Ginkgo
中 / EN
macOS · MENU BAR · ON-DEVICE

The moment you copy,
it already understands.

Ginkgo lives quietly in your menu bar. Timestamps, unfamiliar words, certificates, and JSON become readable the moment you copy them. Adopt the result once, then paste it right where you were. It does not merely remember the past—it understands the present.

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See how it works

THREE STEPS, NO INTERRUPTION

From copy to adoption, in one flow

Your frontmost app always keeps keyboard focus. Insight happens quietly elsewhere; the result returns exactly where you need it.

01

Copy

Press ⌘C in any app. Ginkgo quietly appears near the corner—without activating or stealing focus.

02

Understand

Above the untouched clipping, a tinted insight card reveals which plug-in matched and what it found.

03

Adopt

Choose “Adopt” to write the result to the clipboard and paste it in place. The panel fades after about six seconds, or leaves with a swipe.

BUILT-IN PLUG-INS

Matched on copy, converted on demand

Timestamps, words, certificates, and JSON match the moment you copy, each with its own typography. Anything unmatched is always shown exactly as copied. Every plug-in can be switched on or off in Settings.

Timestamp
1790640000

Sep 29, 2026 at 08:00

Tuesday · UTC+8

Unix and ISO 8601 timestamps become readable at a glance.

Dictionary

serendipity /ˌserənˈdɪpɪti/

noun

  1. 1. the occurrence of events by chance in a happy way
  2. 2. good fortune in making unexpected discoveries

"a fortunate stroke of serendipity"

Copy an English word and its meaning unfolds in place—entirely on-device.

JSON
{
  "clip": {
    "id": 1024,
    "kind": "text",
    "pinned": false
  },
  "tags": ["work", "api"]
}

Even a tangled payload returns as a clean, aligned structure.

/ On-demand commands never run on copy. Type / in History to translate (macOS 26+, on-device via the system), format code as JSON, YAML, XML, web source, and more, encode or decode Base64 and URLs, or hash with MD5 / SHA-256—results are saved in place and the clipboard stays untouched.

LOCAL HISTORY

Find any copy in seconds

Text, images, and files—along with titles, tags, and pins—stay on this Mac. Search is fast and quiet; type / to translate or convert any clip. Captured content remains immutable; only its title, tags, and pin can change.

History
api-response.json
NowWork
Screenshot 2026-09-28.png
Yesterday
serendipity
YesterdayWord
/Users/ginkgo/docs/requirements
Tue

api-response.json

{
  "id": 1024,
  "name": "ginkgo",
  "ok": true
}
Result saved here, clipboard unchanged

SHARE CARDS

Turn an insight into a signed card

Every result can become an image: four card themes (Evening Ginkgo, Ginkgo Leaf, Autumn, Paper), structured typography, and a ginkgo-leaf signature—ready to share as a small poster.

Timestamp

1790640000

Sep 29, 2026 at 08:00

Tuesday · UTC+8

Ginkgo

PRINCIPLES

Quietness is a discipline

01

Only adoption writes

The clipboard is never changed without confirmation. Insights never apply themselves.

02

Never steals focus

The panel activates no app and becomes no main window. Your input always belongs to the frontmost app.

03

Captures stay immutable

Captured content cannot be edited anywhere. Only its title, tags, and pin can change.

04

Local-first

The dictionary and translation run on-device, and your clips never leave this Mac on their own. The only outbound requests are license activation and revalidation (license metadata only, via Dodo Payments), the translation language packs macOS fetches itself, and the agent runs you start—a licensed, opt-in plugin that sends prompt content only to the provider you configure with your own key.

Ginkgo began as its maker’s own tool. Its leaf comes from the home of ginkgo trees—a small piece of home. It was once called Clipmate; on the night it changed, a one-time migration carried every old clipping into its new home. Its interface speaks English and Simplified Chinese, and its surfaces follow the system between Warm Paper (light) and Ink Leaf (dark)—or pin one, or return to the native macOS look, in Settings.

FAQ

Questions, answered plainly

Ginkgo is a clipboard companion for macOS that lives in the menu bar. Every time you copy, a small panel in the bottom-right corner shows the clip and, when a plugin matches, an insight: a readable date for a Unix or ISO 8601 timestamp, an on-device dictionary entry for an English word, a summary of a PEM certificate, or pretty-printed JSON. Choosing Adopt writes the result back to the clipboard. It also keeps a local history of copied text, images, and files.

Clipboard managers record what you copied; Ginkgo interprets the current copy the moment it happens and offers the interpreted result for adoption. The panel never activates an app or takes keyboard focus, so your typing stays in the frontmost app, and the clipboard is never changed until you choose Adopt.

On copy, Timestamp, Dictionary, Certificate, and JSON match automatically. In the History window, typing / runs on-demand commands: Translate (macOS 26 or later, on-device with Apple's Translation framework, ten target languages), Format (JSON, JSONC, YAML, XML, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS), Markdown to styled HTML, Base64 and URL encoding, MD5 and SHA-256, and—with a license—a tool-using AI agent that runs on your own model key. Any result can also become a signed share-card image.

macOS 14 or later. Translate needs macOS 26 or later. On macOS 15 and later, allow Ginkgo under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Pasteboard from Other Apps so copies are recorded in the background.

The free tier is not a trial: copying, the light layer, and plugin insights are unlimited, and history saves up to 200 clips—everything already saved is kept forever. Unlimited history costs $3.99 per year (auto-renewing) or $7.99 once for a lifetime license; one serial number activates two Macs. No account is needed.

History is local by default and never uploads on its own. If you enable the official Sync plugin, history is encrypted on-device before syncing; the service stores ciphertext only. Other outbound requests include license activation and revalidation via Dodo Payments (serial, instance id, and device name), translation language packs macOS downloads itself, the official plugin catalog fetched when you open Settings › Plugins (plus an anonymous install count of plugin id and version), and AI agent runs you start, which go only to the provider you configured.

Download the disk image and drag Ginkgo into Applications, run the one-line install script from the download page (it skips the Gatekeeper prompt on first launch), or use Homebrew: brew tap usual2970/ginkgo && brew install --cask ginkgo.

Yes. Official plugins install and update from Settings › Plugins, and every package is verified with SHA-256 plus its code signature before it lands. Third-party .ginkgoplugin bundles are copied in by hand and enabled only after you grant the capabilities they declare. The public plugin SDK lives at github.com/usual2970/ginkgo-plugin-sdk.