Inside SuperClip: Clipboard History in the Mac Menu Bar
SuperClip is a small Mac utility from 1dot1 that lives behind a clipboard icon in the menu bar. The Mac clipboard holds exactly one thing, and copying a second item quietly throws the first away. SuperClip keeps them all. This teardown walks through the app screen by screen and explains the decisions behind each part.
One panel, every copy
Clicking the icon, or pressing Command-Shift-V anywhere, opens a panel under the menu bar. A search field sits at the top, a row of filters below it, and then the history itself: pinned items first, then everything else, newest at the top. The footer is a reminder of the keys that work in the panel.
The panel behaves like a menu. It never appears in the Dock or the app switcher, and it closes when an item is chosen or the pointer clicks elsewhere, so it is only on screen for as long as it is needed.
Every copy, kept
SuperClip checks the clipboard twice a second and records text, images, links and files. Each row carries an icon or a thumbnail, a two-line preview, how long ago it was copied and the app it came from. Knowing that a line came from Terminal or Mail is often enough to find it without reading.
Copying something that is already in the history moves the existing row to the top rather than adding a duplicate, so a busy day does not turn into a list of the same three things. Images are compared by their content, not their name.
Find it in a keystroke
The search field has focus as soon as the panel opens, so typing a word narrows the list immediately. The arrow keys move the selection, Return copies it, and Command-1 to Command-9 copy the first nine items directly. A clipboard history is used dozens of times a day, and it should never need the mouse.
Images, links and files
Images are saved as they were copied, with a thumbnail and their pixel size, so a screenshot from ten minutes ago can be pasted into a message without taking it again. Links are recognised and get their own filter, and copied files are kept as references that paste back into Finder or an upload field.
Filters for Text, Images, Links and Files sit under the search field. They combine with search, which makes it quick to find the one link copied yesterday among hundreds of snippets.
Pin what matters
Hovering a row reveals Pin and Delete. Pinned items move into their own section at the top and are never removed, however long the history grows or however often it is cleared. An office address, a standard reply or a command typed every morning all make good pins.
The history keeps 200 items by default, with 50 and 500 as alternatives in the options menu. Clear History empties everything except the pins, after asking once.
Always one shortcut away
Command-Shift-V opens and closes the panel from any app. The shortcut is registered with macOS directly, so SuperClip needs no Accessibility permission. A right-click on the menu bar icon pauses recording, and the icon dims while it is paused, which is useful before copying something private.
Private by design
Password managers mark what they copy as concealed or temporary, and SuperClip skips anything marked that way. The history is stored in a single folder on the Mac, is never synced, and the app has no account and no network access of its own.
Built in black and white
Like the other 1dot1 Mac apps, SuperClip is greyscale in light and dark mode. The icon is a black clipboard on a white tile, and the menu bar icon repeats it at a smaller size. It is a universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs and runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later.
Get SuperClip
SuperClip is available on 1dot1 as a single download, with a README and the licence inside the zip.