A small Mac menu bar utility
Compare the last two
pieces of text you copied.
Copy some text. Copy some other text. Press a shortcut to see what changed. ClipDiff lives in your menu bar, ready when you need it. You can copy text files too.
01 Install
Get ClipDiff for Mac.
macOS 13 Ventura or later
The Mac repository has the current build and setup instructions. Its local release script builds ClipDiff.app and opens it. Finder integration is enabled separately in System Settings.
02 Use
Copy. Copy. Compare.
- Start
ClipDiff.app. It lives in your menu bar. - Copy the older text, then copy the newer text.
You can copy text files too. - Press ⌥ Option⌘ CommandC
Or choose Show Diff in the ClipDiff menu. Previous is on the left; current is on the right. Switch between side-by-side and unified views, and use Copy diff to copy the unified diff.
ClipDiff captures copies made after it starts. It retains only two captures and does not recover earlier clipboard history.
03 Tricks
A few useful ways to use it.
Compare two config files
Copy one file, then the other in Finder, and use Show Diff. Or copy exactly two files together to make them the comparison pair. Text files contribute their contents, and the viewer shows their filenames.
Compare copied text with a file
Copy a snippet from a browser or message, then right-click a local file and choose Compare with current ClipDiff capture.
Choose Enable Finder menu… in ClipDiff, then enable ClipDiff Finder Integration in macOS System Settings.
This works while monitoring is paused if a capture remains. If there is no capture, ClipDiff asks you to copy text or a file first while monitoring.
Compare two selected files
Select exactly two files in Finder, then choose Compare two selected files with ClipDiff. Finder can launch ClipDiff for this comparison, even if it is not already running. No previous capture is needed. Enable the Finder extension as described above.
Use your usual diff viewer
Choose an installed application from Diff viewer in the ClipDiff menu, such as FileMerge, Kaleidoscope, Beyond Compare, or Visual Studio Code. You can switch back to the built-in viewer at any time.
Share the difference
Switch to unified view and use Copy diff. Paste the diff into an issue or message instead of pasting two complete blocks.
Make it fit your workflow
Choose Change Keyboard Shortcut… to change the shortcut. Turn off Monitor Clipboard to pause capture, or choose Clear Captured Text to discard the two captured values without changing your clipboard.
Comparisons are text-based. Files over 16 MiB are not read; binary or unusable files contribute a filename and reason. Encoding and fallback details.
04 About
I built it because I wanted it.
I’m Stuart. I built ClipDiff because I wanted a quick way to compare things I’d copied. If it’s useful to you too, that makes me happy. You’re welcome to it.