yank

yank is a Rust clipboard manager inspired by Ditto's local-first history and network send/receive model.

Components

• yank-core: shared SQLite storage, clip format model, settings, DTOs, and i18n bundles.
• yank-client: Makepad desktop client. It stores clipboard history locally with SQLite and can work without any server configuration.
• yank-server: self-hosted sync server with token authentication, REST sync APIs, and a web management UI.

Current Capabilities

• Desktop client workflow: automatic clipboard polling, searchable history, selection, copy-back, delete, pin/unpin, and text editing.
• Local clipboard capture and history storage for text, HTML, images, and file lists without requiring a server.
• Ditto-style clip model with metadata plus multiple typed clipboard formats.
• Configurable client behavior from the GUI, including auto-capture, capture format toggles, duplicate handling, history limit, capture interval, sync connection, and shortcuts.
• Soft deletes so deletion events can be synchronized.
• Optional multi-device sync through a self-hosted server.
• Bearer token authentication for all management and sync APIs.
• Web admin page for viewing stats/history and deleting clips.
• Client and server UI language/theme switching.
• Translation files are stored outside application logic in crates/yank-core/i18n/en.json and crates/yank-core/i18n/zh.json.

Run

Linux desktop builds need the native libraries used by Makepad/arboard, including X11, Xcursor, ALSA, and PulseAudio development packages.

Start the server:

YANK_TOKEN=change-me cargo run -p yank-server -- --bind 127.0.0.1:7219 --db yank-server.sqlite3

Run the server container:

docker run --rm -p 7219:7219 -e YANK_TOKEN=change-me -v yank-data:/data ghcr.io/ca-x/yank:main

Open the admin UI:

http://127.0.0.1:7219

Start the client:

cargo run -p yank-client

Optional client sync bootstrap:

YANK_SERVER_URL=http://127.0.0.1:7219 YANK_TOKEN=change-me cargo run -p yank-client

The desktop client does not require users to edit configuration files. Settings are visible and editable in the GUI:

• Language and theme.
• Auto-capture on/off, duplicate policy, capture interval, max history, and device ID display/copy.
• Capture format toggles for text, HTML, images, and file lists.
• Sync server URL and token.
• Window shortcuts for search/history, copy selected, delete selected, pin/unpin, edit, capture, and sync.

The current shortcut layer is active while the client window has focus. System-wide global hotkeys are intentionally kept as a platform-specific follow-up rather than hidden configuration.

The detailed Ditto parity baseline is tracked in docs/ditto-client-capability-matrix.md. Do not treat unsupported Ditto features such as RTF capture, source application icons, tray integration, global hotkeys, groups, or import/export as complete until that matrix is updated with implementation evidence.

API

All protected endpoints require:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

• GET /api/health
• GET /api/admin/stats
• GET /api/clips
• POST /api/clips
• DELETE /api/clips/{id}
• GET /api/sync/pull?since=<unix_ts>&limit=<n>
• POST /api/sync/push

Verification

cargo fmt --check
cargo test --workspace
cargo check --workspace

GitHub Actions builds and uploads release binaries for yank-client and yank-server on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It also builds the server Docker image on PRs and pushes multi-arch images to GHCR and Docker Hub on main, v* tags, and manual dispatch when credentials are configured.