ClipHive

A privacy-first, encrypted clipboard history manager for Windows — built natively in WPF/C# with zero telemetry and zero runtime dependencies (standalone build).

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Features

Core

• Instant recall — Press Ctrl + Shift + V (configurable) to open your clipboard history
• Single-click paste — Click any item to copy it back and close the sidebar immediately
• Live search — Type to filter history in real time; searches both text content and OCR-extracted image text
• Keyboard navigation — ↑/↓ to navigate, Enter to paste, Delete to remove, Escape to dismiss
• Per-item delete — Click the × button on any item to remove it instantly
• Pin items — Click the pin icon (📌) on any item to keep it permanently at the top of the list; click again to unpin
• Auto-clear — Optional automatic history purge: 2 hours, 3 days, 15 days, 1 month, or never
• Duplicate prevention — Copying the same content twice bumps it to the top instead of creating a duplicate (SHA-256 hash check, no decryption overhead)

Smart Contextual Actions

Each clipboard item detects its content type and surfaces instant actions:

• URLs — "Open ↗" button launches the link in your browser
• File paths — "Show in Explorer" reveals the file/folder in Windows Explorer
• Hex colour codes — Live colour swatch renders the exact colour inline (#RRGGBB)

Image Support

• Image thumbnails — Screenshots and copied images appear as visual previews in the list
• Offline OCR — Windows' built-in OCR engine (Windows.Media.Ocr) silently extracts text from images in the background; images are fully searchable by their text content without any cloud service or network call

Code Viewer

• Clipboard items detected as code show a "⌄ view" button
• Clicking it opens an inline monospace panel (scrollable, read-only)
• C#, Python, JavaScript, and SQL are auto-detected

Paste as Plain Text

• Ctrl + Alt + V (configurable) strips all RTF/HTML rich formatting and pastes raw text
• Useful when copying from Word, browsers, or design tools and pasting into code editors or plain text fields

Security & Privacy

• AES-256-GCM encryption at rest — all history rows are encrypted; the database contains only base64 ciphertext
• DPAPI-protected key — encryption key generated once, protected by Windows DPAPI (user scope), stored at %LOCALAPPDATA%\ClipHive\key.dat; key never leaves your machine or your Windows account
• Zero network calls — netstat -an while running shows no outbound connections, ever
• Machine-bound data — copying the database to another machine fails to decrypt (DPAPI user-scope isolation)

Windows Integration

• System tray — lives quietly in your notification area; double-click or press the hotkey to open
• Start with Windows — optional registry entry for automatic startup (configurable)
• Windows 11 Acrylic backdrop — native Desktop Acrylic glass effect on Windows 11 Build 22000+ via DwmSetWindowAttribute; falls back to the dark translucent theme on Windows 10 gracefully
• High-DPI — all icons use native Segoe MDL2 Assets glyphs; crisp at any DPI/scale

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Usage

Action	How
Open history	Ctrl + Shift + V or double-click tray icon
Paste an item	Single-click it (copies + closes)
Navigate items	↑ / ↓ arrow keys
Paste selected	Enter
Delete item	Delete key or click the × button on the item
Pin / unpin item	Click the 📌 icon on any item
Paste as plain text	Ctrl + Alt + V
Close sidebar	Escape or click elsewhere
Settings	Right-click tray icon → Settings

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Why ClipHive Is Not a Maccy Clone

Maccy is a great macOS app — but ClipHive is a separate, Windows-native product built from scratch in C#/WPF. The comparison is worth reading because ClipHive goes further in almost every dimension:

Capability	ClipHive	Maccy
Platform	Windows 10 / 11 (native WPF)	macOS only
Encryption at rest	AES-256-GCM, DPAPI-protected key	None — plain SQLite
Image OCR search	Yes — offline, via Windows.Media.Ocr	No
Contextual actions	URL open, file reveal, hex colour swatch	No
Paste as plain text	Yes (Ctrl+Alt+V)	Yes
Duplicate deduplication	SHA-256 hash check (no decryption cost)	Yes
Pin items	Yes	Yes
Windows 11 Acrylic glass	Native DwmSetWindowAttribute	n/a
Machine-bound encryption	Yes (DPAPI user scope)	n/a
Zero network calls	Verifiable via netstat	Yes
Code viewer	Inline monospace panel, auto language detect	No
Runtime requirement	Standalone: none bundled; Installer: .NET 8	macOS built-in
Open source	MIT	MIT

The key differences:

1. Privacy: Maccy stores clipboard history as plaintext in SQLite. ClipHive stores everything as AES-256-GCM ciphertext. If someone copies your database, they get ciphertext — not your passwords, tokens, or sensitive text.

2. Image intelligence: ClipHive runs Windows' built-in OCR on every image you copy. Screenshot of an error message? Search for the error text and find the screenshot. No API key, no cloud service.

