Free for macOS · Open source

Your Mac's memory,
one shortcut away.

Clipboard history, snippets, notes, to-dos and quick actions in one palette that opens with ⇧⌘V

Download for Mac View source

Version 0.1.0 · macOS 26 or later · Free, MIT licensed

10modules, one palette

1character to switch between them

0bytes leave your Mac by default

$0forever, with the source on GitHub

One palette

Type a character.
Switch to anything.

Cortex lives in the menu bar. Type to search what you copied, or start with a character to jump to another module. Each one can be switched off, and one that is off does nothing at all.

Everything you copy, searchable: text, rich text, images, files and colours, with the app it came from. Passwords and copies from password managers stay masked until you hold ⌥.

⏎ Paste
⇧⏎ Plain text
⌘P Pin
⌘K Actions

Texts you paste often, with placeholders for the date, the clipboard, the cursor position, or a value Cortex asks for before pasting. Pick one after ;, or type its keyword in any app. Raycast snippets import as they are.

;sig Pick a snippet
{clipboard} Placeholders

$port 3000 shows what listens on a port and kills it. $disk, $mem and $cpu work over SSH too, $code cortex opens a project in VS Code, and $uuid or $token 32 are a keystroke away.

⇥ Form with suggestions
$kill node
$term

Type to add one: !fix the backup @homelab #urgent. The open ones are listed with the due ones first, and each can carry a checklist.

⌘D Done
⇥ Work through checklist

Search emoji by name, keyword or shortcode, in English and your system languages. The ones you use most come first.

⇥ Skin tone
:tada

Calculates as you type, and converts units too: =sqrt(2) * pi, =15% * 80, =100 km/h in mph, =1 GiB to MB.

⏎ Paste the result

And then some

The small tools you'd
otherwise install separately.

Text recognition

Screenshots in your history are found by the text in them, read on your Mac by Apple's Vision framework. ⌃⌥⌘T copies the text in any region of the screen, and tables paste into Numbers cell by cell.

Colour picker

⌃⌥⌘C shows the eyedropper and copies the colour you click as hex, CSS rgb() or hsl(), or SwiftUI. Colours in your history show as swatches with every format.

AI actions Optional

With your own OpenAI key, Proofread and Summarize join the quick actions, $ask answers a question and $img draws a picture.

Sync Optional

Clips, snippets, notes and actions in step between two Macs, end-to-end encrypted, through a small server you run yourself.

Scrolling Optional

Natural scrolling on the trackpad and the classic direction on the mouse, per device and axis. One less menu bar app.

Trackpad

Natural

Mouse

Reversed

Private by default

Your data stays
on your Mac.

No account, no cloud and no analytics to opt out of. Everything that could leave your Mac is off until you switch it on, and even then it goes only where you say.

Local first

History, snippets and notes live on your Mac. Text in screenshots is read on device, and the reading list never loads a page.

Sync you own

Encrypted before it leaves the Mac, with a key only your Macs have, to a server you run yourself. Nothing waits for it.

AI on your terms

Off by default and with your own key. Nothing is sent before you press ⏎, sensitive clips never are, and Settings shows what it costs.

Passwords masked

Copies from password managers are masked in the history until you hold ⌥, and are never sent to AI.

Make it yours

Plain files.
Made for tinkerers and agents.

Your own commands in a few lines of TOML

Run a shell command or open a URL. Drop the file in a folder, and it shows up in the palette, in Shortcuts and in Finder's Services menu.

~/.config/cortex/actions/github.toml

name    = "GitHub Repository"
trigger = "gh"          # $gh apple/swift
url     = "https://github.com/{argument}"
example = "owner/repo"

A knowledge base your agents can read

cortex-mcp ships inside the app and gives Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP clients tools to search, read and write your notes, and to write new commands and actions for you.

~/.config/cortex/knowledge

.
├── homelab/
│   └── notes/backup.md
├── website/
│   └── notes/deploy.md
└── inbox/
    └── idea.md

Get Cortex. It's free.

No account, no subscription, no trial. Signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other app.

Download Cortex 0.1.0

.dmg · macOS 26 or later

SHA-256

1
Open the disk image and drag Cortex to Applications.
2
Start Cortex. It appears in the menu bar.
3
Allow Accessibility when it asks, so it can paste for you.
4
Press ⇧⌘V and start typing.

Rather build it yourself? Build from source →

Questions

Good to know

Is it really free?

Yes. Cortex is open source under the MIT license, and the download is free. There is no paid tier, no account and no trial.

What do I need to run it?

A Mac with macOS 26 or later. Cortex asks for the Accessibility permission so it can paste into the app you were in; everything else works without it.

Does anything leave my Mac?

Not unless you switch on Sync, which goes end-to-end encrypted to a server of your own, or AI actions, which use your own OpenAI key and send nothing before you press ⏎.

How do I update?

Cortex has no automatic updater yet. Download the new version from this page and replace the app in Applications; your history, snippets and notes stay where they are.

Can I bring my snippets and notes along?

Raycast snippets import as they are. The knowledge base imports Outline and Trello exports, and since notes are plain Markdown files, you can also just copy existing ones into the folder.

I only want the clipboard history. Can I turn the rest off?

Yes. Every module can be switched off in Settings, and one that is off does nothing at all.

Your Mac's memory,one shortcut away.

Type a character.Switch to anything.

The small tools you'dotherwise install separately.