Mac clipboard for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex users

The AI-assisted coding clipboard problem

An hour of real AI-assisted coding looks like this:

• Copy a prompt template you wrote yesterday — paste in Claude Code
• Copy Claude's response (a code block) — paste in Cursor
• Run it, see error in terminal — copy error
• Paste error back in Claude Code with a follow-up question
• Copy Claude's revised code — paste in Cursor
• Copy a test failure — copy a stack trace
• Want the original prompt again to fork the conversation — it's gone

By the time you want anything from earlier than the last 60 seconds, the macOS clipboard has overwritten it. Cursor's @file and @codebase handle repo files. Claude Projects handles persistent context files. But neither covers the ad-hoc stuff — your prompts, terminal output, Slack snippets, blog code, conversation forks. That's where a clipboard manager fits.

What this setup gives you

1. Search by source app

Maus tags every clip with the app it came from. Search by source:

• claude — only clips from Claude Code (or Claude desktop)
• cursor — only clips from Cursor IDE
• codex — only clips from Codex
• terminal, iterm, warp, ghostty — only terminal output
• code — only clips from VS Code

Combine with content filters: code claude finds anything containing "code" copied from Claude. error terminal finds error messages from your terminal. Useful when you've copied 50 things in the last hour.

2. Multipaste into AI inputs

You want to paste 4 things into Claude's input: a file, another file, an error, your question. Native clipboard can do one at a time, requiring 4 separate paste actions.

With Maus:

1. Copy each of the 4 items in any order (or all at once).
2. In Claude's input field, press ⌘⇧V to open Maus.
3. ⌘+Click each clip in the order you want them pasted.
4. Press ⏎. All 4 paste into Claude in order.

3. Autopaste for sequential context dumps

Sometimes you know in advance you'll copy a sequence (file 1, file 2, error, question). Double-tap ⌘ to enter Maus's autopaste listening mode. Now every ⌘C queues up. Press ⌘V in Claude — the entire queue pastes in order.

This turns "open Maus, multi-select, paste" into "copy, copy, copy, paste". Less interruption to flow.

4. Pin your best prompts

Some prompts you reach for every day. A refactor template. A debug-this template. A test-generation prompt. A code-review prompt. Pin them in Maus — they stay at the top of your history.

• "Refactor this function. Keep behavior identical. Show me a unified diff."
• "Walk through this stack trace step by step. Identify the root cause, not the symptom."
• "Generate test cases for this function. Cover happy path, edge cases, and error conditions."
• "Review this PR. Focus on race conditions and missing error handling. Skip style nits."

You don't need a prompt management tool for this. A clipboard manager with pin is enough — copy once, pin it, use it forever.

5. OCR on shared screenshots

Someone DMs you a screenshot of an error or a code snippet from a conference talk. Copy the image. Maus runs OCR automatically — the text inside is now in your clipboard history, searchable and pasteable. No retyping a stack trace from a PNG.

Stack-specific notes

Claude Code (terminal-based)

Claude Code runs in your terminal. Everything pasted into it goes through the terminal's paste handling. Maus's ⌘⇧V opens at your cursor; press ⏎ and the selected clip pastes into Claude Code via the terminal. For multipaste, the items paste sequentially with appropriate spacing — works the same as in any text input.

The source-app filter shows clips as coming from your terminal (Terminal, iTerm2, Warp, Ghostty). To distinguish Claude Code output from other terminal output, you might need to rely on content patterns rather than source app alone.

Cursor

Cursor's @file and @codebase handle context that's part of the repo. For everything outside the repo — prompt templates, snippets from Stack Overflow, output from other AI tools, error messages from non-Cursor terminals — a clipboard manager fills the gap.

Common Cursor workflow: have a chat in Cursor, copy a generated code block, switch to your browser or another tool, then later want that block back. Maus has it.

Codex

OpenAI's Codex agent (the relaunched 2025 product) runs as a CLI tool with its own context handling. The clipboard fills the same gap as in Cursor: anything ad-hoc that didn't go through Codex's context system, but that you might want to feed Codex on a follow-up.

Mixing Claude + Cursor + Codex

Many devs use multiple AI tools — Claude for design discussion, Cursor for inline edits, Codex for terminal-based agentic work. The clipboard is the connective tissue: output from one becomes input to another. Source-app filtering helps you pull "the answer from Claude" rather than "the answer from Codex" when reviewing.

Setup (3 minutes)

1. Download Maus (free, native macOS, no Electron).
2. Grant accessibility when prompted.
3. Optional: pin your top 3-5 prompt templates once and they stay at the top.
4. Use ⌘⇧V normally — search by content or source app. ⌘+Click to multi-select. ⏎ to paste in order.
5. Try double-tap ⌘ once for autopaste — copy several things, then ⌘V pastes them all.

What Maus doesn't replace

This isn't a substitute for the AI tools' native context features. Use both:

• Cursor @file, @codebase, MCP servers: for repo files and persistent context. Use these.
• Claude Projects: for documents you want available across every conversation. Use this.
• TextExpander / Alfred snippets: for named, triggered snippets with variable substitution.
• Maus: for everything else — ad-hoc copies, prompt history, source-filtered search, multipaste, autopaste, OCR on screenshots.

FAQ