Pilot build — unlisted

Welcome to the pilot.

This is Klippster's public beta, ahead of the announcement — a real build with real licence activation, and a person reading every mail. The link came to you directly because your feedback is the point: pass that on, not the URL.

Klippster-0.5.0.dmg
Universal · macOS 14 Sonoma or later · about 10 MB
Download Klippster 0.9.0 Send feedback

Each download is counted as an anonymous per-version total — a number, with no IP address or anything else attached. The privacy page says it in full.

Safe outside the App Store

Signed by us, checked by Apple, verified by your Mac

Klippster is distributed directly rather than through the Mac App Store. That does not step outside Apple's security model. Every public release is signed with an Apple-issued Developer ID, notarized by Apple, and verified by macOS Gatekeeper when you open it.

  1. 01

    Developer ID signed

    The app is signed with an Apple-issued Developer ID certificate, under a hardened runtime. macOS can tell who published it — and whether the signed code has been changed since.

  2. 02

    Notarized by Apple

    Every public build goes through Apple's automated notarization service before release. Apple scans it for malicious components and code-signing problems, then issues a ticket.

  3. 03

    Gatekeeper verified

    When you open Klippster, macOS checks that Developer ID signature and the notarization ticket. A build altered after signing does not pass, and macOS says so instead of opening it.

Universal build — Apple Silicon and Intel Notarization ticket stapled, so it verifies offline Hardened runtime enabled

Why direct distribution?

Klippster integrates deeply with Finder and macOS, so we distribute it ourselves. Developer ID, notarization and Gatekeeper are what Apple provides for exactly that — Mac software delivered outside the App Store.

Notarization is an automated security check, not App Review. Apple scans the build; it does not endorse, certify or vouch for it. We say that plainly because the difference matters.

Install

Three steps, one optional prompt

Drag it to Applications

Not cosmetic: macOS only loads the Finder extension from an app in /Applications. Run it from ~/Downloads and the right-click menus quietly never appear.

Enable the Finder extension

System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → Finder extensions → Klippster. That adds the right-click menus. Skipping it is supported — the menu-bar app and shortcuts work without it.

Answer the Automation prompt

The first shortcut use asks permission to see which Finder window is frontmost. Decline and macOS never asks again — so if the shortcuts go quiet, this is where to look.

The long form, including what declining costs, is in the install guide. If macOS refuses to open the build, tell us rather than working around it — that is a report we want.

Changelog

What changed, newest first

0.9.0 August 2026 Current pilot

  • Everything in Klippster Center drags out. Pull a clip straight into any app — and decide what it arrives as: right-click a clip to pick its format, or hold ⌘ while you start dragging to hand over the plain thing instead. A clip set to a format travels as a real file, so dropping a picture or a PDF into WhatsApp, Mail or Slack does what you meant.
  • Rest the pointer on anything and you see the thing itself — the picture, the text, the file — instead of facts about it. Recent and Pinned now share one row with tabs, and every tile shows its clip rather than a symbol.
  • The Finder toolbar button reaches iCloud Drive. Klippster's right-click menus cannot appear inside iCloud Drive, or in Desktop and Documents once you sync them — that is a macOS rule, not a setting. The toolbar button now works there, with the full format lists the menus have. Add it once via Finder → View → Customize Toolbar….
  • Copy a folder, get a zip. A copied folder now offers Compressed Archive wherever it turns up, named the way Finder's own Compress names it.
  • Klippster Center answers to the keyboard and to VoiceOver — Esc closes it, its clips are readable, every Shelf row has a right-click menu, and a one-time hint teaches the gestures.
  • Dragging a picture out no longer hands over a giant TIFF, starting a drag is fast, and the Shelf's automatic tidy-up actually runs. A Shelf row whose file moved gets its buttons back, and the panel no longer slides away while you are reading it.
  • Pro cannot be bought yet — pilot licences are issued by hand. Reply to your invite mail and one arrives.
  • Homebrew cask and the public source repository come with launch, not before.
Show earlier releases

0.8.0 August 2026

  • Klippster updates itself. Check for Updates… now does the whole job — downloads, verifies and installs — instead of opening a web page. Every update is checked against a key built into the copy you are running, and an update is always offered, never imposed.
  • Klippster Center. The little card that announces a copy grew into a panel you can reach on purpose: the current clip, recent ones, pinned ones, and the Shelf. Open it from a screen corner, with ⌥⌘V from any app, or from the menu bar.
  • The Shelf — somewhere to park things in transit between apps. Drop files or clips in, take them out where you need them, and a row can leave as something other than what it arrived as.
  • Prepare Text — a full editor before every text export, with an outline, a preview that scrolls with the source, real tables, and page setup for PDF.
  • Copied files are first class. Select several in Finder and paste them as files or as one archive; save a copied PDF as a PDF rather than a picture of its first page; or take a file's own bytes, unchanged, with Paste As Is.
  • Private Mode — one switch at the top of the menu that stops Klippster watching the clipboard at all. It stays off until you turn it back on, and nothing copied meanwhile is picked up afterwards.
  • Klippster's verbs are in the Services menu, and first-run setup now walks you through the permissions instead of firing three system prompts at you.

0.5.0 July 2026

  • The core loop. ⌘⇧V writes the clipboard into the Finder window you are looking at; the right-click menus add Paste as, Copy as and Convert to.
  • Clipboard History — off until you switch it on, stored only on your Mac, with concealed and password-manager items always skipped.
  • Prepare Image — a quick editing pass before an image is written to disk.
  • Format Packs — extra formats from a signed registry, each pack sandboxed to the data you explicitly convert.
  • Pro licensing end to end — buy-less for now: activation, device codes, offline activation from another device, and the licence portal.