Clipboard settings

Settings›Clipboard holds every option for Goblin's clipboard history, the strip and everything around them. This page goes through the pane from top to bottom. To start using the clipboard, see The clipboard strip.

Most of these settings can follow you to your other Macs with the Clipboard and Shortcuts categories in Settings › iCloud Sync. The ones that never do are noted below.

Turn the clipboard on or off#

1. Open Settings›Clipboard.
2. Turn on the Clipboard switch at the top.
3. A sheet asks Turn on Clipboard? and explains what Goblin will keep. Click Turn On.
4. Press ⇧⌘V to open the strip. Anything you copy from now on is saved.

To turn it off, switch Clipboard off. That takes effect at once, with no question.

While it's off, Goblin doesn't read the clipboard, ask for any permission or take any shortcut, and the settings below wait until it's on. This switch is per Mac: it never syncs.

There's no separate "open at login" for the clipboard. It runs inside Goblin, so Goblin's own Open at login in Settings › General starts it.

General#

Turning on iCloud sync asks Turn on iCloud sync? first; turning it off happens at once. The same switch is in Settings › iCloud Sync. It never syncs itself, so each Mac decides. See Syncing clips between Macs.

Change the clipboard sounds#

1. In Settings›Clipboard›General, make sure Sound effects is on. The four pickers and Volume appear beneath it.
2. Open the picker for the moment you want to change: Copy, Paste, Pin or Delete.
3. Choose a sound, or None for silence. The sound plays as you choose it. The ▶︎ button beside the picker plays it again.
4. Drag Volume to change how loud they all are. Letting go plays the Copy sound at the new level.

To turn every clipboard sound off, switch Sound effects off.

Each picker offers None and 20 sounds in three groups:

• Airy: Feather, Airy Flick, Rising Swish, Chirp Swish, Goblin Flick, Swoosh, Goblin Chirp
• Knocks: Soft Tock, Thump, Goblin Drop, Wood Block
• Chimes and Clicks: Plip, Bubble Pop, Glass Tick, Paper Snap, Marimba, Coin Clink, Soft Click, Two-Note Chime, Gentle Blip

A clipboard sound plays only when all three switches are on: Sound effects here, Sound effects in Settings › General, and Play user interface sound effects in macOS's Sound settings. The ▶︎ previews play whatever the switches say. A quick burst of the same action, such as pinning ten clips at once, makes one sound.

The Paste sound also plays for Pick Color and Screenshot to History, and when you paste from the Copy Queue, with Quick Paste, from a template or a transform. Text expansion has its own quiet sound, set under Snippets below.

Shared pinboards#

This section lists every pinboard you've shared and every one shared with you, each with its color, its name and Shared by you, or who shared it and whether it's view only or you can add and delete.

With nothing shared it says how to start: choose Share Pinboard… from a pinboard's tab menu, or open an invitation someone sent you. Below the list are a status line for shared pinboards and the three most recent changes. See Shared pinboards.

Paste Items#

Choose where a chosen clip goes#

1. In Settings›Clipboard, find the Paste Items section.
2. Choose To active app to paste a clip straight into the app you are using when you pick it, or To clipboard to only put it on the clipboard so you can paste it yourself with ⌘V.
3. If a red ! appears with Allow Accessibility…, click that button and allow Goblin in System Settings. Until you do, clips are only copied.

Pasting into another app needs Accessibility access. With To active app chosen and no access yet, a red ! appears with Allow Accessibility…; until you allow it, clips are only copied. See The clipboard strip.

Keep History#

Change how long history is kept#

1. In Settings›Clipboard, find the Keep History section.
2. Drag the slider, or click a label under it: Day, Week, Month, Year or Forever.
3. If the new setting is shorter than the old one and some clips are older than it, Goblin asks Delete older items? and says how many. Click the Delete … Items button (it shows the count) to go ahead, or Cancel to keep the old setting. Those clips are deleted for good.

Change how long the Trash keeps clips#

Open the Empty Trash automatically menu in the same section and choose After 7 days, After 30 days, After 60 days, After 90 days or Never.

Erase the history#

1. In the Keep History section, click Erase History….
2. Read the question, then click Erase History. Every clip that isn't in a pinboard moves to the Trash, and the pinboards stay as they are.

To bring clips back, open the Trash in the strip and choose Put Back before it empties.

