| Main window (dark) | Settings (dark) |
|---|---|
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| Main window (light) | Settings (light) |
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CopyClip keeps a searchable history of what you copy — plain text, HTML, and images — and brings it back with one keypress. It is a native C++23 app with a GTK4 + libadwaita UI, rewritten from an earlier Python/PyQt6 version.
The reason it exists: the same global hotkey works on X11 and Wayland, with nothing to wire up by hand. The previous version made you bind a custom Wayland shortcut yourself. That step is gone. CopyClip reads the clipboard through the X11/XWayland selection, which the compositor mirrors to and from the Wayland clipboard, and pastes by injecting Ctrl+V through a /dev/uinput virtual keyboard — kernel-level, so it reaches terminals and sandboxed apps too.
Developed and tested on GNOME (Mutter), X11 and Wayland sessions. It is young software (v0.2.2) — expect rough edges on other desktops, and please file what you hit.
| 🗂️ History | Captures text, rich text (HTML), and images or screenshots as you copy them, newest first. |
| 🖼️ Image thumbnails | Copied and pasted images render as thumbnails instead of raw byte counts. |
| 📌 Pinning | Pin the clips you reuse so they stay at the top. |
| 🔍 Fuzzy search | Start typing to filter the whole history. |
| ⌨️ One hotkey, both servers | A configurable shortcut (default Super+C) toggles the window on X11 and Wayland. |
| 📋 Click to paste | Click a clip to copy it, and optionally auto-paste it into the window you came from. |
| 🌗 Themes | Dark, light, or follow the system. |
| 💾 SQLite storage | History lives in a WAL-mode SQLite database with de-duplication and a configurable size cap. |
| 🪶 Event-driven | Capture is signal-driven, not polled, so it idles cheaply in the background. |
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Walkercito/CopyClip/main/scripts/install.sh | bashThe script detects your distro and architecture and installs a .deb or .rpm when it can, falls back to an AppImage, and builds from source if neither fits. It also adds CopyClip to your login autostart.
To remove it:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Walkercito/CopyClip/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --uninstallPrerequisites and build steps
You need CMake ≥ 3.28, Ninja, a C++23 compiler, and vcpkg with VCPKG_ROOT exported. GTK4, libadwaita, gtkmm-4.0, Qt6, and libX11 come from your system, not vcpkg.
# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install cmake ninja-build qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev libgl-dev \
libx11-dev libgtkmm-4.0-dev libadwaita-1-devvcpkg pulls the rest (GoogleTest, spdlog, nlohmann-json, SQLiteCpp) from the manifest at configure time. Then:
git clone https://github.com/Walkercito/CopyClip.git
cd CopyClip
cmake --preset release
cmake --build --preset releaseThe presets are debug, release, and asan.
CopyClip needs GTK4 and libadwaita at runtime; both ship on current GNOME-based distros.
Auto-paste writes to /dev/uinput, which on most systems means joining the input group:
sudo usermod -aG input $USER
# log out and back in for the group to take effectWithout /dev/uinput access, paste falls back to xdotool on X11, or wtype/ydotool on Wayland, when one is installed. History capture and click-to-copy work either way; only the automatic paste-back depends on this.
Launch CopyClip once and it stays running in the background. Press your hotkey to toggle the window, click a clip to copy it (and paste it back, if auto-paste is on), and hit Esc to hide. Type at any time to fuzzy-search.
Open Settings to change the theme, rebind the hotkey, toggle auto-paste and auto-hide-on-copy, and set the maximum history size.
To start hidden — for autostart entries — pass --background.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Super+C | Toggle the CopyClip window (default; configurable) |
| Click | Copy the clip (and auto-paste if enabled) |
| Ctrl+Click | Pin / unpin a clip |
| Type | Fuzzy-search the history |
| Esc | Hide the window |
CopyClip keeps its state under ~/.local/share/copyclip/:
settings.json— preferenceshistory.db— the SQLite history database
Keys in settings.json include theme, hotkey, max_history_items, auto_hide_on_copy, auto_paste, and first_run_completed. The Settings dialog is the easier way to change most of them.
The build is C++23 with CMake presets (debug/release/asan), Ninja, and vcpkg in manifest mode. clang-format and clang-tidy configs are committed, warnings are errors (-Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic -Wconversion -Wshadow -Werror), and a GoogleTest suite under an ASan+UBSan+LSan build gates merges. Read CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, the toolchain, and the commit conventions before opening a PR, and branch off main for feature work.
CopyClip is free and MIT-licensed. If it earns a spot in your workflow, a coffee or a ⭐ helps keep it maintained.
MIT © 2024 Walkercito. See LICENSE.