Clipboard Manager

Keep a searchable history of everything you copy and cut in the editor, then paste any item again without replacing the default Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V shortcuts.

Table of contents

• Features
• Quick start
• Usage
• Configuration
• Examples
• Development
• Support

Features

• Clipboard history — automatically tracks copied and cut text from the editor
• Sidebar panel — browse, filter, expand, and manage clips in a dedicated webview
• Relative timestamps — compact times like 2m / 3h in the list and Quick Pick (absolute time on tooltip)
• In-panel settings — change extension settings from the webview (user or workspace scope)
• Pick and Paste — quick picker with live preview in the editor (Ctrl+Shift+V / Cmd+Shift+V)
• Hover preview — preview a clip in the editor before confirming paste from the sidebar
• Pause capture — temporarily stop automatic capture; manual Copy to Clipboard History still works
• Status bar — clip count and capture state (paused when capture is off); click for quick actions
• Exclude file patterns — skip copies from files matching globs (e.g. **/.env, *.pem)
• Ban clips — block specific content from being captured again (hashes stored in SecretStorage, machine-local)
• Pin clips — favorite snippets stay at the top and survive maxClips limits
• Clip notes — add short labels to clips for easier search and identification
• Clear unpinned — wipe recent history while keeping pinned favorites
• Snippet completion — insert recent clips with prefixes like clip1, clip2, …
• Source location — jump back to where a clip was copied from
• Durable storage — append-log persistence with legacy JSON migration
• Fine-grained settings — limits, deduplication, scope (VS Code only vs. system clipboard), and custom save path

Quick start

1. Install Clipboard Manager from the Visual Studio Marketplace (or Open VSX).
2. Open the Clipboard Manager activity bar icon to view Clipboard History.
3. Copy text in the editor — it appears in the list automatically.
4. Press Ctrl+Shift+V (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+V (macOS) to pick a clip and paste.

Requirements: Visual Studio Code 1.97.0 or newer.

Usage

Keyboard shortcuts

Clipboard History panel

Status bar

When enabled, the status bar shows the clip count (and paused when capture is off). Click it for quick actions such as opening history, toggling capture, toggling pinned-to-top, or clearing history.

Commands

All commands are available from the Command Palette under Clipboard Manager:

• Copy to Clipboard History
• Pick and Paste
• Toggle Capture — pause or resume automatic clipboard capture
• Toggle Pinned to Top — switch pinned clips between a top section and normal list order
• Clear Unpinned History — remove recent clips, keep pinned favorites
• Show in the file (when a clip has a known source location)
• Clear History
• Remove (selected clip)
• Clear Banned Clips — wipe the ban list
• Unban Last Banned Clip — restore the most recently banned hash
• Status Bar Actions — same menu as clicking the status bar item

Configuration

You can edit settings from the Settings tab in the Clipboard History panel (user or workspace scope), or from VS Code Settings (clipboard-manager.*).

Default settings contributed by this extension:

{
  // Avoid duplicate clips in the list
  "clipboard-manager.avoidDuplicates": true,

  // Show a notification when a banned clip is blocked from being captured. Ban list is stored as content hashes in VS Code SecretStorage (machine-local).
  "clipboard-manager.ban.notifyOnBlock": false,

  // When false, automatic clipboard capture is paused. Manual Copy to Clipboard History still works.
  "clipboard-manager.capture.enabled": true,

  // Time in milliseconds to check changes in clipboard. Set zero to disable.
  "clipboard-manager.checkInterval": 500,

  // Glob patterns; copies from matching files are not saved to history. Uses VS Code-style globs (e.g. **/.env, *.pem). Empty by default.
  "clipboard-manager.exclude.filePatterns": [],

  // Maximum clipboard size in bytes.
  "clipboard-manager.maxClipboardSize": 1000000,

  // Maximum number of clips to save in clipboard
  "clipboard-manager.maxClips": 100,

  // Move used clip to top in the list
  "clipboard-manager.moveToTop": true,

  // Get clips only from VSCode
  "clipboard-manager.onlyWindowFocused": true,

  // View a preview while you are choosing the clip
  "clipboard-manager.preview": true,

  // Set location to save the clipboard file, set false to disable
  "clipboard-manager.saveTo": null,

  // Enable completion snippets
  "clipboard-manager.snippet.enabled": true,

  // Maximum number of clips to suggests in snippets (Zero for all)
  "clipboard-manager.snippet.max": 10,

  // Default prefix for snippets completion (clip1, clip2, ...)
  "clipboard-manager.snippet.prefix": "clip",

  // Show Clipboard Manager status bar item (clip count and capture state)
  "clipboard-manager.statusBar.enabled": true,

  // When enabled, pinned clips appear in a dedicated section at the top. When disabled, pinned clips stay in normal list order.
  "clipboard-manager.ui.pinnedToTop": true,

  // Show compact relative timestamps in History and Quick Pick (absolute time remains in the tooltip)
  "clipboard-manager.ui.relativeTime": true
}

Setting notes

Examples

Clipboard History

Browse, filter, expand, and paste clips from the sidebar panel.

Snippets

Insert recent clips with completion prefixes like clip1, clip2, …

Settings

Configure the extension from the webview without leaving the panel.

Development

git clone https://github.com/edgardmessias/vscode.clipboard-manager.git
cd vscode.clipboard-manager
npm install
npm run compile   # TypeScript + webview bundle
npm test          # unit tests (Vitest)
npm run test:e2e  # extension tests (VS Code test host)
npm run lint
npm run organize  # sort package.json keys and sync README settings block

Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host with the sidebar panel loaded.

Support

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.

If this extension saves you time, consider supporting ongoing development. Use the Sponsor button on the repository page, or pick a platform below:

Other options (IssueHunt, thanks.dev) are available from the repository Sponsor menu.