Support

Last updated September 25, 2026

Whisk is a free, open-source clipboard manager for the Mac, made and maintained by one person. This page tells you how to ask a question or report a problem, and answers the questions that come up most often.

Ask a question or report a problem

• Questions and bug reports go to the issue tracker on GitHub (a free GitHub account is enough). Say what you did, what you expected, what happened instead, and which versions of Whisk and macOS you use. Screenshots help. Have a look at the open issues first: your question may already have an answer.
• Feature ideas are welcome in the same place. Say what you are trying to do rather than how you would build it.
• Security concerns should not be posted publicly. Use GitHub's private vulnerability report, as described in the security policy.

Issues are read by the maintainer, and you will usually hear back within a week.

Frequently asked questions

I launched Whisk and nothing appeared.

That is expected: Whisk lives in the menu bar, as a clipboard icon, and has no main window. Copy a few things, then press ⇧⌘V or click the icon and choose Show Panel. The first launch shows a short welcome window; afterwards the icon is the only sign that Whisk is running.

Why does Whisk ask for Accessibility access?

To paste the card you pick straight into the field you were typing in: Whisk sends a single ⌘V keystroke to the application you were working in. The permission is optional. Without it, Whisk copies the card to the clipboard and you press ⌘V yourself. To grant it, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and turn Whisk on. You can turn it off again at any time; everything else keeps working.

I pressed Return and nothing was pasted.

The card is on the clipboard: press ⌘V in the field you want. Direct pasting needs the Accessibility permission described above. If it is granted and pasting still does nothing in one particular application, please open an issue and name that application.

The shortcut does nothing.

Check that Whisk is running: the clipboard icon must be in the menu bar. If it is, another application probably holds ⇧⌘V. Right-click the icon, choose Settings…, then click the shortcut and type a new one. Every shortcut in Whisk can be changed there.

Something I copied is not in the history.

Whisk skips a copy when capture is paused (menu bar menu), when the source application is on the excluded list (Settings), and when the source marks its content as confidential, as password managers do. Items also leave the history when they pass the retention period or the capacity you chose in Settings; pinned items stay.

Where is my history, and how do I delete it?

On your Mac only. The build from GitHub or Homebrew keeps it in ~/Library/Application Support/Whisk; the Mac App Store build keeps it in its own sandbox container. Delete one card with ⌘⌫, clear the unpinned ones from the menu bar menu, or delete the folder to remove everything. The privacy page lists what Whisk stores and what leaves your Mac.

I switched between the Mac App Store build and the Homebrew build and my history is gone.

The two builds keep separate histories, because the Mac App Store build is sandboxed and stores its data elsewhere. Nothing is lost: each build shows its own history. Keep one of the two installed.

How do I update?

• Mac App Store: updates come through the App Store like any other app.
• Homebrew: brew upgrade --cask whisk.
• DMG from GitHub: Whisk checks for a new release at launch and points you to it; download the new DMG and replace the app. The check can be turned off in Settings.

Homebrew refuses to install Whisk from an untrusted tap.

Recent versions of Homebrew ask you to approve third-party taps once. Run brew trust nathan-poncet/tap, then install again.

Source code and license

Whisk is open source under the GPL-3.0-or-later. The code, the changelog and the release notes are on GitHub; contributions follow CONTRIBUTING.md.