Compare the last two
pieces of text you copied.

Get ClipDiff for Mac.

macOS 13 Ventura or later · Apple Silicon & Intel

Latest release on GitHub

Download ClipDiff-macOS.zip from the latest GitHub release. Extract it, move ClipDiff.app to Applications and open it. Quit ClipDiff before updating.

Source · Report an issue

Copy. Copy. Compare.

Start ClipDiff. Copy the older value, then the newer. Use:

• Text — copied from any app.
• A file — copy the file itself in Finder.
• A path — copy the full path to a text file; ClipDiff reads its saved contents.

Mix these freely, or copy two files together.

Use Copy as Pathname in Finder or copy full paths from your editor. One or two absolute paths are accepted, one per line, optionally double-quoted.

Press ⌥ Option+⌘ Command+C, or choose Show Diff in the app menu.

Text files up to 16 MiB are read. Finder aliases use their target’s contents. Binary files contribute a filename and “binary file” reason; other unusable files also give a reason.

Compare from Finder.

Choose Finder Menu Settings… in ClipDiff, then enable ClipDiff Finder Integration in System Settings.

Compare with current ClipDiff capture

Right-click a file. With no capture, ClipDiff asks you to copy first. The command is hidden for the file already captured.

Compare two selected files with ClipDiff

Select exactly two files; no prior capture is needed. Finder can launch ClipDiff even when it is closed.

Both open the diff without changing your clipboard. For a pair, Finder’s first file is Previous.

Use your diff viewer.

Tools installed in Applications, such as MacDiff, Kaleidoscope and Beyond Compare, should be detected automatically. Select yours under Diff viewer.

Missing? Use Choose Application… to select its app or executable. Custom tools must accept two file paths as arguments.

Supported viewers and setup details.

No diff tool? Use the default Built-in viewer: side-by-side or unified, with inline highlights, an Ignore spacing option and a command to copy the diff. It also handles external-viewer launch failures.

Try MacDiff for a dedicated Mac viewer. The menu offers Get MacDiff… if none is detected.

Your copies stay on your computer.

ClipDiff never uploads captures. It keeps two accepted copies and their file paths in memory, captured after startup; it cannot recover earlier clipboard history. Quitting discards them. Closing the diff window does not.

ClipDiff ignores concealed or transient clipboard items and marks copied diffs the same way. These markers ask compatible clipboard managers not to retain them; they cannot guarantee it. Unmarked secrets look like ordinary text. A clipboard clear within 60 seconds can remove the latest capture; this safeguard is best effort.

External viewers write temporary files

The built-in viewer keeps comparisons in memory. An external viewer needs two read-only plaintext files under the system temporary directory. ClipDiff asks for consent before the first external comparison. Cancelling uses the built-in viewer without creating files.

ClipDiff attempts cleanup after the viewer exits, on quit and on next launch. Crashes or the viewer can leave copies behind. Use the built-in viewer to avoid this disk exposure.

Settings contain preferences, not captures. Secure memory erasure, system paging, clipboard history and other apps’ copies are outside ClipDiff’s control.

Full privacy details

About ClipDiff

More soon.