Clipboard Manager
Never lose what you copy. Summon saves everything you copy to the clipboard, making it instantly searchable and accessible.
Accessing Clipboard History
There are two ways to access your clipboard history:
- From Summon: Type
clipin the search bar - Direct shortcut: Press
⌘ + Shift + Cfrom anywhere
Features
History Storage
Clipboard history is stored locally on your Mac with configurable limits:
- Maximum items (default: 1000)
- Retention period (default: 7 days)
All clipboard items are stored locally in an encrypted database for privacy.
Search
Search through your clipboard history by typing:
- Text content
- App name (where you copied from)
- Date/time
Preview
Summon shows previews for different content types:
- Text: Full text with syntax highlighting
- Images: Thumbnail preview
- URLs: Link preview with favicon
- Code: Language-detected highlighting
- Colors: Visual color swatch for hex/rgb values
Pin Items
Pin important clipboard items to keep them at the top:
- Find the item in clipboard history
- Press
⌘ + Por click the pin icon - Pinned items persist until you unpin them
Content Types
Summon recognizes and handles different content types:
Text
Plain text, formatted text, and code snippets are fully searchable.
Images
Screenshots and copied images are stored with thumbnails. Click to preview full-size.
URLs
Web addresses are detected and can be opened directly in your browser.
Files
File paths are stored and can be opened or revealed in Finder.
Colors
Hex codes and RGB values are detected and shown with visual swatches.
Sequential Paste
Paste multiple items in sequence without switching back and forth:
- Select items in clipboard history
- Press
Shift + →to add each item to the paste queue - Press
⌃ + Vrepeatedly to paste items in order - Press
Shift + ←to remove items from the queue
This is useful for filling out forms or pasting multiple values in sequence.
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Shortcut |
|--------|----------|
| Open clipboard history | ⌘ + Shift + C |
| Paste selected item | Enter |
| Pin/unpin item | ⌘ + P |
| Delete item | ⌘ + Delete |
| Edit item | ⌘ + E |
| Save to file | ⌘ + S |
| Add to paste queue | Shift + → |
| Remove from queue | Shift + ← |
| Paste next in queue | ⌃ + V |
| Paste as plain text | ⌘ + Shift + V |
| Navigate items | ↑ / ↓ or J / K |
Privacy
What Gets Saved
Summon saves most clipboard content, but excludes:
- Password manager entries (1Password, Bitwarden, etc.)
- Keychain items
- Sensitive financial data
- Content marked as private by apps
Local Storage
All clipboard data is stored locally in an encrypted SQLite database. Nothing is synced to the cloud unless you enable Cloud Sync in Pro.
Auto-Clear
You can configure clipboard history to auto-clear:
- On app quit
- After a specific time period (24 hours, 7 days, 30 days)
- When system is locked
Settings
Customize clipboard behavior in Settings → Clipboard:
| Setting | Description | |---------|-------------| | Maximum items | Number of items to keep (default: 1000) | | Retention days | How long to keep items (default: 7 days) | | Polling interval | How often to check clipboard (default: 0.5s) |
Tips
Rich Text Preservation
Summon preserves both plain text and rich formatting (HTML/RTF). When pasting:
Enter- Paste with original formatting⌘ + Shift + V- Paste as plain text
Image Support
Screenshots and copied images are saved with thumbnails. Files copied from Finder are tracked with their paths for easy access later.