Clips in pinboards are never removed by Keep History. Shortening it asks Delete older items? and says how many clips go; those are deleted for good, not moved to the Trash. Clips that age out, and secrets when their time is up, skip the Trash too. Erase History… asks first; erased clips can be put back from the Trash until it empties. See Pinboards and the Trash.

Moving Pinboards#

See Importing and exporting pinboards.

Intelligence#

Allow Screen Access needs Screen Recording permission; turning it on walks you through it. If the permission is missing, a red ! and Set Up… appear. It's per Mac and never syncs. See Apple Intelligence and suggestions.

Spotlight#

To find clips from Spotlight, open Settings›Clipboard, find the Spotlight section and turn on Find clips in Spotlight. Turn it off to remove everything Goblin added.

Turning it off removes everything Goblin added. While Encrypt clipboard history on this Mac is on, nothing is added. Per Mac. See Clipboard privacy.

MCP & AI tools#

This works together with Let AI assistants ask about this Mac in the AI Assistants card of Settings › Projects: both must be on. Per Mac. See AI assistants.

Privacy#

These are covered in full in Clipboard privacy.

Encryption#

A line below shows progress while Goblin encrypts or decrypts your history, then On: history is encrypted. It costs a moment at startup and a little memory; the note beside the switch gives the figures. Clips still sync to iCloud, which encrypts them itself. Per Mac. See Clipboard privacy.

Locked pinboards#

Sleep and locking the screen always lock them. See Locked pinboards.

Apps#

A rule for each app whose copies you want treated differently. Each row has a picker:

Click + to add an app, from Choose Application… or from a short list of apps already in your history; new rows start as Don't save. Select a row and click − to remove it. Out of the box, Keychain Access, Passwords, 1Password and Bitwarden are set to Don't save. See Clipboard privacy.

With clipboard iCloud sync on, choosing a Keep time asks whether its deletions should apply to This Mac Only (the default) or All My Macs. Each timed rule also has a scope picker. All-Macs deletions wait safely while offline and sync on reconnect; pinned clips stay. See Clipboard privacy.

Shortcuts#

Change a shortcut#

1. Open Settings›Clipboard and scroll to the Shortcuts section.
2. Click the shortcut you want to change, such as Show Clipboard. It waits for a key combination.
3. Press the new combination. It must include ⌘, ⌃ or ⌥.

Esc cancels and leaves the old one. Delete or the × beside it turns the shortcut off. If another app already holds the combination, Goblin says In use by another app. The global shortcuts only work while Clipboard is on.

If another clipboard manager is running, it may hold the same two shortcuts. Goblin then names it and tells you to quit it or choose other combinations.

Capture#

If two actions share a combination, only one of them works; their notes turn red and Goblin asks you to choose different ones. See Paste tools.

In the strip#

To change which key you hold for Quick Paste or Plain Text mode, open Settings›Clipboard›Shortcuts and pick a key from the Quick Paste or Plain Text mode menu. Hold the Quick Paste key and press 1 to 9 to paste that card.

The two pinboard keys can't be changed. Quick Paste and Plain Text mode need different keys; if they match, Goblin warns you in red.

Reset the shortcuts#

1. At the bottom of the Shortcuts section, click Reset shortcuts to default….
2. Click Reset Shortcuts to confirm.

Every shortcut in this section goes back as it came: the two main shortcuts, the Quick Paste and Plain Text keys, and the four Capture shortcuts, with Float Last Clip off again.

Pick Color's magnifier#

Under the Capture shortcuts, the Pick Color section sets how the color picker looks and what it writes (its magnifier, Copy as format, Magnification, Focus key, grid, Color space, decimal places and contrast line). Every option is described in Paste tools.

Transform, Colors and Combine#

⌥⌘T opens Transform, ⌘J combines the selected clips into one, and ⌘D floats a clip above your other windows. See Transforms and color formats.

Snippets#

In Everywhere except these apps mode, Terminal-like apps you have installed each get an Allow in switch, off by default. The Triggers list at the bottom shows every clip with a trigger, where you can change one, remove it, or give it its own expand, case and delimiter settings. See Snippets.

Ask the Goblin to change a setting#

The Goblin can change some of these for you. Click Talk to Goblin in the main window toolbar and type a request:

Asking never changes anything on its own. A review window opens in Goblin and lists exactly what will change; nothing happens until you confirm, and Cancel closes it. Changing your history or settings while a review is open cancels it. Keys, passwords and clip contents are never part of these requests. The privacy requests are covered in Clipboard privacy.