Scratchpad

A tiny, fast scratchpad and clipboard manager for Mac. scratchpad.euforic.io

❤️ You can download Scratchpad from GitHub releases or install via Homebrew.

Features

Text editor — syntax highlighting, multi-tab, split view, find and replace, clickable links, lists and checklists
Clipboard manager — 1,000-item history, searchable, keyboard navigable, grid or panels layout, iCloud sync (text entries)
Global hotkeys — tap left ⌥ three times to show/hide, or define your own hotkey
Lightweight — nearly zero CPU and memory usage
No AI, no telemetry — your data stays on your machine
Menu bar icon — show or hide in menu bar
Dock icon — show or hide in Dock, as you prefer
Open at login — optional auto-start
iCloud sync — sync scratch tabs and clipboard history (text only) across Macs via iCloud
12 languages — English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Polish

Editor

Multi-tab and split view — work on multiple files/notes at once, drag to reorder, pin tabs to keep them visible (tab bar by Bonsplit)
Syntax highlighting — 185+ languages via highlight.js, with automatic language detection
Find and replace — built-in find bar with next/previous match and use selection for find
Session persistence — all tabs, content, and cursor positions are preserved across restarts
Auto-save — content is continuously saved to session, never lose your work
Markdown preview — side-by-side rendered preview for .md tabs (⇧⌘P), live-updates as you type, themed code blocks, local images
Clickable links — URLs in plain text and markdown tabs are highlighted and underlined; click to open in browser
Always on top — pin the window above all other apps (⇧⌘T)
Syntax themes — 9 curated themes (Atom One, Catppuccin, GitHub, Gruvbox, IntelliJ / Darcula, Scratchpad, Stack Overflow, Tokyo Night, Visual Studio) with dark and light variants
Vim mode — opt-in libvim-powered editing with status bar command feedback

Vim mode

Enable in Settings → Editor → Enable Vim mode.

Vim editing is backed by libvim and keeps the text model in sync with the main editor.
Normal and insert flows are supported, including special keys such as Escape, Enter, Tab, arrows, page up/down, Home/End, Delete, and ctrl-combinations.
Command-mode text is surfaced in the editor status line while typing : commands.
:w, :q, :x, :wq, :qa, :wqall, and related variants are wired to app behavior (save, close current/all tabs, etc.).
Vim mode can be toggled at any time and the setting is persisted in app preferences.

Lists and checklists

Scratchpad supports markdown-compatible lists and checklists directly in the editor. All state lives in the text itself — no hidden metadata, fully portable.

Syntax

- bullet item
* also a bullet
1. numbered item
- [ ] unchecked task
- [x] completed task

How it works

Type a list prefix and start writing. Press Enter to auto-continue with the next item. Press Enter on an empty item to exit list mode. Use Tab / Shift+Tab to indent and outdent list items.

For checklists, press ⇧⌘L to convert any line(s) to a checklist, or type - [ ] manually. Toggle checkboxes with ⌘Return or by clicking directly on the [ ] / [x] brackets. Checked items appear with ~~strikethrough~~ and dimmed text.

Move lines up or down with ⌥⌘↑ / ⌥⌘↓. Wrapped list lines align to the content start, not the bullet.

Visual styling

Element	Appearance
Bullet dashes `-`, `*`	🔴 Magenta/red (`bulletDashColor`)
Ordered numbers `1.`	🔴 Magenta/red (`bulletDashColor`)
Checkbox brackets `[ ]`, `[x]`	🟣 Purple
Checked item content	~~Strikethrough~~ + dimmed
URLs `https://...`	🔵 Blue underlined (`linkColor`)