3. Platform-native: ClipHive is not a port, wrapper, or Electron app. It is a WPF application that uses Windows-specific APIs throughout — DwmSetWindowAttribute for Acrylic, Windows.Media.Ocr for image text, ProtectedData (DPAPI) for key storage, Win32 SendInput for paste simulation, WM_NCACTIVATE for focus tracking. Every feature is implemented at the platform level, not over a cross-platform abstraction.

4. Windows-native stack: ClipHive uses Windows.Media.Ocr, ProtectedData (DPAPI), Win32 SendInput, DwmSetWindowAttribute, and WM_NCACTIVATE — every feature is implemented at the platform level, not over a cross-platform abstraction layer. The result is tight OS integration that a port or Electron wrapper cannot match.

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Privacy Guarantee

Everything stays on your machine — no cloud, no sync, no accounts.

• Zero network activity — ClipHive makes no outbound connections while running. No telemetry, no update pings, nothing.
• Fully encrypted — All clipboard history is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before being saved. The raw text is never written to disk as plaintext.
• Device-bound — The encryption key is protected by Windows and is tied to your user account on this machine. Copying the data to another device cannot decrypt it.
• Offline-only OCR — Image text extraction uses Windows' built-in OCR engine. No image data is sent anywhere.

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Installation

Option A — Installer (~20 MB)

Download ClipHive-1.3.2-Setup.exe from the latest release.

Requires the .NET 8 Windows Desktop Runtime. The installer detects this automatically and offers to open the download page if it's missing.

Option B — Standalone EXE (~90 MB)

Download ClipHive-1.3.2-Standalone.exe. No installer, no .NET required — the runtime is bundled and compressed inside the EXE. Just run it.

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Building from Source

Prerequisites

Requirement	Version	Download
.NET 8 SDK	8.0.x	https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/8
Windows	10 1809+ / 11	—
Inno Setup 6 (installer only)	6.x	https://jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

dotnet --version   # must print 8.x.x

Step 1 — Clone and restore

git clone https://github.com/levitasOrg/cliphive.git
cd ClipHive
dotnet restore

Step 2 — Run tests

dotnet test --configuration Release

Step 3A — Publish standalone EXE

dotnet publish src/ClipHive/ClipHive.csproj `
  -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true `
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true `
  -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true `
  -p:PublishReadyToRun=false `
  -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true `
  -o dist/standalone

Output: dist/standalone/ClipHive.exe (~90 MB, fully self-contained, no .NET required)

Step 3B — Publish installer payload

dotnet publish src/ClipHive/ClipHive.csproj `
  -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained false `
  -o dist/release

Then build the installer:

& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" installer\ClipHive.iss

Output: dist/ClipHive-1.3.2-Setup.exe (~20 MB, requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime)

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Common Build Failures

dotnet: command not found or 'dotnet' is not recognized

Fix:

# Add .NET to PATH if installed but not found:
$env:PATH += ";C:\Program Files\dotnet"
dotnet --version

NETSDK1045: The current .NET SDK does not support targeting .NET 8

Fix: Install .NET 8 SDK from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/8

error NU1301: Unable to load the service index (NuGet failure)

Fix:

dotnet nuget locals all --clear
dotnet restore

LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'ClipHive.exe' (file locked)

Fix:

Stop-Process -Name "ClipHive" -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException at runtime

Cause: Database was written with an old key (from versions before 1.2.0 which changed how keys are derived).

Fix: Delete the history database — your encryption key file is fine and doesn't need to change. The app will create a fresh database on next launch. (No clipboard history is recoverable from an incompatible database, so there is nothing lost by deleting it.)

Windows Defender flags the EXE

Cause: Unsigned EXEs that simulate keyboard input and hook the clipboard match AV heuristics.

Mitigations already in place: EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true (standalone) avoids the TEMP-extraction pattern; IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true bundles natives without a second extraction step.

If Defender still flags it:

1. Submit to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/filesubmission (false positive report)
2. Add a Windows Security exclusion for the EXE path
3. Sign the EXE with a code-signing certificate (removes virtually all AV false positives)

Installer says .NET 8 is missing even though it's installed

The installer checks multiple locations (standard system path, C:\Program Files\dotnet, per-user install path, and registry). If all checks fail despite .NET being present, click "Yes — continue anyway" in the prompt. The app will launch normally.

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Project Structure

ClipHive/
├── src/ClipHive/
│   ├── Models/            # ClipboardItem, AppSettings
│   ├── Services/          # ClipboardMonitor, StorageService, HotkeyService,
│   │                      #   PasteService, OcrService, EncryptionService
│   ├── ViewModels/        # SidebarViewModel, SettingsViewModel
│   ├── Views/             # SidebarWindow.xaml, SettingsWindow.xaml
│   ├── Resources/         # Styles.xaml (dark theme)
│   └── Helpers/           # Win32.cs (P/Invoke: DWM, SendInput, HWND hooks)
├── tests/ClipHive.Tests/  # xUnit test suite
├── installer/ClipHive.iss # Inno Setup 6 script
├── assets/icon/           # ClipHive.ico (16–256 px multi-size)
└── dist/                  # Build output (gitignored)

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License

MIT — Copyright © 2026 ClipHive Contributors