Apple ID, no new accounts, no third-party servers
• Zero-knowledge: not even Apple can read your synced clipboard data
• Strictly opt-in: off by default. You turn it on, you can turn it off. History stays local if you do nothing.
• Selective sync: choose which clips sync (e.g., exclude Vault secrets from sync entirely)

This is the glue that makes Mac + iPhone + iPad feel like one unified clipboard.

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Smart Suggestions

Status: Planned

ClipBuddy learns your daily working patterns entirely on-device, then surfaces the clip you’re about to need: before you open the picker.

• Switch to Zoom: your meeting link is already at the top
• Open VS Code for a new file: your most-pasted import is ready
• Return to a Stripe tab: your test API key is surfaced

100% on-device learning. No data leaves your Mac. No cloud model. No account. No setup needed: it learns as you work and gets smarter the more you use it.

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What we will not do

• No unencrypted cloud databases. Any sync is strictly opt-in, end-to-end encrypted, zero-knowledge.
• No accounts, passwords, or tracking. Purchases via Apple StoreKit. No email ever asked.
• No generic Electron or web wrappers. Swift and native AppKit/UIKit/SwiftUI only. Apple silicon native.
• No VC surveillance features. ClipBuddy will never monetize your clipboard data.

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Get ClipBuddy for Mac →