Get This Tool
Local AI Clipboard Actions
Pricing
- Model
- Free
Summary
Every clipboard-to-AI workflow that routes through the cloud adds three things you didn't ask for: a network round-trip, an API key to rotate, and your text sitting on someone else's server. apfel-clip removes all three.
The app lives in your macOS menu bar and intercepts your clipboard via a global hotkey — ⌘⇧V — opening a popover that detects whether you copied prose, code, a stack trace, or JSON, then surfaces only the actions that apply. Transformations run entirely through Apple Intelligence on-chip; nothing touches a network. The result lands back in your clipboard, or sits in a review panel if you want to edit before pasting. Custom prompts become named actions that slot into the same list. The ceiling appears fast: this is a one-shot tool, not a pipeline — there is no chaining, no memory across sessions beyond a local history log, and no way to automate sequences without leaving the app.
Bottom line: Pick this for fast, private, single-step text and code transforms on Apple Silicon; the moment you need the output of one action to feed the next automatically, you are outside what this tool does.
Community Performance Report Card
No community ratings yet. Be the first to rate this tool!
Pros
Sign in to edit- Fully on-device execution with no API keys or network calls, which means sensitive code, client text, or internal documents never leave the machine — eliminating a category of data-handling risk that cloud-routed tools require you to manage contractually.
- Content-aware action filtering, so the popover shows code actions when you copy a function and prose actions when you copy a paragraph — which means you skip the step of manually selecting the right tool or prompt type.
- Global hotkey access from any app without switching focus, so the copy-transform-paste loop takes seconds rather than a tab switch to a browser or separate tool.
- Custom actions that turn any prompt into a named entry in the action list, which means you can encode recurring transforms — rewrite in your company's voice, strip PII patterns, convert to a specific format — without rebuilding the prompt each time.
- MIT-licensed and buildable from source, so teams with strict software approval requirements can audit, modify, and distribute the binary internally rather than depending on a vendor's release cadence.
Cons
Sign in to edit- One-shot only: each ⌘⇧V invocation runs a single action on the current clipboard contents, and the result does not automatically feed back into the next action. Any multi-step transform — say, fix grammar, then translate, then bullet-point — requires you to manually re-copy and re-trigger the hotkey for each step. Teams that need chained transforms migrate to a scripted workflow or a tool with pipeline support.
- Hard platform lock: the app requires macOS 26 (Tahoe), Apple Silicon (M1 or later), Apple Intelligence enabled, and English device language — all four simultaneously. A team where even one developer runs Intel Mac hardware, stays on an earlier macOS release for stability, or uses a non-English system locale cannot use this tool at all; there is no fallback or cloud mode.
- No API surface and no automation hooks mean the tool cannot be triggered by scripts, CI pipelines, or external events. Any team that wants to run the same transforms on batched content or integrate clipboard actions into a broader workflow has to abandon this tool entirely in favor of a scriptable alternative.
About
- Platforms
- macOS (Apple Silicon M1+)
- API Available
- No
- Self-Hosted
- Yes
- Last Updated
- 2026-08-14T02:09:53.037Z
Best For
Who it's for
- macOS users needing quick private AI edits
- Developers transforming code or errors
- Writers improving prose without cloud services
What it does well
- Fix grammar or rewrite tone of pasted text
- Explain, debug, or add comments to copied code
- Summarize or bullet-point long content
- Translate or handle JSON structures locally
Add notes, reviews, and benchmarks so the next visitor gets a clearer picture.
Compare Local AI Clipboard Actions
Spotted incorrect or missing data? Join our community of contributors.
Sign Up to ContributeFrequently Asked Questions
- Is Local AI Clipboard Actions free?
- Yes — Local AI Clipboard Actions is fully free to use. There is no paid tier.
- Is Local AI Clipboard Actions open source?
- Yes. Local AI Clipboard Actions is open source.
- Can I self-host Local AI Clipboard Actions?
- Yes. Local AI Clipboard Actions supports self-hosting on your own infrastructure.
- What platforms does Local AI Clipboard Actions support?
- Local AI Clipboard Actions is available on: macOS (Apple Silicon M1+).
Best Local AI Clipboard Actions alternatives →
Curated lists that include this category
Cloud clipboard tools create extra steps and risks
Every clipboard-to-AI workflow that routes through the cloud adds three things you didn’t ask for: a network round-trip, an API key to rotate, and your text sitting on someone else’s server. Local AI Clipboard Actions removes all three.
The app lives in your macOS menu bar and intercepts your clipboard via a global hotkey — ⌘⇧V — opening a popover that detects whether you copied prose, code, a stack trace, or JSON, then surfaces only the actions that apply. Transformations run entirely through Apple Intelligence on-chip; nothing touches a network. The result lands back in your clipboard, or sits in a review panel if you want to edit before pasting. Custom prompts become named actions that slot into the same list.
Key limits
This is a one-shot tool, not a pipeline — there is no chaining, no memory across sessions. It requires macOS 26 (Tahoe), Apple Silicon (M1 or later), Apple Intelligence enabled, and English device language.
Who it is for / who should skip it
Best for macOS users needing quick private AI edits, developers transforming code or errors, and writers improving prose without cloud services. Teams that need chained transforms or non-Apple platforms should skip it.