Flycut: a Mac and iOS clipboard history manager for developers

The problem Flycut solves, and who it is aimed at

A system clipboard holds one item. Copy a second piece of code and the first is gone. Flycut keeps a history instead. The README describes the behaviour directly: every time you copy a code piece on the Mac, Flycut stores it in history, and you can paste it later with Shift-Command-V even when the clipboard holds something else. The project describes itself as developed by developers for developers, and the framing is honest about the audience. This is not a general productivity tool for pasting addresses and screenshots. It is a small buffer for people who copy identifiers, snippets and command lines all day and need the previous one back.

Flycut is based on an open source app called Jumpcut, which the README states plainly. That lineage explains both the shape of the app and the Objective-C codebase: the top level of the repository holds AppController.m, FlycutOperator.m, FlycutEngine/ and SGHotKeysLib/, which is the pattern of a menu bar application built on older Cocoa conventions rather than a modern Swift project. The iOS side is separate, under Flycut-iOS/, with its own bridging header and test targets.

How the history works on Mac and on iOS

The Mac and iOS versions do not share a capture mechanism, and the README is explicit about the difference. On the Mac, capture happens continuously in the background: copy something and it lands in history without any further action. On iOS, every time you open Flycut it checks for a new clipping and stores it. That is a constraint imposed by the platform, not a design preference. iOS does not give a third-party app the same background clipboard access, so the iOS app can only sample the clipboard when it is in the foreground.

Pasting differs in the same way. On the Mac, Shift-Command-V recalls an entry, and the README notes you can change the hotkey and other settings in preferences. On iOS, you tap an item in the history list to place it on the clipboard. There is one extra behaviour worth knowing: the README states you can swipe web links in the history to open them without placing them on the clipboard. That is a small but deliberate distinction between reading a link and reusing it.

The repository layout suggests where the pieces live. FlycutEngine/ holds the history model, AppController.m and FlycutOperator.m handle application behaviour, SGHotKeysLib/ and ShortcutRecorder/ cover the global hotkey, and MJCloudKitUserDefaultsSync/ points at CloudKit-backed preference or history synchronisation. The README does not document how that sync behaves across devices, so treat it as an implementation detail visible in the source tree rather than a documented feature.

Installing Flycut and pasting your first old snippet

Flycut is distributed as a signed application, not as a package you build from source for normal use. The README gives two routes on the Mac. Download it from the Mac App Store, or download the latest DRM-Free version from the releases page. On iOS it is on the App Store as well.

The version split matters. The README says that for OSX 10.13 and older you should use the DRM-Free version, and that for OSX 10.14 and later either the App Store or the DRM-Free version works. If you are on 10.14 or later, the README adds a step that people miss:

# System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy -> Accessibility
# enable Flycut in the list

If a previous version of Flycut was installed, the README warns that you might need to remove it from Accessibility first and add it again. Skipping that step is the usual reason the hotkey appears to do nothing after an upgrade.

Once it is running, the first real use is a two-step test. Copy a line of text in any editor, copy a second, different line, then press Shift-Command-V. You should get a history list rather than the most recent copy, and selecting the earlier entry pastes it. If you want a different key combination, open preferences and change the hotkey there. The README points to two help files for the rest of the settings: help.md for the Mac and help.iOS.md for the iOS app.

Where Flycut is the wrong tool

The clearest limitation is platform. The README documents a Mac application and an iOS application. There is no Windows or Linux build mentioned anywhere in the install section, and the repository is an Xcode project with Objective-C sources, iOS test targets and macOS entitlements files. If your team is not on Apple hardware, Flycut is not a candidate at all.

The second limitation is release cadence. The most recent release listed is 1.9.6 on 2020-12-22, with 1.9.4 and 1.9.3 in January 2020. The repository has been pushed to more recently, on 2026-08-07, and it is not archived, but the release history shows that shipped versions are years apart. Anyone who needs a documented upgrade path or a predictable fix schedule should read that gap as a risk rather than assume the app is being actively developed.

The third limitation is scope. Flycut stores what you copy. The README does not describe encryption, a retention limit, an exclusion list for password managers, or any handling of sensitive clipboard content. For a tool that captures everything you copy by default, the documentation is silent on those points, and that silence is the thing to weigh if you copy credentials or customer data. There is also no documented CLI or scripting interface, so it cannot be driven from a build script.

Flycut versus Maccy, CopyClip and Jumpcut

The obvious comparison is with Jumpcut, because Flycut is a fork of it. The README says Flycut is based on Jumpcut and that the project is maintained separately, with its own releases, its own App Store listings and an added iOS app. Choosing between them is largely a question of which fork you want to track, since the core idea (a scrollable clipboard history behind a hotkey) is shared.

Maccy and CopyClip are the other names people search alongside Flycut. They occupy the same slot on macOS: a menu bar clipboard history. The meaningful difference to check before switching is not the feature list but the release history and the macOS version support, because a clipboard manager that stops working after an OS upgrade is worse than no clipboard manager. Flycut's own documentation is the place to confirm its requirements, and the README's 10.13 and 10.14 split is the concrete detail to compare against whatever the alternative states for its own minimum version.

Licence and the cost of keeping it running

Flycut is MIT licensed. The repository carries a license.txt and the README states the licence as MIT. In practical terms that permits use, modification and redistribution with the licence and copyright notice retained, which is why a DRM-Free build exists alongside the App Store version. This is a description of the licence text, not legal advice; if you plan to redistribute a modified build, read license.txt and acknowledgements.txt, since the latter lists third-party components bundled into the app.

Upgrade cost is where the project asks something of you. There is no package manager entry described in the README, so updates arrive through the App Store or by downloading a new DRM-Free build from the releases page. The Accessibility permission is the recurring friction: the README warns that after installing over an older version you may have to remove Flycut from the Accessibility list and add it again. Budget for that on every upgrade, and check CHANGELOG.md and appStoreReleases.txt in the repository before replacing a working install.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Flycut if you write code on a Mac and want a small, MIT-licensed history buffer bound to Shift-Command-V, and you accept that the newest release is 1.9.6 from 2020-12-22 while the repository still receives pushes. Do not adopt it if you need Windows or Linux, or a clipboard manager with a maintained release cadence. Before installing, confirm your macOS version against the README's split at 10.13 and 10.14, and check the help.md file for the hotkey and preference options.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. README
4. Releases
5. TermiT/Flycut on GitHub