Clipboard manager

Text and images — stores up to 1,000 clipboard entries
Searchable — filter history with highlighted search matches
Click to copy — click any entry to copy it back to clipboard (or paste directly — configurable in settings)
Quick-access shortcuts — ⌘1–9 to copy the Nth item, ⌥1–9 to paste it into the previously active app
Zoom preview — hover a tile and click the magnifying glass to view full content in a near-fullscreen overlay
Keyboard navigation — arrow keys to browse items, Enter to copy, Space to preview/unpreview, Escape to deselect
Grid or panels — switch between a multi-column grid and full-width panel rows
Configurable cards — adjust preview line count and font size in settings
Delete entries — remove individual items on hover
Separate hotkey — assign a dedicated global hotkey to show/hide
iCloud sync — text entries sync across devices alongside scratch tabs (up to 200 most recent)

Install

brew install --cask euforicio/taps/scratchpad

Or download the latest DMG from GitHub releases.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌘T / ⌘N	New tab
⌘W	Close tab
⌘O	Open file
⌘S	Save
⇧⌘S	Save as
⌃Tab	Next tab
⇧⌃Tab	Previous tab
⌘F	Find
⌥⌘F	Find and replace
⌘G	Find next
⇧⌘G	Find previous
⌘E	Use selection for find
⌘D	Duplicate line
⌘Return	Toggle checkbox
⇧⌘L	Toggle checklist
⌥⌘↑	Move line up
⌥⌘↓	Move line down
⌘1–9	Switch to tab by position
⇧⌘T	Always on top
⇧⌘D	Split right
⇧⌃⌘D	Split down
⌘+	Increase font size
⌘-	Decrease font size
⌘0	Reset font size
Tab	Indent line/selection
⇧Tab	Unindent line/selection
Fn↓ / Fn↑	Page down / up (moves cursor)

Clipboard

Shortcut	Action
↓	Move focus from search to first item
↑↓←→	Navigate between items
Return	Copy selected item (or paste — see settings)
Space	Toggle preview overlay
Escape	Deselect item / close preview
⌘1–9	Copy Nth visible item to clipboard
⌥1–9	Copy Nth item and paste into active app

Distribution

Scratchpad ships as a direct/DMG build downloaded from GitHub/Homebrew.

Schemes and configs

Scheme	Configs	Entitlements	Use
`scratchpad`	`Debug` / `Release`	`scratchpad-direct.entitlements`	Direct/DMG distribution
`scratchpad-appstore`	`Debug-AppStore` / `Release-AppStore`	`scratchpad.entitlements`	Reserved for future App Store work

Entitlements

The direct distribution entitlement set is:

Entitlement	Direct/DMG
`app-sandbox`	yes
`files.user-selected.read-write`	yes
`files.bookmarks.app-scope`	yes
`cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory`	yes (highlight.js JSContext)
`network.client`	yes (update checker)
`ubiquity-kvstore-identifier`	yes (legacy, unused)
`icloud-container-identifiers`	`iCloud.io.euforic.scratchpad`
`icloud-container-environment`	`Production`
`icloud-services`	`CloudKit`

network.client is used so direct builds can check GitHub releases.

Signing

Direct/DMG: Signed with "Developer ID Application" certificate and a Developer ID provisioning profile. The build script (scripts/build-release.sh) archives unsigned, embeds the profile, then manually signs with resolved entitlements (Xcode variables like $(TeamIdentifierPrefix) are expanded to literal values).
scripts/build-release.sh requires SIGNING_IDENTITY to be set to the exact Developer ID Application identity in Keychain, for example Developer ID Application: Your Name (TEAMID).
A valid TEAM_ID and BUNDLE_ID are read from project.yml (DEVELOPMENT_TEAM and PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER) and can be overridden with env vars when needed.
For direct/DMG releases, do not publish unsigned/un-notarized artifacts.
xcrun codesign --verify --deep --strict --verbose=1 dist/Scratchpad-<VERSION>.app
xcrun stapler validate dist/Scratchpad-<VERSION>.dmg
xcrun spctl -a -vvv -t install dist/Scratchpad-<VERSION>.dmg

iCloud sync

Both versions use CloudKit via CKSyncEngine for syncing scratch tabs and clipboard history. The CloudSyncEngine singleton manages the sync lifecycle. See the record schema and sync flow in the iOS migration docs.

