Quicksave

Quicksave is a tiny Swift-only macOS menu-bar app for saving the current clipboard into a local inbox and, optionally, appending the same capture into an Obsidian daily note.

The core flow is intentionally small:

• Option + C saves the current clipboard.
• Option + W opens a minimal note box for context on the latest capture.
• Option + D retries appending the latest capture to Obsidian.
• Captures are saved as normal files, not a database or opaque blob store.
• No screen recording, OCR, browser extension, Accessibility scraping, or clipboard polling is used.

What It Captures

Default inbox:

~/Quicksave Inbox

Supported clipboard content:

• Plain text and URLs -> .txt
• HTML/RTF text with links -> .md
• Images -> .png
• Direct PDF pasteboard data -> .pdf
• Copied Finder files and folders -> copied into the inbox with a timestamp prefix
• Explicit notes -> .note.txt sidecars

Example inbox:

~/Quicksave Inbox/
  2026-05-09T06-41-26.266Z.txt
  2026-05-09T06-41-26.266Z.note.txt
  2026-05-09T06-42-10.101Z.md
  2026-05-09T06-43-03.512Z.png
  2026-05-09T06-44-12.900Z-source-file.pdf

Install

Requirements:

• macOS 13 or newer
• Xcode or Xcode Command Line Tools
• Swift 6-compatible toolchain
• Obsidian installed if you want daily-note appends

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/snbafana/quicksave.git
cd quicksave
swift test
./scripts/build-dmg.sh

The DMG is written to:

dist/Mac-Quicksave.dmg

Open the DMG and drag Mac Quicksave.app into /Applications.

This is currently an unsigned local build. If macOS blocks first launch, right-click Mac Quicksave.app in Finder and choose Open.

Install the companion CLI:

./scripts/install-cli.sh

By default, the CLI is installed to:

~/.local/bin/quicksave

Make sure ~/.local/bin is on your shell PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Confirm the install:

quicksave config show

Configure

The menu-bar app and CLI share config through the com.snbafana.quicksave defaults domain.

Default config:

inbox=~/Quicksave Inbox
obsidian_vault=~/Documents/Obsidian-Vault
obsidian_daily_notes=~/Documents/Obsidian-Vault/Zettelkatsen
obsidian_daily_template=~/Documents/Obsidian-Vault/Templates/Daily Note.md

Set the config from the CLI:

quicksave config set \
  --inbox ~/Quicksave\ Inbox \
  --vault ~/Documents/Obsidian-Vault \
  --daily-notes-dir ~/Documents/Obsidian-Vault/Zettelkatsen \
  --daily-template ~/Documents/Obsidian-Vault/Templates/Daily\ Note.md

Inspect it:

quicksave config show
quicksave obsidian today

Reset only the Obsidian paths to defaults:

quicksave config reset-obsidian

You can also configure paths from the menu-bar app:

• Choose Inbox...
• Choose Vault...
• Choose Daily Notes...
• Choose Daily Template...
• Reset Obsidian Config

Daily Use

Menu shortcuts:

• Save -> Option + C
• Note -> Option + W
• Obsidian -> Option + D
• Open Inbox -> Option + O
• Choose Inbox... -> Option + ,

Typical workflow:

1. Copy text, an image, a PDF, or a file.
2. Press Option + C.
3. Quicksave writes a simple file into the inbox.
4. Quicksave appends that capture into today’s Obsidian daily note.
5. Press Option + W to add context; that note is saved as a sidecar and appended under the related capture.

The note popup is a centered minimal glass text box. It wraps across lines; press Command + Enter to save, or Escape to cancel.

Obsidian Behavior

Quicksave writes to the configured daily-note directory using MM-DD-YYYY.md names.

Default daily-note target:

~/Documents/Obsidian-Vault/Zettelkatsen/MM-DD-YYYY.md

Default template:

~/Documents/Obsidian-Vault/Templates/Daily Note.md

If today’s note does not exist, Quicksave renders the configured template and creates the note before appending. It first tries the Obsidian CLI:

obsidian create path=Zettelkatsen/05-09-2026.md content="<rendered template>" open

If that fails, Quicksave writes the rendered template directly so captures still land.

Quicksave does not use obsidian daily:path as the source of truth, because that can point to a different Daily Notes plugin location than the configured capture folder.

Append format:

- 12:30 PM
  > copied text
  - optional context note

Rich text links are preserved when the clipboard exposes HTML/RTF:

- 12:30 PM
  > Read [example](https://example.com) now

Images are copied into the vault media folder and embedded with Obsidian wikilinks:

- 12:30 PM
  ![[image.png]]

Image files are stored in the configured vault at Visuals/Media, matching Obsidian's local attachment convention.

Files are copied beside the daily note and linked:

- 12:30 PM
  [document.pdf](quicksave-assets/document.pdf)

No ## Quicksave heading is inserted. Captures append directly into the daily note.

CLI Reference

Append a specific capture:

quicksave obsidian append \
  --capture ~/Quicksave\ Inbox/2026-05-09T06-41-26.266Z.txt \
  --note "why this mattered"

Append the newest inbox capture:

quicksave obsidian append-latest

Print today’s configured daily note:

quicksave obsidian today

One-off override:

quicksave obsidian append-latest \
  --daily-notes-dir /path/to/daily-notes \
  --daily-template /path/to/Daily.md

If the Obsidian CLI binary is not named obsidian, set:

export QUICKSAVE_OBSIDIAN_CLI=/path/to/obsidian

Development

Build the app bundle:

./scripts/build-app.sh

Run the app:

open "dist/Mac Quicksave.app"

Restart an existing development build:

pkill -f "Mac Quicksave.app/Contents/MacOS/Mac Quicksave" || true
open "dist/Mac Quicksave.app"

Build the DMG:

./scripts/build-dmg.sh

Run tests:

swift test

Current tests cover clipboard capture, file/folder copies, image capture, PDF capture, rich text links, note sidecars, configurable paths, Obsidian daily-note creation, image embedding, file linking, and repeated distinct captures.

Project Layout

src/
  app/                   # AppKit menu-bar app, global hotkeys, note panel
  cli/                   # CLI commands for config and Obsidian appends
  core/                  # Clipboard capture, settings, file naming, Obsidian writer
tests/                   # Unit tests for capture, settings, notes, Obsidian output
scripts/
  build-app.sh           # Build dist/Mac Quicksave.app
  build-dmg.sh           # Build dist/Mac-Quicksave.dmg
  install-cli.sh         # Install ~/.local/bin/quicksave

Design Boundary

Quicksave saves only explicit clipboard content and explicit notes you type. It does not inspect the screen, scrape Accessibility trees, watch the clipboard in the background, OCR images, or use browser extensions.