by prtk12 | 2025-09-24 05:32:36+00:00
Getting Started First things first, you need Python installed. If you're on a Mac, you probably already have it. Then:

pip install clipdrop

That's the whole installation.

Now try this. Copy this text you're reading right now. Go to your terminal and type:

clipdrop test

Check your current directory. There's now a file called test.txt with this text in it. No dialogs, no questions, just... done.

The Basics You'll Use Every Day Just Save It The simplest use case - you've got something in your clipboard, you want it in a file:

clipdrop notes # Creates notes.txt (or .md, .json - it figures it out) clipdrop report.pdf # Yep, makes PDFs too clipdrop screenshot.png # After taking a screenshot

Building Documents Throughout the Day This is where it gets good. You're collecting stuff all day? Use append mode:

clipdrop journal.md -a

Every time you run that, it adds to the file with a nice separator. Perfect for daily notes, research collection, whatever. I use this constantly for meeting notes - copy something important, clipdrop meeting.md -a, keep going.

Preview Before You Commit Not sure what's in your clipboard? Or want to see how it'll look?

clipdrop something.txt -p

Shows you what it's about to save. Simple but super handy when you're not sure what you last copied.

The Smart Stuff That Just Works Format Detection Here's something neat - ClipDrop actually looks at what you copied and figures out the right format. Copy some JSON? Type clipdrop data and it saves as data.json. Markdown with headers and lists? Becomes .md automatically.

It's not perfect, but it's right like 90% of the time. And when it's not sure, it just goes with .txt which is fine.

Audio Transcription (This Is Wild) Okay, this one's actually cool. If you're on macOS 15.4 or later, ClipDrop can transcribe audio files using Apple's on-device AI. Record something on your iPhone, AirDrop it to your Mac, copy the file, then:

clipdrop

It automatically detects it's audio and creates a transcript with timestamps. Completely offline, nothing goes to any server. Your meeting stays your meeting.

Want it as plain text instead of SRT format?

clipdrop notes.txt

The transcription happens in real-time too - you see the words appearing as it processes. Kind of mesmerizing honestly.

YouTube Transcripts Need to grab a transcript from a YouTube video? Copy the URL, then:

clipdrop -yt

That's it. Downloads the whole transcript. You can specify language too:

clipdrop -yt lecture.md --lang es # Spanish

Super useful for research, taking notes on tutorials, whatever. Beats trying to manually transcribe videos.

The Paranoid Mode That Saved My Bacon True story - I once almost saved an AWS key to a shared folder. Would've been... not great. So ClipDrop now has secret scanning:

clipdrop config.env -s

The -s flag scans for:

AWS credentials API keys (OpenAI, Stripe, you name it) GitHub tokens Private keys Anything that looks suspiciously like a secret If it finds something, it asks what you want to do. You can redact the secrets, skip saving, or save anyway if you know what you're doing.

clipdrop keys.txt --scan-mode redact # Auto-replaces secrets with [REDACTED]

Has literally saved me from myself multiple times.

Real Workflows That Actually Save Time For Developers You're debugging, copying stack traces, API responses, code snippets. Instead of keeping 50 TextEdit windows open:

# Copy error message clipdrop debug.log -a

# Copy API response clipdrop response.json

# Building a snippets file clipdrop snippets.py -a

Pro tip: alias it in your .zshrc:

alias cda='clipdrop -a' # Now it&apos;s just: cda debug.log

For PMs and Designers Screenshots. So many screenshots. But now:

# Take screenshot with CMD+CTRL+SHIFT+4 clipdrop feature-x.png

# Building a visual changelog clipdrop changelog/v2.1.png

Or when you're doing competitive research - copy images from websites, save them instantly with meaningful names. No more "Screenshot 2024-03-15 at 3.47.23 PM.png" nonsense.

For Writers and Researchers This workflow has changed how I do research:

# Find interesting paragraph, copy it clipdrop research.md -a

# YouTube video with good info clipdrop -yt sources.md -a

# Building an article over time clipdrop draft.md -a

Each append adds a separator, so your document stays organized even though you're adding to it randomly throughout the day.

The Daily Journal Pattern Simple but effective:

# Morning echo "$(date): Starting the day" | pbcopy && clipdrop journal.md -a

# Throughout the day clipdrop journal.md -a

# End of day clipdrop journal.md -a

Builds a timestamped log without any fancy apps or systems. Just copy, append, move on.

The Weird Edge Cases We Handle Mixed Content Sometimes your clipboard has both text and an image (happens more than you'd think). ClipDrop can handle it:

clipdrop report.pdf # Creates PDF with both clipdrop --text-only notes.txt # Just the text clipdrop --image-only screenshot.png # Just the image

Format Conversion Need to save JSON as YAML? Or Markdown as plain text? Just specify the extension:

# Clipboard has JSON, but you want YAML clipdrop config.yaml

# Markdown to plain text clipdrop readme.txt