Architecture

Sources/
├── App/
│   ├── AppDelegate.swift                # Menu bar, toolbar, window, and panel setup
│   ├── BonsplitRootView.swift           # SwiftUI root view rendering editor and clipboard tabs
│   ├── CloudSyncEngine.swift            # CloudKit sync via CKSyncEngine for tabs and clipboard
│   ├── G2SyncEngine.swift              # Even Realities G2 glasses sync (Labs)
│   ├── KVSMigration.swift              # Legacy iCloud KVS data migration
│   ├── Launch.swift                     # App entry point
│   ├── MenuBuilder.swift                # Main menu bar construction
│   ├── Models.swift                     # ShortcutKeys and shared data types
│   ├── TabStore.swift                   # Tab data model with persistence
│   └── UpdateChecker.swift              # GitHub release check for new versions
├── Editor/
│   ├── EditorContentView.swift          # NSViewRepresentable wrapping text view, scroll view, and gutter
│   ├── EditorCoordinator.swift          # Tab/pane orchestrator bridging TabStore and Bonsplit
│   ├── EditorStateFactory.swift         # Editor state creation and theme application
│   ├── EditorTextView.swift             # NSTextView subclass with editing helpers and file drops
│   ├── EditorTheme.swift                # Dark/light color palettes with CSS-derived theme cache
│   ├── FileWatcher.swift                # DispatchSource-based file change monitoring
│   ├── HighlightJS.swift                # JSContext wrapper for highlight.js with CSS/HTML parsing
│   ├── LanguageDetector.swift           # File extension → language mapping for highlight.js
│   ├── LayoutSerializer.swift           # Split layout capture and restore for session persistence
│   ├── LineNumberGutterView.swift       # Line number gutter drawn alongside the text view
│   ├── ListHelper.swift                 # List/checklist parsing, continuation, and toggling
│   ├── MarkdownPreviewManager.swift     # Markdown preview lifecycle and toolbar integration
│   ├── MarkdownPreviewView.swift        # WKWebView wrapper for rendered markdown preview
│   ├── MarkdownRenderer.swift           # Markdown-to-HTML via marked.js + highlight.js in JSContext
│   ├── SessionRestorer.swift            # Session restore logic for tabs and editor state
│   ├── SyntaxHighlightCoordinator.swift # Syntax highlighting coordinator using HighlightJS
│   └── SyntaxThemeRegistry.swift        # Curated syntax theme definitions with dark/light CSS mapping
├── Clipboard/
│   ├── ClipboardStore.swift             # Clipboard monitoring, history persistence, and CloudKit sync
│   ├── ClipboardContentView.swift       # NSCollectionView grid with search, keyboard nav, and layout
│   ├── ClipboardCollectionView.swift    # NSCollectionView subclass with key event delegation
│   ├── ClipboardCardItem.swift          # NSCollectionViewItem wrapper for card views
│   ├── ClipboardCardView.swift          # Individual clipboard card with preview, delete, and zoom
│   ├── ClipboardPreviewOverlay.swift    # Near-fullscreen zoom preview overlay
│   ├── ClipboardTabView.swift           # NSViewRepresentable wrapper for ClipboardContentView
│   ├── CardTextField.swift              # Non-interactive text field (suppresses I-beam cursor)
│   └── AccessibilityHelper.swift        # Accessibility check and CGEvent paste simulation
├── Settings/
│   ├── SettingsStore.swift              # UserDefaults-backed settings with change notifications
│   ├── SettingsView.swift               # SwiftUI settings window (general, editor, appearance, clipboard)
│   └── ShortcutRecorder.swift           # SwiftUI hotkey recorder control
├── Hotkey/
│   ├── HotkeyManager.swift              # Global hotkeys and triple-tap modifier detection
│   └── ModifierKeyDetection.swift       # Left/right modifier key identification from key codes
├── Resources/
│   ├── Assets.xcassets                  # App icon and custom images
│   └── Localizable.xcstrings           # String catalog for 12 languages
├── Info.plist                           # Bundle metadata and document types
├── scratchpad.entitlements                 # App Store entitlements (sandbox, CloudKit, iCloud)
└── scratchpad-direct.entitlements          # Direct/DMG entitlements (adds network.client for update checker)
Executable/
└── main.swift                           # Executable target entry point
Packages/
└── Bonsplit/                            # Local package: split pane and tab bar framework
Tests/
├── AutoDetectTests.swift
├── ClipboardShortcutTests.swift
├── ClipboardStoreTests.swift
├── CloudSyncEngineTests.swift
├── EditorThemeTests.swift
├── FileWatcherTests.swift
├── HighlightJSTests.swift
├── KVSMigrationTests.swift
├── LanguageDetectorTests.swift
├── LineNumberGutterViewTests.swift
├── ListHelperTests.swift
├── MarkdownPreviewManagerTests.swift
├── MarkdownRendererTests.swift
├── ModifierKeyDetectionTests.swift
├── SettingsStoreTests.swift
├── ShortcutKeysTests.swift
├── SyntaxThemeRegistryTests.swift
└── TabStoreTests.swift
scripts/
├── build-release.sh                    # Build, sign, and package DMG for direct distribution
├── pull-translations.sh                # Pull translations from Lokalise into xcstrings
└── push-translations.sh               # Push English source strings to Lokalise

