CopyPaste+

Expand the functionality of copy/paste in Chrome. CopyPaste+ captures your copied text and gives you a history with favorites and usage counts, available right from the toolbar popup.

Features

• Automatic capture of copied/cut text from pages and editable fields
• Popup history with sections:
  • Favorites (star items you care about)
  • Most Used (by copy count)
  • Recent Items (chronological)
• Click any item in the popup to copy it back to the clipboard
• Star toggle (☆/★) to mark favorites
• Clear non-favorites action to prune your history quickly
• Persistent storage using chrome.storage.local

Installation (from source)

1. Clone this repository
2. Install dependencies
   • npm install
3. Build the extension
   • npm run build
4. Load into Chrome
   • Open chrome://extensions
   • Enable "Developer mode"
   • Click "Load unpacked" and select the repository root directory

Usage

• Copy text as you normally do (keyboard shortcuts or menu) on regular web pages
• Click the CopyPaste+ toolbar icon to open the popup
• Click an item to copy it to your clipboard
• Click the star on an item to favorite/unfavorite it
• Use "Clear non-favorites" to keep only starred items

Notes and limitations:

• Chrome restricts extension behavior on certain pages (e.g., chrome:// pages, the Chrome Web Store, some PDF viewers, new tab, and other special URLs). Copy capture and/or popup copy may not function there.
• Copies can only be directly detected from a page or this extentsion, so copies from other extensions or from the url will not be detected.
• Clipboard behavior varies by page and context. The popup uses multiple strategies to write to the clipboard; if one path fails in a given context, another is attempted.

Development

Requirements:

• Node.js LTS
• npm

Commands:

• Install deps: npm install
• Build: npm run build

Project structure (high level):

• manifest.json — Chrome MV3 manifest
• background.ts — background service worker
• content.ts — content script (listens to copy/cut)
• popup.tsx, popup.html, popup.css — popup UI (React)
• dist/ — compiled JS bundles (generated)
• webpack.config.js — build configuration

Tips:

• Background/service worker logs: chrome://extensions → your extension → "Service worker" → Inspect
• Content script logs: open DevTools on a target page’s frame (not on restricted pages)
• If you modify sources, run npm run build and reload the extension

Permissions rationale

• storage — store copy history and item metadata
• clipboardWrite, clipboardRead — improve clipboard interactions from allowed contexts
• activeTab, scripting — inject a small copy routine into the active tab as a fallback when direct popup clipboard writes are not available
• host_permissions: <all_urls> — allow content script to observe copy events across pages you visit

Privacy: CopyPaste+ does not send your data anywhere. All history is stored locally via chrome.storage.local and never leaves your machine.

Troubleshooting

• I don’t see any captured copies
  • Ensure you’re testing on a normal HTTP/HTTPS page (not chrome://* or the Web Store)
  • Open the page console and look for content script logs
  • Reload the extension in chrome://extensions and refresh the page
• Clicking an item doesn’t copy
  • Some page contexts can block clipboard access. The popup tries direct write first, then falls back to injecting a copy routine into the active tab. Make sure a normal tab is active and focused
  • Check background logs in the Service Worker console for errors
• Moji-bake stars (e.g., ☆)
  • Ensure <meta charset="utf-8"> is present in popup.html (it is in this repo)
• Error in Chrome developer settings and nothing gets added from the clipbaord anymore
  • Reload the extentsion and make sure you are on a refreshed tab. If your tab is from before the extentsion's most recent change you made, the incorrect script will be injected and it won't work.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

• Open an issue for bugs and feature requests
• Fork, create a feature branch, and submit a pull request
• Keep PRs focused and include a brief description and testing notes
• Don’t commit build artifacts (dist/) or dependencies (node_modules/). The repo includes a .gitignore that ignores these

Ideas and TODOs:

• Make UI look better
• Search/filter in the popup
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Enable copying on pages that don't allow it

License

This project is open source. See the LICENSE file for details.