A lightweight macOS menu bar app that extends your clipboard with history, global keyboard shortcuts for quick pasting, and optional end-to-end encrypted iCloud sync across your devices.
Website: https://extendo.poob.me
- Clipboard History - Automatically tracks copied text and images (history size configurable, up to 1000 items)
- Global Hotkeys - Paste any of your last 10 copies with ⌘⌥1–0, customizable
- iCloud Sync - Optional end-to-end encrypted sync of your clipboard across your devices
- Menu Bar Access - Click the menu bar icon to view and manage clipboard history
- Smart Deduplication - Moves existing items to the top instead of creating duplicates
- Privacy Focused - No servers, no analytics; sync (if enabled) goes only through your private iCloud, end-to-end encrypted
- Lightweight - Runs quietly in the background with minimal resource usage
brew install tjq/tap/extendoBuilds distributed this way are Developer ID-signed and notarized by Apple. Update later
with brew upgrade extendo.
See DEVELOPMENT.md for build instructions.
This repository holds the app source. The packaging, signing and notarization pipeline that produces the released builds lives outside it, so the Homebrew and Mac App Store downloads above can't be reproduced from a clone — but the app itself builds and runs.
Builds made without an Apple Developer team have no iCloud entitlement, so they run with cloud sync disabled. Everything else — history, hotkeys, the popup — works normally.
The default keyboard shortcuts use Cmd+Option as the modifier:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Cmd+Option+1 | Paste most recent item |
| Cmd+Option+2 | Paste 2nd most recent item |
| … | … |
| Cmd+Option+9 | Paste 9th most recent item |
| Cmd+Option+0 | Paste 10th most recent item |
Shortcuts can be customized in the Settings window (Cmd+,).
Click the e icon in your menu bar to:
- View your clipboard history
- Paste or remove individual items
- Clear all history
- Access settings
- Quit the app
extendo doesn't require any special permissions — there's nothing to grant in System Settings.
Global hotkeys are registered with Carbon's RegisterEventHotKey, which asks the WindowServer to deliver a targeted event when the combo is pressed. It doesn't observe the system keystroke stream, so it needs no Accessibility or Input Monitoring access. Pasting works the same way: picking a history item just writes it to the system pasteboard (NSPasteboard) — extendo never simulates a keystroke, so you paste it yourself with the normal Cmd+V.
- Clipboard content - Text and images you copy are stored locally on your machine
- Keyboard events - Only listens for the configured hotkey combinations
- Network - Used only for optional iCloud sync, which is end-to-end encrypted; there are no third-party servers, analytics, or trackers
- macOS 15.5 (Sequoia) or later
- Apple Silicon or Intel Mac
- Check whether another app has already claimed the same Cmd+Option combination
- Try a different shortcut in the Settings window (Cmd+,)
- Restart the app
- Look for the e icon on the right side of the menu bar
- Some icons may be hidden - look for the
>arrow to reveal hidden items
extendo doesn't simulate keystrokes — a hotkey just sets the system pasteboard to the chosen item. If nothing appears after pressing the shortcut:
- The clipboard content is still set correctly; paste it manually with Cmd+V
- Make sure a text field in the target app is focused before pasting
MIT License - Feel free to modify and distribute.
Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.