Requirements

macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
Xcode 16.0 or later
XcodeGen for Xcode project generation

Building

xcodegen generate
open scratchpad.xcodeproj

Then build and run with ⌘R in Xcode. Tests run with ⌘U.

Releasing

Both versions

Bump MARKETING_VERSION and CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION in project.yml
Run xcodegen generate

Direct/DMG release

Build, sign, package, notarize, and staple (recommended):

SKIP_NOTARIZATION=0 \
SIGNING_IDENTITY=<SIGNING_IDENTITY> \
NOTARY_APPLE_ID=<APPLE_ID> \
NOTARY_TEAM_ID=<TEAM_ID> \
NOTARY_PASSWORD=<APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD> \
bash scripts/build-release.sh

or with API key auth:

SKIP_NOTARIZATION=0 \
SIGNING_IDENTITY=<SIGNING_IDENTITY> \
NOTARY_KEY_ID=<NOTARY_KEY_ID> \
NOTARY_ISSUER_ID=<NOTARY_ISSUER_ID> \
NOTARY_KEY_PATH=<PATH_TO_P8_KEY> \
bash scripts/build-release.sh

scripts/build-release.sh archives with the scratchpad scheme (Release config), embeds the Developer ID provisioning profile, signs with scratchpad-direct.entitlements, and creates a DMG. It then submits for notarization and staples the ticket when credentials are provided.

Verify the artifact is ready:

xcrun codesign --verify --deep --strict --verbose=1 dist/Scratchpad-<VERSION>.app
xcrun stapler validate dist/Scratchpad-<VERSION>.dmg
xcrun spctl -a -vvv -t install dist/Scratchpad-<VERSION>.dmg

Optional: disable notarization locally (CI/testing only):

SKIP_NOTARIZATION=1 bash scripts/build-release.sh

To fail fast when credentials are missing in CI, set REQUIRE_NOTARIZATION=1.

Required GitHub Action secrets for release workflow

The release workflow on tag push requires these repository secrets to be set:

MACOS_SIGNING_IDENTITY
MACOS_SIGNING_CERT_P12
MACOS_KEYCHAIN_PASSWORD
MACOS_SIGNING_CERT_PASSWORD
MACOS_DEVELOPER_ID_PROFILE
NOTARY_APPLE_ID + NOTARY_TEAM_ID + NOTARY_PASSWORD
OR NOTARY_KEY_ID + NOTARY_ISSUER_ID + NOTARY_KEY_P8

The workflow fails fast with a clear error if any required secret is missing.

To prepare those secrets locally:

bash scripts/setup-release-secrets.sh --bootstrap scripts/release-secrets.env
source scripts/release-secrets.env
bash scripts/setup-release-secrets.sh

scripts/release-secrets.env should be treated as a local, sensitive file and not committed.

