Snippy

A minimal Mac menu bar app for storing and quickly copying text snippets and images. Pure SwiftUI, fully offline, no dependencies.

172 KB download. Zero network access.

Install

Download Snippy-arm64.dmg from Releases, open it, and drag Snippy to Applications.

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/perandre/snippy.git
cd snippy
bash build.sh
cp -r .build/app/Snippy.app /Applications/

Requires macOS 14+ and Xcode Command Line Tools.

Usage

Shortcut	Action
Option+Cmd+V	Toggle Snippy from anywhere
Cmd+V	Paste clipboard as new snippet (text or image)
Cmd+N	Add new snippet manually
Up/Down	Navigate snippets
Enter	Copy selected to clipboard
Esc	Dismiss window
Cmd+Q	Quit

Adding snippets

• Paste: Copy something, open Snippy, Cmd+V — done.
• Manual: Cmd+N, then type the value and hit Enter.
• With a label: Type Label: value — the part before : becomes a searchable label (highlighted in real-time as you type).
• Images: Copy an image, Cmd+V — saved with thumbnail preview. Edit to add a searchable label.

Smart label detection

The label: value parser won't break on URLs (https://...), times (10:30), JSON, or other colon-containing values. A label must contain letters and be followed by : (colon + space).

Security

• Zero network permissions — NSAllowsArbitraryLoads: false, no outbound connections
• Data stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Snippy/ with POSIX 600/700 permissions
• Menu bar only — no dock icon, no window chrome
• No telemetry, no analytics, no third-party code

Architecture

~1,100 lines of Swift across 11 source files:

Sources/
  main.swift              App entry point
  SnippyApp.swift         Menu bar, global hotkey, floating panel
  ContentView.swift       Main UI, keyboard handling via NSEvent monitor
  SnippetRow.swift        Row display (text + image thumbnails)
  AddSnippetRow.swift     Inline add with real-time label coloring
  EditSnippetRow.swift    Inline edit (text + image labels)
  SnippetStore.swift      JSON persistence, image storage, CRUD
  Snippet.swift           Data model (text + optional image)
  SnippyParser.swift      Smart "label: value" parser
  ReturnKeyModifier.swift NSEvent-based Return key handler for NSPanel

Data is plain JSON + PNG files. No database, no frameworks, no dependencies beyond macOS SDK.

License

MIT