Why I built Pesto Clipboard

A couple weekend ago, I decided to build a simple clipboard manager, heavily inspired by Copy ‘Em.

I’ve used Copy ‘Em Paste for years, but wanted something more barebones.

The parts that were most important to me:

No syncing between devices
Open source
Easy to install via Homebrew
Completely free clipboard manager I can recommend to coworkers
Lightweight and minimal
Improved / stripped down UX from what I was already used to with Copy ‘Em

Claude Code helped tremendously get up and running quickly. It’s been wild seeing how fast these tools are getting in the past year. I had not used LLM-assisted coding tools before 2025, and now I can’t imagine going back. I started with GitHub Copilot at my day-job, but Claude Code has been a game-changer at home.

It has taken some of the fun out of programming for me, but I do enjoy the satisfaction of building a lot faster than I could before. There are definitely pros and cons to this new way of building software, but it has been a net positive to me so far.

There are just so many projects I wouldn’t typically have the energy to build, but now I feel like I can go from zero to about 70-80% complete in a single weekend.

I was able to get a working prototype in just a few hours, and then spent the rest of the weekend dialing in the ux to be exactly what I wanted.

Overall, I ended up with something that was the best of both worlds:

Familiar UX from Copy ‘Em
Open source aspect of Maccy Clipboard

I’ve been daily-driving Pesto Clipboard ever since that first weekend claude code session, and it’s been fantastic. If you’re looking for a simple clipboard manager for macOS, give it a try!

You can find the project at https://pestoclipboard.com or on github at https://github.com/matthewpick/pesto-clipboard.