Create the GitHub release:

gh release create v<VERSION> dist/Scratchpad-<VERSION>.dmg \
    --title "v<VERSION>" --notes "Release notes here"
git fetch --tags

Update the Homebrew tap:

shasum -a 256 dist/Scratchpad-<VERSION>.dmg
# Update Casks/scratchpad.rb in homebrew-tap with new version and sha256

Localization

Scratchpad uses a Swift String Catalog (Sources/Resources/Localizable.xcstrings) for localization. Translations are managed via Lokalise.

Languages: English (base), Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Polish.

Setup

brew tap lokalise/cli-2
brew install lokalise2
cp lokalise.yml.example lokalise.yml
# Edit lokalise.yml and add your API token

Push source strings to Lokalise

Extracts English keys and values from the xcstrings file and uploads to Lokalise:

scripts/push-translations.sh

Pull translations from Lokalise

Downloads all translations from Lokalise and merges them into the xcstrings file:

scripts/pull-translations.sh

Adding new strings

All user-facing strings use String(localized:defaultValue:) with a structured key:

// SwiftUI
Toggle(String(localized: "settings.general.show_in_menu_bar", defaultValue: "Show in menu bar"), isOn: $store.showInMenuBar)
Section(String(localized: "settings.editor.spacing", defaultValue: "Spacing")) { ... }

// AppKit
NSMenuItem(title: String(localized: "menu.file.new_tab", defaultValue: "New tab"), ...)
alert.messageText = String(localized: "alert.save_changes.title", defaultValue: "Do you want to save changes to \"\(name)\"?")

Key naming convention

Keys use dot-separated structured names: {area}.{context}.{name}

Area	Example keys
`menu.*`	`menu.file.new_tab`, `menu.edit.copy`, `menu.view.always_on_top`
`alert.*`	`alert.save_changes.title`, `alert.file_changed.reload`
`settings.*`	`settings.general.title`, `settings.editor.font_size`
`toolbar.*`	`toolbar.settings.label`, `toolbar.clipboard.tooltip`
`clipboard.*`	`clipboard.empty_state`, `clipboard.search_placeholder`
`tab.*`	`tab.context.copy_path`, `tab.context.pin`
`time.*`	`time.just_now`, `time.minutes_ago`
`accessibility.*`	`accessibility.alert.title`
`update.*`	`update.available.message`

Workflow after adding new strings

Build the project – Xcode auto-populates new keys in Localizable.xcstrings
Push source strings to Lokalise: scripts/push-translations.sh
Translate in Lokalise (or let translators handle it)
Pull translations back: scripts/pull-translations.sh
Build and verify

How it works

All strings (SwiftUI and AppKit) use String(localized:defaultValue:) with structured keys
Xcode populates the .xcstrings file with discovered keys on each build
Push extracts English as .strings and uploads to Lokalise
Pull downloads .strings per language and merges back into the xcstrings file

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Acknowledgements

Scratchpad is based on the original open-source app ItsyPad by Nikolajs Ustinovs.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 2 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
Executable		Executable
Packages		Packages
Sources		Sources
Tests		Tests
scripts		scripts
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Package.swift		Package.swift
README.md		README.md
lokalise.yml.example		lokalise.yml.example
project.yml		project.yml
scratchpad-screenshot-v2.png		scratchpad-screenshot-v2.png

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

Scratchpad

Features

Editor

Vim mode

Lists and checklists

Syntax

How it works

Visual styling

Clipboard manager

Install

Keyboard shortcuts

Clipboard

Distribution

Schemes and configs

Entitlements

Signing

iCloud sync

Architecture

Requirements

Building

Releasing

Both versions

Direct/DMG release

Required GitHub Action secrets for release workflow

Localization

Setup

Push source strings to Lokalise

Pull translations from Lokalise

Adding new strings

Key naming convention

Workflow after adding new strings

How it works

License

Acknowledgements

About

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