ClipDesk

A local-first clipboard manager for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Inspired by Things and Paste.

Features

• Clipboard history — automatically captures text, images, files, links, and color values
• Instant search — find any clipboard item with real-time fuzzy search
• Smart filters — browse by content type, source app, or date
• Favorites — pin important items so they're never deleted
• Sensitive data detection — automatically flags API keys, passwords, credit cards, and tokens
• Dark and light themes — clean, Things-inspired UI with smooth animations
• Menubar mode — runs in the background with a global shortcut (Cmd+Shift+V / Ctrl+Shift+V)
• Launch at login — starts automatically and stays out of the way
• Auto-updates — checks for new versions via GitHub Releases
• Cross-platform — builds for macOS (DMG), Windows (NSIS), and Linux (AppImage)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• npm

Development

git clone https://github.com/aadivar/clipdesk.git
cd clipdesk
npm install
npm run prisma:generate
npm run build:main
npm run electron:dev

The app will start in dev mode with hot reload for the renderer process.

Note (macOS): Grant accessibility permissions in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility for clipboard monitoring to work.

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run electron:dev	Start in development mode
npm run build	Full production build with packaging
npm run build:mac	Build for macOS
npm run build:win	Build for Windows
npm run build:linux	Build for Linux
npm run prisma:generate	Generate Prisma client
npm run prisma:migrate	Run database migrations
npm run type-check	TypeScript type checking
npm run lint	Lint with ESLint
npm run test	Run tests with Vitest

Project Structure

src/
  main/                  Electron main process
    index.ts             App entry, window management, IPC
    clipboardMonitor.ts  Clipboard polling and capture
    sensitiveDataDetector.ts  Pattern-based sensitive data detection
    autoUpdater.ts       electron-updater integration
  preload/
    index.ts             IPC bridge between main and renderer
  renderer/
    App.tsx              Main React UI
    components/          UI components
  shared/
    database.ts          Prisma/SQLite database layer
    types.ts             Shared TypeScript types
prisma/
  schema.prisma          Database schema
assets/                  App icons and tray icons

Tech Stack

• Electron — desktop framework
• React + TypeScript — UI
• Styled Components — styling
• Prisma + SQLite — local database
• Vite — build tooling
• electron-builder — packaging and distribution
• electron-updater — auto-updates via GitHub Releases
• GitHub Actions — CI/CD

Releasing

Releases are automated via GitHub Actions. When a version tag is pushed, builds are created for all platforms and published to GitHub Releases.

# Bump version and push tag
npm version patch   # or minor / major
git push origin main --tags

The workflow builds macOS (DMG + ZIP), Windows (NSIS + ZIP), and Linux (AppImage + tar.gz) artifacts and uploads them to the GitHub release. Users with the app installed receive update notifications automatically.

Privacy

ClipDesk is local-first. All clipboard data is stored in a SQLite database on your device. Nothing is sent to any server.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Run npm run type-check && npm run lint to verify
5. Open a pull request

License

MIT

Acknowledgments

• Things — design inspiration
• Paste — feature inspiration