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Octane Writing May 5, 2026

Glyphs: the open-source clipboard manager I built for myself.

A free, open-source clipboard manager for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Why I built it, why I almost didn’t share it, and what’s inside.

By Delbin George May 5, 2026

Why does a clipboard manager cost $30?

That was the question that started this whole thing. I’d just switched from Fedora to a MacBook, and I needed a clipboard with history. Most of the good options were paid. Some wanted a subscription. For an app that remembers strings.

So I built my own. It sat on my laptop for three months as a private tool, then accidentally turned into an open-source project after my colleagues saw it on my screen. This post is the story of how Glyphs got made, what’s in it, and why you might want to either use it or contribute to it.

The clipboard problem nobody talks about

macOS gives you exactly one clipboard slot. Copy something, it replaces what was there, and the previous thing is gone. That’s fine if you’re writing an essay. It’s miserable if you’re a developer juggling API keys, terminal commands, and Slack messages.

I spent a week trying every clipboard manager on the App Store. Some were great but expensive. Some were free but felt like Windows XP shareware. Nothing fit. I closed the last tab, opened my editor, and started a new project.

Building it for an audience of one

I already knew React from work, so the first version came together fast. Persistent history for text and images. Fuzzy search. Pinning. A QR code button for snippets I wanted to send to my phone (because emailing yourself a Wi-Fi password is humiliating). I also wired up vim-style J/K keybindings for navigation, partly because I was the only user and I’m a vim person, and partly because if I ever shared it, the kind of people who’d actually want a clipboard manager would expect them.

Then I just used it. For three months.

I didn’t think anyone else would want it. Honestly, I’d never heard a single person around me complain about their clipboard. Except the Linux folks. And Linux folks complain about everything (lovingly).

That’s the thing about pain points you’ve adapted to. Most people don’t realize how broken something is until they see the alternative running on someone else’s screen.

The accidental launch

One morning I brought my MacBook to the office to demo something else entirely. During a screen share, I opened Glyphs to grab a snippet I’d copied earlier.

Three people watching went quiet.

“Wait. What is that?”

One was on Linux. One on Mac. One was juggling Windows and Linux daily. All three had the same complaint, which they hadn’t realized was a complaint until they saw a tool that fixed it. The Mac guy asked if I could group snippets by context: work links in one place, code blocks in another. That suggestion is what became the Groups feature.

A week later, in an Octane team meeting, my colleague Ashwin mentioned wanting the exact same thing. Then a client asked about it on a call. Unprompted. His ask had a twist though: keep it small. His MacBook storage was already maxed out, and a heavyweight install was a non-starter. “Tell me when it’s ready, but make it tiny.”

So I made the repo public, wrote a proper readme, picked an MIT license, and pushed Glyphs to GitHub.

What’s actually inside Glyphs

Glyphs is keyboard-first. The whole point is that you never have to touch your trackpad.

Hit ⌘B (or Ctrl+B on Windows/Linux), and the window appears. Search with ⌘K. Move with arrow keys or J/K (yes, vim-style works, that’s there from day one). Hit Enter to paste. That’s the loop.

Beyond that, here’s what you get:

  • Persistent history for text and images, kept across restarts so a reboot doesn’t wipe your day
  • Pinning so important snippets never get auto-pruned, no matter your history limit
  • Groups with custom icons from a 35-icon library, so you can file work links separately from code blocks
  • Fuzzy search across everything you’ve ever copied, even from last Tuesday
  • ⌘1 through ⌘9 to instantly paste any of the top nine items without scrolling
  • QR code generation for any text snippet, scan-it-with-your-phone style
  • Customizable global shortcut so ⌘B isn’t forced on you if you’ve already mapped it
  • System tray support with no dock icon clutter on macOS
  • Light, dark, and system themes because of course
  • Cross-platform: Mac, Windows, Linux from one codebase

No telemetry. No accounts. No cloud sync. Your clipboard never leaves your machine.

Myth vs. reality on clipboard managers

Myth: “Clipboard managers are a power-user thing. I don’t need one.”

Reality: If you’ve ever copied something, accidentally copied something else right after, and felt that small spike of panic when you realized the first thing was gone, you need a clipboard manager. You just didn’t know there was a fix. Most people who try one for a week refuse to go back, including the ones who said they didn’t need it.

That’s basically the entire conversion funnel for this category.

How Glyphs stays under 5MB (the part I’m proud of)

Quick aside, since this is the question developers always ask, and since the small-size constraint came directly from the client whose Mac storage couldn’t afford another bloated app.

Most clipboard managers built with web tech ship at 150MB to 300MB because they bundle Chromium and Node.js. Glyphs doesn’t. The frontend is React 18 with Zustand and Tailwind v4, but the shell is Tauri 2 instead of Electron. The backend is Rust, using crates like arboard for clipboard read/write, clipboard-master for the watcher, and tauri-plugin-global-shortcut for the system-wide hotkey.

Final install size: under 5 megabytes. That’s smaller than most desktop wallpapers.

For a utility you’ll open fifty times a day, install size matters more than people admit.

Why open-source, and how you can jump in

I could’ve kept Glyphs private. Or sold it. The maths even works out: clipboard managers charge $20 to $30, the audience is huge, and there’s clearly demand.

But two things stopped me. First, I genuinely don’t believe a clipboard manager should cost money. It’s a basic utility, like a calculator or a screenshot tool. Second, the suggestions from my colleagues that day in the office made the app meaningfully better. The Groups feature exists because someone leaned over my shoulder. That kind of feedback compounds when a project is open.

So Glyphs is MIT licensed and will stay that way.

If you’re a developer or a student looking for an open-source project to contribute to, the codebase is small enough to read in one sitting. React + Tauri + Rust. No monorepo, no microservices, no Kubernetes drama. The repo is at github.com/builtbyoctane/glyphs — look for the good first issue label, or pick something from the open areas in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Common contribution starting points:

  • New icons for the Groups library
  • Theme variations beyond the default light/dark
  • Platform-specific bug fixes (especially on Linux distros I haven’t tested)
  • Localization for non-English UI text
  • Tests, documentation, accessibility improvements

Your move

If you copy and paste a lot (which most of us do), Glyphs will probably make your day a little less annoying. Free, open-source, under 5MB, no signup — download it from glyphs.octane.team.

If you’ve been looking for an open-source project where you can ship a meaningful PR in a weekend, the repo is wide open and the issues list is fresh.

What’s the one feature you’ve always wanted from a clipboard manager that nothing on the market has? Drop it in a GitHub issue. I’ll probably build it.