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The Problem

You copy things all day -- links, code, messages, passwords, screenshots. They vanish after the next copy. You search your browser history, scroll through chats, dig through files -- trying to find that one thing you had 20 minutes ago.

GhostClip fixes this.

It runs silently in your system tray, captures everything you copy, and makes it searchable, organized, and intelligent. Not just a clipboard history -- an AI-powered knowledge layer on top of your daily workflow.

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Features

AI Intelligence Every clip gets analyzed automatically: Auto-tagging -- AI generates relevant tags, learns your vocabulary Smart summaries -- one-line description of what you copied Mood detection -- business, private, creative, urgent Sensitivity flags -- detects passwords, tokens, personal data Reply suggestions -- recognizes messages, generates 3 reply options in different tones Vision & OCR -- analyzes images, reads text from screenshots AI Chat -- "What did I copy about the meeting last week?" AI Transform -- rewrite text shorter/formal/casual, translate EN/DE, fix grammar, summarize, explain Similar Clips -- find semantically related clips via AI embeddings Auto-learning -- adapts tags, tone, and suggestions to your patterns over time

Clipboard Management More than just history: All content types -- text, URLs, images, code, files URL enrichment -- saves page title, description, and full text content Full-text search + semantic search (AI-powered, finds by meaning not just keywords) Filter chips -- All, Today, This Week, Pinned, Archive in one view Tags, Collections, Smart Collections (rule-based auto-filters) Pin important clips, archive old ones Auto-expire sensitive data (passwords, API keys delete themselves) Clipboard Templates -- save reusable text with {variables} Clipboard Rules -- auto-tag or auto-mark clips based on content patterns Source App tracking -- see which app you copied from Floating widget -- quick access without opening the app Quick Panel (Ctrl+Shift+V) -- keyboard-driven instant paste

Cross-Platform Same app, everywhere: Linux -- AppImage + .deb macOS -- .dmg (Intel + Apple Silicon), code-signed Windows -- .exe installer System tray -- always running, never in the way Auto-updates -- checks for new versions automatically Frameless window -- custom title bar, native feel

Cloud Sync (optional) Create a free account in the app for multi-device sync: Real-time sync via WebSocket (< 500ms) Offline queue -- works without internet, syncs when back online Conflict resolution -- timestamp + enrichment-based merging E2E encryption -- AES-256-GCM, server never sees your content Device management -- see all connected devices, platform, last sync Self-hostable -- run your own sync server

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Screenshots

Clip Feed — AI-Tagged Clips

Every clip is automatically enriched with tags, summaries, mood, and sensitivity detection. URLs show page titles and content. Images get OCR text extraction.

Tags — AI-Generated Tag Cloud

All tags are generated automatically by AI. Click any tag to filter your clips by topic.

AI Chat — Ask Your Clipboard

Chat with your clipboard history. AI uses semantic search to find relevant clips and generates structured answers with markdown formatting.

Account & Settings

Manage your Claude connection, sync devices, and configure AI behavior.

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Quick Start

Option 1: Claude CLI (zero config, recommended)

1. Download GhostClip from Releases -> open the app
2. That's it -- AI works automatically

GhostClip detects your Claude CLI login and uses it. If you're already logged into Claude Code or Claude CLI, AI features are active immediately -- no setup needed.

Option 2: API Key

1. Download GhostClip -> open the app
2. Go to Account -> API Key -> paste your key from console.anthropic.com
3. Done -- AI features are active

Option 3: Without AI

GhostClip works perfectly fine without AI too -- clipboard history, search, pin, collections, sync all work. AI enrichment (tags, summaries, vision) just won't be available.

All data stays on your machine. You use your own Claude token -- GhostClip never sees your credentials. No telemetry, no tracking, no cloud dependency.

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AI Features

Auto-Enrichment

Every time you copy something, GhostClip's AI analyzes it in the background:

You copy: "Meeting mit dem Team um 14 Uhr wegen Sprint-Planung"

GhostClip adds:
  Tags:     meeting, sprint, team, planung
  Summary:  Team-Meeting um 14 Uhr fuer Sprint-Planung
  Mood:     geschaeftlich
  Sensitivity: low

For URLs, GhostClip fetches the page content first, then enriches with the full context:

You copy: "https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code"

GhostClip fetches the page, then adds:
  Tags:     github, anthropic, claude, cli, development
  Summary:  Claude Code - Anthropic's official CLI for Claude
  Content:  [full page title + description + text stored for search]

Vision & OCR

Copy a screenshot or image -- GhostClip analyzes it with Claude Vision:

