ClipCrab

A lightweight, local-first clipboard manager built with Tauri and Rust.

Features

• Clipboard history for text and images
• Fast search with type filters
• Pinned items
• Encrypted local storage
• System tray background mode
• Autostart and updater support
• Thumbnail-based image history for lower WebView memory use
• Diagnostics panel with DB size, image payload, WebView2 version, logs, repair, and compact actions
• Retention and privacy settings: opt-in automatic cleanup, max history, max DB payload, max text/image size, image capture toggle, app ignore list
• Keyboard workflow: Ctrl+Alt+V quick open on Windows, arrows to select, Enter copy and hide, Ctrl+Enter copy only, Space open details, Delete delete, P pin, 1-9 quick pick

Security And Privacy

ClipCrab encrypts clipboard data before writing it to disk.

• Algorithm: AES-256-GCM
• Nonce: 12-byte random nonce per encryption
• Key storage: a local key file generated on first launch
• Logs are content-free by design; clipboard text/image payloads are not written to stdout or the app log
• Password manager presets and user-defined ignored apps can be skipped by the watcher on Windows
• Automatic cleanup is disabled by default so upgrades do not prune existing history unless the user enables it

Data Storage

Your data is stored locally in:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\clipcrab\
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/clipcrab/
• Linux: ~/.local/share/clipcrab/

The main database is clipboard.db. App logs are written under logs/clipcrab.log in the same app data directory.

Installation

Download the latest release from the Releases page.

Windows

• Download the .msi or .exe installer.
• The app registers Ctrl+Alt+V for quick open when the shortcut is available.

Linux

• Debian/Ubuntu: download the .deb file
• Fedora/RHEL: download the .rpm file
• Other distros: download the .AppImage

Linux dependencies:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 libappindicator3-1
sudo dnf install webkit2gtk4.1 libappindicator-gtk3

Building From Source

git clone https://github.com/crefax/clipcrab.git
cd clipcrab
npm install
npm run tauri build

Tech Stack

• Rust + Tauri 2
• Vanilla HTML/CSS/JavaScript
• SQLite with WAL
• AES-GCM encryption
• WebView2 on Windows

License

MIT