Usage Guide

Pasterail keeps a private clipboard history of what you copy. The history is encrypted, and only you can open it, with Touch ID or your Mac password.

To install Pasterail and set it up, read the Install Guide.

Find the app

The app lives in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Look for the clipboard icon (a sheet of paper on a clipboard). It has no Dock icon and no main window.

Click the icon, or press Shift-Command-V in any app, to open the history window. Press the shortcut again, press Escape, or click outside the window to close it.

Allow clipboard access (first launch)

macOS asks before an app can read what other apps copy. To let Pasterail save your copies:

1. Click the menu bar icon.
2. Click Open Settings in the “Allow clipboard access” message.
3. In Privacy & Security > Paste from Other Apps, set Pasterail to Allow.

If you choose Ask, macOS shows an alert each time you copy. If you choose Deny, the app cannot save anything.

Learn More in the message opens this part of the guide in your web browser.

Unlock the history

The history is always locked when the app starts.

1. Click the menu bar icon.
2. Click Unlock with Touch ID (or press Return). On a Mac without Touch ID, or with the lid closed, the button says Unlock with Password.
3. Touch the Touch ID sensor. If your Mac has no Touch ID, or you cancel, enter your Mac password.

Copies you make while the history is locked are still saved. You see them after you unlock.

Use a saved item

1. Press Shift-Command-V (or click the menu bar icon). If the history is locked, Touch ID starts at once.
2. Click an item, or move to it with the arrow keys and press Return. Command-1 to Command-9 choose the first nine items directly; these items show ⌘1 to ⌘9.
3. The item is now on your clipboard, and the app you were using is in front again. Press Command-V to paste it.

The item moves to the top of the list. The list keeps your 200 most recent items. If you copy the same thing again, it moves to the top. It is not saved twice.

Formatted text, files, and images

Pasterail saves more than plain text. The icon at the left of each row shows the kind.

• Formatted text (for example, from Safari, Mail, Pages, or Notes) keeps its bold, links, lists, and fonts. When you paste it into an app that takes only plain text, such as Terminal, you get plain text.
• Links: when you copy only a web address, the row shows a link icon and the address without “https://”. It is pasted exactly as you copied it. Pasterail never opens the address.
• Plain text from a formatted item: hold Option when you choose it (Option-Return, Option-Command-1 to Option-Command-9, or Option-click). Only the words are copied, so they take the style of the document you paste into.
• Files copied in Finder are saved by their location only. The row shows the file name and its folder; for several files at once, “and 2 more”. Choose the item and press Command-V in Finder or Mail to paste the files. The files are used as they are now.
• Image files (for example, a photo copied in Finder) are files too: Pasterail saves only where they are.
• Images with no file, such as a screenshot taken with Control-Shift-Command-4 or an image copied from a web page, are saved as a picture. The row shows “Image” and its size in pixels.

If you moved or deleted a file, or the disk it is on is not connected, choosing its item shows File not found. Your clipboard does not change.

Search finds formatted text by its words and files by their names. Images have no words; find them with app: and date:.

Lock the history

Click Lock now at the bottom of the window, or press Command-L. All items disappear from the window until you unlock again.

Lock the history before you share your screen or leave your Mac.

Search

When the history is unlocked, just start typing. The list shows only matching items, best match first.

The line under the search field shows examples to try (click one to use it) and, while you search, how many items match.

• Letters in order are enough. inv114 finds “invoice 2026-114”.
• Small typos are fine in words of 4 or more letters. invioce finds “invoice”.
• The app name counts too. safari finds items copied from Safari.
• Every word must match. invoice april shows only items with both.
• Long items: the fuzzy match looks at the first 1,000 characters. Exact words are found anywhere in the text.

Filters narrow the list further. You can mix them with words:

Press Escape once to clear the search, and again to close the window. The search text is never saved, and it is cleared when the window closes or the history locks.

Change the shortcut

Open Settings and click the Open history field, then press the new keys. A shortcut must include Command, Option, or Control. Click the clear button to turn the shortcut off; the menu bar icon still opens the history. Shortcuts that macOS uses itself are refused.