You copy: [screenshot of error message]

GhostClip adds:
  Summary:  TypeScript Compilation Error - Property 'x' does not exist on type 'Y'
  OCR:      "error TS2339: Property 'x' does not exist on type 'Y'..."
  Tags:     error, typescript, compilation, bug

AI Transform

Click on any text clip to expand it, then use the transform buttons:

Button	What it does
Kuerzer	Shortens the text to its essence
Formell	Rewrites in professional tone
Locker	Rewrites in casual, friendly tone
EN	Translates to English
DE	Translates to German
Korrektur	Fixes grammar and spelling
Zusammenfassen	Summarizes in 2-3 sentences
Erklaeren	Explains the text/code simply

AI Chat

Ask questions about your entire clipboard history:

• "Was habe ich heute alles kopiert?"
• "Finde alle Links die ich letzte Woche kopiert habe"
• "Was war der Code-Snippet mit dem API-Fehler?"
• "Fasse meine kopierten Notizen vom Meeting zusammen"

The chat uses semantic search to find relevant clips across your entire history, not just recent ones.

Reply Suggestions

When you copy a message (email, chat, etc.), GhostClip detects it and generates 3 reply suggestions in different tones (casual, formal, friendly). Click one to copy it to your clipboard.

Similar Clips

In the expanded clip view, click "Aehnliche Clips finden" to discover semantically related clips. Uses OpenAI embeddings to find clips about the same topic, even if they use different words.

Auto-Learning

GhostClip learns from your usage:

• Consistent tags -- uses the same tag names for the same topics
• Source app awareness -- knows you often copy code from VS Code, messages from Slack
• Reply style -- learns your writing tone from past replies
• User profile -- builds a profile of your top topics, apps, and patterns

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Which AI Models?

Task	Model	Speed	Why
Enrichment (tags, summary, mood)	Claude Haiku 4.5	~1s	Fast -- runs on every single clip
AI Transform (rewrite, translate)	Claude Haiku 4.5	~1s	Fast -- interactive, needs quick response
Chat	Claude Sonnet 4.6	~3s	Smart -- needs conversation context
Reply Suggestions	Claude Sonnet 4.6	~2s	Smart -- needs tone awareness
Vision & OCR	Claude Sonnet 4.6	~3s	Capable -- image understanding + text extraction
Semantic Search	OpenAI text-embedding-3-small	~0.5s	Optional -- only if OpenAI key is set

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Download

Download the latest release for your platform from GitHub Releases.

Platform	File	Notes
Linux (AppImage)	GhostClip-x86_64.AppImage	Works on all distros
Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)	GhostClip-amd64.deb	sudo dpkg -i
macOS (Apple Silicon)	GhostClip-arm64.dmg	Code-signed
macOS (Intel)	GhostClip-x64.dmg	Code-signed
Windows	GhostClip-x64.exe	Installer

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+V	Open Quick Panel (instant clip search & paste)
Ctrl+Shift+R	Reply Suggestions for last copied message
Ctrl+Shift+F	Focus search in clip feed
Ctrl+Shift+P	Pin/unpin current clip
Ctrl+Shift+S	Toggle floating widget

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Self-Hosting

The entire stack is open source. Run everything locally or host your own sync server.

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 22
• pnpm >= 9
• Docker (only for sync server -- PostgreSQL + Redis)

Desktop Only (no server needed)

# Clone & install
git clone https://github.com/lennystepn-hue/ghostclip.git
cd ghostclip && pnpm install

# Run the desktop app in development
cd apps/desktop && pnpm dev

Connect Claude via the Account page in the app. Everything runs locally.

With Sync Server

# 1. Start databases
docker compose up -d   # PostgreSQL 16 + Redis 7

# 2. Configure server
cp apps/server/.env.example apps/server/.env
# Edit .env: set JWT_SECRET, DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL

# 3. Initialize database
cd apps/server && pnpm db:init

# 4. Start everything
pnpm dev   # Starts all apps via Turborepo

Build Installers

# Build all packages first
pnpm build

# Then build platform-specific installers
cd apps/desktop
npx electron-builder --linux AppImage deb
npx electron-builder --mac dmg
npx electron-builder --win nsis

Output goes to apps/desktop/release/.

