ClipIt

AI-Powered Clipboard Manager for Windows

Never lose your clipboard history again. Search it with AI.

Features • Demo • Installation • Usage • Architecture • Support

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Demo

Watch on YouTube

▶️ Watch Full Demo on YouTube

See ClipIt in action with AI-powered clipboard management and smart text retrieval.

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Features

Clipboard Monitoring Automatically captures all text and images you copy, creating a searchable history that never forgets.	AI-Powered Search Ask natural language questions about your clipboard history using local AI (Llama-3.2-1B). Press Alt+X to start!
Smart Tagging Automatically organizes clipboard items with semantic tags for easy categorization and retrieval.	OCR Support Extract text from anywhere on your screen with Alt+V using powerful Tesseract OCR engine.
Floating Assistant Adorable dog animation provides visual feedback and makes clipboard management delightful.	Global Hotkeys Quick access from any application with customizable keyboard shortcuts.
Persistent Storage SQLite database keeps your clipboard history safe, searchable, and available even after restarts.

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Installation

Prerequisites

Operating System Windows 10 or Windows 11

Python Python 3.8 or higher

Tesseract OCR For screen text extraction

Step 1: Install Tesseract OCR

1. Download Tesseract from: UB-Mannheim/tesseract
2. Install to default location or add to PATH

Step 2: Install ClipIt

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nihalnihalani/Clipit.git
cd Clipit

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the application
python -m clipit.main

Quick Start (Windows)

Double-click run.bat to launch ClipIt with a single click!

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Usage

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action	Description
Alt+X	Ask AI	Press once to start typing your question, press again to get an AI-generated answer
Alt+V	OCR Capture	Extract text from current screen using OCR technology
Alt+S	Show Suggestions	Display clipboard suggestions based on context
ESC	Dismiss	Hide the floating dog assistant

AI Search Workflow

Example Flow:

1. Press Alt+X - Floating dog appears with "Clipit is listening..."
2. Type your question - e.g., "what was that tracking number?"
3. Press Alt+X again - To stop and process
4. AI searches - ClipIt searches your clipboard history
5. Answer appears - The answer replaces your question automatically

Example Questions

💡 "what was that email address?"
💡 "tracking number"
💡 "the code snippet from earlier"
💡 "paste image 2" (pastes the 2nd most recent image)
💡 "show me the link I copied yesterday"
💡 "find that API key"

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Architecture

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology	Purpose
UI Framework		Modern, responsive user interface
AI Model		Local AI inference for privacy
Database		Efficient data storage and retrieval
Clipboard API		Windows clipboard integration
Hotkey System		Global keyboard shortcuts
OCR Engine		Text extraction from images

Project Structure

Clipit/
├── 📦 clipit/                  # Main application package
│   ├── 🚀 main.py              # Application entry point
│   ├── 🎨 ui/                  # User interface components
│   │   ├── floating_clippy.py  # Clippy assistant
│   │   ├── floating_dog.py     # Dog animation
│   │   ├── main_window.py      # Main application window
│   │   └── suggestions.py      # Suggestion system
│   ├── ⚙️ services/            # Core services
│   │   ├── ai_service.py       # AI integration
│   │   ├── clipboard_monitor.py # Clipboard tracking
│   │   ├── hotkey_manager.py   # Keyboard shortcuts
│   │   ├── ocr_service.py      # OCR functionality
│   │   └── text_capture.py     # Text capture system
│   ├── 💾 models/              # Database models
│   │   ├── database.py         # Database connection
│   │   └── item.py             # Data models
│   └── 🔧 utils/               # Utilities
├── 📋 requirements.txt         # Python dependencies
├── 🧪 test_clipit.py          # Test suite
├── 🪟 run.bat                 # Windows launcher
├── 📚 ARCHITECTURE.md         # Detailed architecture docs
├── 📖 README.md               # This file
└── 🔧 TROUBLESHOOTING.md      # Common issues & solutions

For detailed architecture diagrams and technical documentation, see ARCHITECTURE.md.

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Configuration

ClipIt stores data in your Windows AppData folder:

%APPDATA%/Clipit/
├── clipit.db           # SQLite database
└── images/             # Copied images

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Testing

ClipIt includes a comprehensive test suite to ensure reliability.

# Run all tests
python test_clipit.py

See TESTING.md for comprehensive testing procedures.

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Known Limitations

AI Model Size Llama-3.2-1B is relatively small Complex queries may not work perfectly Trade-off for fast local inference	Image Analysis Limited image understanding Uses separate vision model if available Primarily focused on text content
OCR Quality Depends on screen content clarity Affected by font sizes and styles Tesseract configuration matters	Antivirus Software May flag keyboard hooks False positive detection possible Add exception if needed

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Troubleshooting

Having issues? Check out our comprehensive troubleshooting guide:

TROUBLESHOOTING.md

Common issues include:

• Tesseract OCR not found
• Keyboard shortcuts not working
• AI model loading errors
• Antivirus blocking hotkeys

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! We'd love your help to make ClipIt even better.

Ways to Contribute:

Report Bugs	Request Features	Submit PRs	Improve Docs
Open Issue	Feature Request	Pull Request	Edit Docs

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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Acknowledgments

ClipIt wouldn't be possible without these amazing projects:

Project	Purpose
Meta Llama-3.2	Local AI language model
Tesseract OCR	Optical character recognition
PyQt5	Cross-platform GUI framework
PastePup	Original macOS/Swift inspiration

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Star History

If you find ClipIt useful, please consider giving it a star!

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