Birchboard

Capture

Text, RTF, images, and file references, with the source app remembered.

• Ignore list (Settings → Privacy) skips capture while password-manager apps are frontmost; ships with 1Password 7/8, Bitwarden, Keychain Access, Apple Passwords, LastPass, and KeePassXC as defaults.
• Respects the org.nspasteboard.ConcealedType / TransientType convention.
• Retention sweeps (count + age) run on launch and hourly. Pinned entries never expire.

Browsing

• Fuzzy search as you type.
• Type-keyword search — image finds image entries, file finds file references, 400x300 finds that specific image.
• ⌘1 – ⌘9 quick-pastes the Nth visible entry; the first nine rows show their shortcut inline.
• ⇧Space (or ⌘-click) gathers rows into a batch, ⏎ pastes them joined by a configurable delimiter — see Multi-paste below.
• Code rows get a language chip. 17 detected: JSON, YAML, XML, HTML, Markdown, Swift, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, SQL, Shell, Dockerfile, CSS.
• ⌘P to pin, ⌘⌫ to delete.

Multi-paste

Stitch together a handful of clipboard entries — IDs, URLs, names, scratch values — and paste them in one shot, joined by whatever delimiter you like.

• ⇧Space toggles the focused row in a batch; a numbered chip and accent bar mark the selected rows in insertion order.
• ⇧↑ / ⇧↓ extends the batch contiguously, like Finder. ⌘-click is the mouse equivalent of ⇧Space.
• ⏎ pastes the batch joined by the delimiter. Default is newline; configurable in Settings → General → Multi-select with \n / \t / \\ escapes.
• ⌘1 – ⌘9 still pastes that single row directly, ignoring an active batch — keeps the quick-paste muscle memory intact.
• Image and obfuscated rows beep on toggle: the first has no plain-text payload, the second would leak its value through concatenation.

Previews & Quick Look

• Live preview pane with plain monospaced text — kept lightweight so arrowing through code-heavy history stays snappy.
• ⌘Y pops a full-panel Quick Look overlay with syntax highlighting — full-size images, scrollable code, file paths with icons.
• JSON, YAML, and XML entries get a collapsible tree view instead of flat text: keys, typed values, array indices, XML elements, attributes, and text nodes, all coloured consistently. Each subtree's expansion is independent.

⌘T — Transforms

Rewrite the clipboard payload before it pastes. Inapplicable transforms are hidden upfront; fuzzy-filter by name.

• JSON — pretty-print, minify.
• JSON ↔ YAML — auto-direction.
• JWT — decode to pretty-printed header + payload.
• Timestamp — Unix ↔ ISO 8601 (10- or 13-digit input).
• Hashes — SHA-256, SHA-1, MD5.
• Number bases — dec / hex / bin simultaneously.
• Query string ↔ JSON.
• Encoding — Base64, URL.
• Case — UPPER / lower / Title / camel / snake / kebab.
• Trim — whole-string, per-line trailing, or per-line both ends.
• Strip — ANSI escape codes, HTML tags.
• Extract — all URLs, all email addresses.

⌘S — Snippets

Author canned text in Settings → Snippets; expand placeholders at paste time.

{clipboard}

Current pasteboard text.

{date} · {date:FMT}

Today, formatted with any DateFormatter template.

{time} · {time:FMT}

Now, same.

{uuid}

A fresh UUID each expansion.

{newline} · {tab}

Literal escapes.

{{ · }}

Literal braces.

Unknown tokens pass through unchanged.

⌘K — Actions

Type-specific shortcuts for the selected entry. Only applicable actions show up.

• URL → Open in Browser, Paste as Markdown link
• File(s) → Reveal in Finder, Open
• Email → Compose Mail to…
• Phone → Call with FaceTime
• Hex color → Paste as rgb(), hsl()

⌘O — Obfuscate

Pin a password you paste daily, then mark it obfuscated for screen-share safety. The list, preview, and Quick Look all show 🔒 nickname •••••••• instead of the value — ⏎ still pastes the real thing.

• An optional nickname (e.g. aws-prod) is shown in place of the value; ⌘R re-edits it later.
• Search hits the nickname only — typing the underlying text won't reveal the row.
• Transforms, snippets, actions, and Quick Look are blocked while obfuscated, so the payload is never lexed or rendered.
• Obfuscated rows are exempt from retention sweeps, like pinned ones. Pin and obfuscate are independent flags.

Preferences

• Retention — cap history by count (default 1000) and age (default 90 days); pinned entries exempt.
• Panel opacity slider (30–100%).
• "Restore previous clipboard after paste" so using history doesn't disturb your current copy.
• Launch at login.
• Custom global hotkey via the standard shortcut recorder.

Updates

Install once; stay current automatically.

• Background check every 24 hours via Sparkle.
• Manual Check for Updates… in the menu bar and in Settings → General.
• Every update is EdDSA-signed and notarized by Apple; Gatekeeper never blocks an installed user.
• Feed hosted on GitHub Pages — no extra infrastructure, no telemetry.

Privacy & storage

• Everything local. No cloud, no analytics, no telemetry.
• SQLite + content-addressed image blobs at ~/Library/Application Support/Birchboard/.
• Clear unpinned / clear all from Settings → Privacy.
• Export / Import — the whole history (images included) as a single JSON file. Re-importing is dedup-safe.