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
JWT_SECRET	Yes (server)	--	Secret for JWT token signing
DATABASE_URL	Yes (server)	--	PostgreSQL connection string
REDIS_URL	No	redis://localhost:6379	Redis for rate limiting
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	No	--	Alternative to Claude CLI auth
PORT	No	4000	Server port

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Architecture

ghostclip/
+-- apps/
|   +-- desktop/         # Electron 33 + Vite + React 19
|   |   +-- src/main/    # Main process: clipboard watcher, AI, DB, sync
|   |   +-- src/renderer/ # UI: ClipFeed, Chat, Tags, Collections, Settings
|   |   +-- src/preload/  # IPC bridge (50+ methods)
|   |
|   +-- server/          # Express + Socket.io + PostgreSQL
|   |   +-- src/modules/ # Auth, Sync, AI proxy
|   |
|   +-- web/             # Next.js 15 -- Landing page + Web Dashboard
|
+-- packages/
|   +-- shared/          # TypeScript types, Zod validators, constants
|   +-- crypto/          # AES-256-GCM encryption, PBKDF2 key derivation
|   +-- ai-client/       # Claude API: enrich, reply, chat, vision, transform
|   +-- ui/              # Shared React components + Tailwind design system
|
+-- docker/              # Docker Compose for PostgreSQL + Redis
+-- .github/workflows/   # CI: lint, test, multi-platform release builds

Data Flow

  You copy something
        |
        v
  Clipboard Watcher (polls every 500ms)
        |
        +-- Detect type (text / URL / image / code)
        +-- Detect source app (xdotool on Linux)
        +-- Check dedup (content hash)
        +-- Store in local SQLite (WAL mode)
        +-- Fetch URL content if URL (title, text, description)
        |
        v
  AI Enrichment (async, via your Claude token)
        |
        +-- Tags, summary, mood, sensitivity (Haiku 4.5)
        +-- OCR + description for images (Sonnet 4.6)
        +-- Generate embedding for semantic search (OpenAI)
        +-- Check for message -> auto-generate reply suggestions
        +-- Apply clipboard rules (auto-tag, auto-mark)
        |
        v
  Sync to Cloud (optional, if logged in)
        |
        +-- E2E encrypt content (AES-256-GCM)
        +-- Emit via Socket.io to server
        +-- Server relays to other devices
        +-- Conflict resolution (timestamp + enrichment merge)

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Desktop	Electron 33, Vite 6, React 19, better-sqlite3, Tailwind CSS 4
Server	Express 5, Socket.io 4, PostgreSQL 16, Redis 7
AI	Claude API (Haiku 4.5 + Sonnet 4.6) via OAuth or API Key
Search	OpenAI text-embedding-3-small for semantic vector search
Encryption	AES-256-GCM, PBKDF2 (600k iterations), per-user keys
CI/CD	GitHub Actions -- lint, test, build for Linux/Mac/Windows
Monorepo	Turborepo, pnpm workspaces

Security

• Local-first -- all data stored in SQLite on your machine
• Your AI token -- GhostClip uses your own Claude credentials, never stores or proxies them through third parties
• E2E encryption -- sync data is encrypted before leaving your device
• Auto-expire -- sensitive clips (passwords, tokens) are automatically deleted after 5 minutes
• No telemetry -- no analytics, no tracking, no phoning home

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Web Dashboard

GhostClip includes a web dashboard (Next.js) for accessing your clips from any browser. Available at https://app.ghost-clip.com or self-hosted.

Features:

• View and search all synced clips
• AI Chat interface
• Analytics and statistics
• Device management
• Account settings

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Roadmap

We build in public. See what's shipped, what's next, and what's planned:

View the full Roadmap on GitHub Projects →

Phase	Focus	Highlights
v0.5 ✅	AI Core	Auto-enrichment, Vision/OCR, AI Chat, Transform, E2E Sync
v0.6	Polish & Power	Templates, Rules Engine, Command Palette, Pin Board, Daily Digest
v0.7	Intelligence	Work Context Detection, Clipboard Timeline, Predictive Paste, Knowledge Graph
v0.8	Collaboration	Shared Collections, Clip Links, Voice Clips, Multi-Clip Merge
v0.9	Platform	Browser Extension, Mobile App, REST API, Plugin System
v1.0	Launch	Onboarding, Pro Tier, Docs Site, Screenshot-to-Action, Themes

Have an idea? Open an issue or join the discussion.

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Contributing

PRs welcome! GhostClip is fully open source under the MIT license.

# Fork & clone
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USER/ghostclip.git
cd ghostclip && pnpm install

# Create feature branch
git checkout -b feat/my-feature

# Make changes, then test
pnpm turbo test

# Commit & push
git commit -m "feat: add my feature"
git push origin feat/my-feature

Guidelines:

• TypeScript strict mode
• Conventional commits (feat:, fix:, chore:)
• One feature per PR
• Test new features

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License

MIT -- see LICENSE for details.

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