Local AI Clipboard Actions
Summary
Local AI Clipboard Actions runs on-device models to transform clipboard text without sending data off the machine.
The tool applies operations such as rewrite, summarize, or translate directly to text the user has copied. It keeps everything local, addressing privacy risks that arise when clipboard contents contain sensitive or proprietary material. No pricing information is listed, so cost depends on whatever model or runtime the user already has installed. The chief constraint is hardware: inference speed and model quality are limited by the local GPU or CPU, which often means weaker results than cloud services on non-specialized machines.
Bottom line: Choose it when clipboard contents must stay private; skip it when maximum model capability matters more than data locality.
Community Benchmarks Community
Sign in to submit a benchmarkNo community benchmarks yet. Be the first to share a real-world data point.
Community Reviews
Sign in to write a reviewNo reviews yet. Be the first to share your experience.
Discussion Community
Sign in to commentNo discussion yet. Sign in to start the conversation.
Compare Local AI Clipboard Actions
Spotted incorrect or missing data? Join our community of contributors.
Sign Up to ContributeCommunity Notes & Tips Community
Sign in to contributeBe the first to contribute. General notes, observations, gotchas, and tips from people who use this tool day-to-day.
Hours Saved & ROI Stories Community
Sign in to contributeBe the first to contribute. Concrete time/cost savings, with context. e.g. "Cut my code review backlog from 4h to 45m per week."
Curated lists that include this category
Clipboard AI tools usually mean a round trip to the cloud. apfel-clip is a macOS menu bar app that intercepts that pattern entirely: copy any text, code, stack trace, or JSON, hit ⌘⇧V from whatever app you’re in, and Apple Intelligence transforms it on-device in seconds. The result lands back in your clipboard — or you review it in a side-by-side panel before accepting. There is no account, no API key, and the vendor states explicitly that no data leaves the machine.
The differentiating detail is content-aware action filtering. The app detects what you copied and shows only the actions relevant to that content type — prose gets grammar, tone, and translation options; code gets explain, find bugs, and add comments. You are not hunting through a flat list. Custom actions let you turn any prompt into a named shortcut that appears in the same list automatically, so domain-specific transforms — say, ‘format as a Jira ticket’ — sit alongside the defaults.
The hard constraints are on the tin: apfel-clip requires macOS 26 (Tahoe), Apple Silicon (M1 or later), and Apple Intelligence enabled with English as the device language. That eliminates any developer not on Apple hardware and any team that has not upgraded to Tahoe. The tool is MIT-licensed and available on GitHub, so forking or auditing the source is an option — but the underlying AI engine, apfel, is bundled rather than swappable, which means the model ceiling is whatever Apple Intelligence supports on-device at the time.
Installation is a drag-to-Applications or a single Homebrew cask command. The vendor states the binary is signed and notarised by Apple, so macOS opens it without a security prompt. Persistent local history saves every transformation so you can re-copy or revisit past results without rerunning the model.