ClipFlow Pro is a free, open-source clipboard history manager for GNOME Shell 45–51, on both Wayland and X11/Xorg. It sits in the top bar, remembers what you copy, and gives you a searchable history window, quick panel menus and pinned clips. Version 1.5.6 is out, and this is the first time I'm writing about it here.
Here's the 2-minute narrated tour, so turn the sound on:
Why I built it
I copy a lot during the day: commands, links, code, JSON, notes in several languages. GNOME has no clipboard history built in, so the moment I copied something new, the previous thing was gone. I wanted a clipboard manager that:
- feels like part of GNOME, not a separate app
- works the same on Wayland and X11
- keeps everything on my own computer
- lets me find an old clip by typing a few letters
That became ClipFlow Pro.
What it does
- History window: left-click the panel icon to open it. Type to search instantly, double-click an entry to insert it into the app you were using, right-click for copy, insert, pin, star and delete. You can select several entries and delete them together.
- Recent clips menu: right-click the panel icon for a quick list of your latest clips.
- Panel menu: the full menu with the ⋮ menu on each clip and an Actions section (export, import, purge duplicates, pause monitoring and more).
- Pinned and starred clips in their own sections at the top.
- Content-type detection for links, email addresses, file paths, code and JSON.
- Every kind of text: emoji, symbols and other languages, including right-to-left text like Hebrew and Arabic.
- Privacy options: password filtering, pause monitoring, clear history on lock or logout.
- Export and import of your history.
- Reset to Defaults in Settings → About restores all 50 settings and keeps your history.
The history window
The panel menus
Settings
Five tabs: General, Behavior, Appearance, Shortcuts and About.
The full gallery, with every menu and settings tab, is in the README.
Your clipboard stays on your computer
A clipboard manager sees everything you copy, so privacy came first:
- History is stored locally in your home folder, in files only you can read (
0600), written atomically. Nothing is sent anywhere. - On X11 it reads the clipboard through GNOME's own
St.Clipboard, so there's no helper process on every check. - When text has to go to a helper like
wl-copyorxclip, it's passed on standard input, never in temporary files or command-line arguments that other programs could see. - Password-like entries can be filtered out, and the history can be cleared automatically when you lock the screen or log out.
What's new in 1.5.5 and 1.5.6
-
GNOME Shell 51 support (1.5.5). ClipFlow Pro installs and runs on GNOME 51, the September 2026 release. I checked the code against the official porting guide; it was already free of the APIs GNOME 51 removed (
Stvertical, asyncdisable(),pointerWatcher,GLSLEffect). - No default clipboard shortcuts (1.5.6). Super+C and Super+Shift+H are no longer set out of the box. Left-click on the panel icon still opens the history window, and you can add the shortcuts you want in Settings → Shortcuts, which suggests a combination for each one.
- Clearer clipboard notice (1.5.6). The extension's description now says plainly that it reads and stores your clipboard locally and sends nothing anywhere.
Suggested shortcuts
| Action | Suggested shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open the history window | Super+Shift+H |
| Open the recent clips menu | Super+Shift+R |
| Paste the latest entry | Super+Shift+Insert |
| Paste the entry before it | Super+Shift+V |
| Enhanced copy | Super+Shift+C |
Install
Download clipflow-pro@nickotmazgin.github.io-1.5.6-gs45-51.zip from GitHub Releases, then:
gnome-extensions install --force clipflow-pro@nickotmazgin.github.io-1.5.6-gs45-51.zip
gnome-extensions enable clipflow-pro@nickotmazgin.github.io
On Wayland, log out and back in. On X11, press Alt+F2, type r and press Enter.
Or build it from source:
git clone https://github.com/nickotmazgin/clipflow-pro.git
cd clipflow-pro
./build.sh && ./install.sh
Each release is built by GitHub Actions, the tag is signed, and the zip has a build-provenance attestation, so you can check that it came from the repository.
Compatibility
| Status | |
|---|---|
| GNOME Shell 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51 | Supported |
| X11 / Xorg | Supported and tested daily (Zorin OS 18.1, GNOME 46) |
| Wayland | Supported; reports are welcome |
| GNOME 43–44 | No longer supported |
How it's made
ClipFlow Pro is written in GJS (GNOME's JavaScript) as modern ES modules. Releases go through CI that lints the code and validates the zip before anything is published. I'm the only maintainer: I direct and review every change, test it on a real GNOME desktop, and sign and release every version. AI coding assistants (OpenAI Codex, Cursor and Claude Code) helped with parts of the work, always under my review, and the README credits them.
Links
- GitHub: https://github.com/nickotmazgin/clipflow-pro
- Latest release: https://github.com/nickotmazgin/clipflow-pro/releases/latest
- Changelog: https://github.com/nickotmazgin/clipflow-pro/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
- Discussions: https://github.com/nickotmazgin/clipflow-pro/discussions
- Demo on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Cao9ljjI5JI
My other GNOME extensions: Numeric Clock, a DD/MM/YYYY 24-hour top-bar clock with seconds, and Comfort Control (EaseHub), a panel menu for power, screenshots, updates and utilities.
ClipFlow Pro is free and GPL-3.0 licensed. Feedback, bug reports and stars are very welcome. If it saves you time, a ⭐ on GitHub helps other GNOME users find it.
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