If another app already uses Shift-Command-V (some apps use it for “Paste and Match Style”), choose a different shortcut here.

Auto-lock

The history also locks by itself:

• After your Mac is idle for the time you choose. “Idle” means no keyboard, mouse, or trackpad input in any app. Watching a video without touching the Mac still counts as idle.
• When your Mac goes to sleep, or you close the lid.
• When the screen locks, or the screen saver starts.
• When you switch to another user account.

To choose the idle time:

1. Open the menu bar window and click the Settings button (the sliders icon at the bottom), or press Command-Comma while the window is open.
2. Choose a value in Lock after idle for: 1, 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes. The default is 5 minutes.

A shorter time applies at once. A longer time asks for Touch ID or your Mac password first, so another person at your Mac cannot make the history stay open longer. Auto-lock cannot be turned off.

Start New History also asks for Touch ID or your Mac password before it deletes the old history.

Open at login

To have Pasterail running every time you log in, open Settings and turn on Open Pasterail at login in the General section. It is off until you turn it on. It does not ask for Touch ID or your password, because Pasterail always starts with the history locked.

You can also turn it on or off in System Settings > General > Login Items. Pasterail’s switch always shows the same setting. If macOS asks you to allow it first, Settings shows Open Login Items; click it and allow Pasterail there.

Keep Pasterail in your Applications folder. If you move it, macOS may not find it at login.

Excluded apps

Pasterail does not save copies made while an excluded app is in front. Use this for apps with private content that do not mark their copies as private, for example a banking app or a work chat.

Keychain Access and Passwords are excluded from the start. You can remove them.

To exclude an app:

1. Open Settings and go to Excluded Apps.
2. Click +.
3. Choose an app that is open, or choose Choose from Applications… to pick any app.

If the history is unlocked and has items from that app, Pasterail offers to delete them. If the history is locked, items saved earlier from that app are kept; unlock to see them.

To remove an app, select it and click −. This asks for Touch ID or your Mac password, because it makes the history save more.

Pasterail can only see which app is in front, not which app wrote to the clipboard. A copy made in the background (for example, by a script or a sync tool) counts as coming from the app in front.

Clear history

To delete everything Pasterail has saved:

1. Open Settings and go to History.
2. Click Clear History… and confirm.
3. Use Touch ID or your Mac password.

This cannot be undone. It works when the history is locked too, without unlocking. Copies you make after this are saved as usual.

Clear History also changes the key that protects your history. Old copies of the history files, for example in a Time Machine backup, can then never be opened.

History size

In Settings > History, choose how many recent items to Keep: 25, 50, 100, 200, or 500. The default is 200. When the history is full, the oldest item is deleted.

Every change asks for Touch ID or your Mac password. If a smaller size would delete items, Pasterail first shows how many of the oldest items will be deleted. A larger history uses more memory while it is unlocked.

Which actions ask for Touch ID

These actions ask for Touch ID or your Mac password every time, even when the history is unlocked:

• Unlocking the history
• Making the idle time longer
• Changing the history size
• Clearing the history
• Removing an excluded app
• Starting a new history after “Your history cannot be read”

Adding an excluded app and making the idle time shorter do not ask, because they make the history safer.

What is never saved

• Copies made while an excluded app is in front.
• Passwords and other copies that apps mark as private. Most password managers (for example, Apple Passwords and 1Password) mark their copies this way.
• Copies that apps mark as temporary or automatic.
• Pictures inside formatted text (for example, a photo in a Notes copy). The text and its formatting are saved.
• The content of copied files. Only their location is saved.
• Images larger than 20 MB, and copies of more than 1,000 files at once.
• Empty text, and text larger than 1 MB. Formatting larger than 5 MB is dropped; the plain text is kept.

“Your history cannot be read”

This message appears if the key that protects your history is missing or damaged, for example after the Keychain was reset. The old history cannot be recovered. Click Start New History to delete it and start again with a new key.

“History is not available right now”

This message appears if the app cannot reach the Keychain for a moment. Your history is not changed. Click Try Again. If the message stays, restart the app.

Keyboard shortcuts

For how your data is protected, see the Privacy Policy and Security page.