alfred-clipboard

Alfred Clipboard History

This skill provides read-only access to Alfred's clipboard history via its SQLite database.

Requirements

• Alfred Powerpack (clipboard history is a Powerpack feature)
• Clipboard history enabled in Alfred preferences

Database Location

~/Library/Application Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb

To find it manually: Alfred Preferences → Advanced → "Reveal in Finder" → Databases folder

When to Use

Use this skill when the user:

• Asks about something they copied earlier
• Wants to search their clipboard history
• Needs to find text they copied but lost
• Asks about recent clipboard items
• Mentions "clipboard" or "copied"

Database Schema

CREATE TABLE clipboard(
    item,           -- The copied content (text)
    ts decimal,     -- Unix timestamp
    app,            -- Source application name
    apppath,        -- Path to source application
    dataType integer,  -- Type of data (0=text, 1=image, 2=file)
    dataHash        -- Hash of the content
);

Important Warning

This database is not intended to be user-serviceable. Only run SELECT queries - never UPDATE, DELETE, or INSERT. Make a copy of the database before querying if you're concerned about corruption.

Common Queries

View Recent Clipboard Items

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, substr(item, 1, 100) as content, app
   FROM clipboard
   ORDER BY ts DESC
   LIMIT 20;"

Search Clipboard History

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, substr(item, 1, 200) as content, app
   FROM clipboard
   WHERE item LIKE '%search term%'
   ORDER BY ts DESC
   LIMIT 10;"

Get Full Content of Recent Item

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT item FROM clipboard ORDER BY ts DESC LIMIT 1;"

Items from Today

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, substr(item, 1, 100) as content, app
   FROM clipboard
   WHERE date(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') = date('now', 'localtime')
   ORDER BY ts DESC;"

Items from Specific App

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, substr(item, 1, 100) as content
   FROM clipboard
   WHERE app = 'Google Chrome'
   ORDER BY ts DESC
   LIMIT 20;"

Most Used Source Apps

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT app, count(*) as copies
   FROM clipboard
   GROUP BY app
   ORDER BY copies DESC
   LIMIT 10;"

Text Items Only (exclude images/files)

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, substr(item, 1, 100) as content
   FROM clipboard
   WHERE dataType = 0
   ORDER BY ts DESC
   LIMIT 20;"

Count Total Clipboard Items

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT count(*) FROM clipboard;"

Items from Last Hour

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, substr(item, 1, 100) as content, app
   FROM clipboard
   WHERE ts > strftime('%s', 'now', '-1 hour')
   ORDER BY ts DESC;"

Data Types

• 0 - Text
• 1 - Image
• 2 - File reference

Note: Image and file content is stored differently; the item field for these may not be directly readable as text.

Common Workflows

"What did I copy earlier that had [keyword]?"

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, item, app
   FROM clipboard
   WHERE item LIKE '%keyword%'
   ORDER BY ts DESC
   LIMIT 5;"

"Show me everything I copied from Slack today"

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, substr(item, 1, 150) as content
   FROM clipboard
   WHERE app = 'Slack'
   AND date(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') = date('now', 'localtime')
   ORDER BY ts DESC;"

"Find that URL I copied"

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as time, item, app
   FROM clipboard
   WHERE item LIKE 'http%'
   ORDER BY ts DESC
   LIMIT 10;"

Output Formatting

For JSON output:

sqlite3 -json ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT * FROM clipboard ORDER BY ts DESC LIMIT 5;"

For CSV output:

sqlite3 -csv ~/Library/Application\ Support/Alfred/Databases/clipboard.alfdb \
  "SELECT datetime(ts, 'unixepoch', 'localtime'), item, app FROM clipboard ORDER BY ts DESC LIMIT 10;"

Notes

• Alfred's clipboard history has a configurable retention period (default 24 hours, 7 days, 1 month, or 3 months)
• Very long items are truncated in the examples above using substr() for readability
• The database may be locked while Alfred is writing to it; retry if you get a lock error
• Consider copying the database to a temp location before querying for safety

Sources

• Searching Alfred's Clipboard History Programmatically
• Alfred Clipboard History Archive