FlowShelf – free, native macOS shelf/clipboard/screenshot app, on-device AI

Built for focus. Designed for Mac.

The temporary workspace your Mac deserves.

A free menu-bar app that auto-captures your clipboard, summons a shelf at your cursor, turns screenshots into text, and previews your windows — without the clutter.

Download for macOSmacOS 14+ · Apple Silicon & Intel

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🍺 Install with Homebrew

Notarized by Apple

100% on-device

Source-available

No subscription

— downloads

One app. Everything you juggle all day.

The shelf is just the start — FlowShelf folds a whole stack of Mac utilities into one lightweight, private menu-bar app.

The Shelf

Everything you copy, in one place

Copies, screenshots, files, and links all land on a self-cleaning shelf. Search it, pin what matters, and it clears itself after 24 hours so it never becomes clutter.

Floating shelf

A shelf that comes to your cursor

A glass shelf appears wherever you're working. Drop files in, carry them between apps, and drag them out at the destination — no window-juggling.

Shake to summon

Summon it with a quick shake

Give your mouse a little shake and the shelf pops up right where you are — no hotkey to remember, no menu to hunt for.

Move things across apps

Carry things between apps

Park files, text, and images on the floating shelf, switch apps, then drag or paste them out exactly where you need them.

Notch shelf

Your notch, finally useful

A Dynamic-Island-style shelf lives right in your MacBook notch — and on external monitors too. Swipe down to open, drop files in, click a tile to copy.

Window snapping

Snap windows with a keystroke

Hold ⌃⌥ and tap an arrow to snap the focused window to halves, quarters, or fullscreen. The one Mac feature you'd usually pay for — built in.

Peek

Preview windows without clicking

Hover a Dock icon for live thumbnails of its windows. See what's open and jump straight to the exact window you want.

Glance, then switch

See every window at a glance

Hold the key and your windows fan out as live previews. Pick the one you want and switch to it instantly — no fumbling through ⌘-Tab.

Snippets

Reusable text, one click away

Save signatures, addresses, and canned replies once. Paste them anytime from the dashboard or straight from the menu-bar menu.

Capture & annotate

A full screenshot toolkit, built in

Grab a region or a window, then mark it up with arrows, shapes, a real highlighter, numbered steps, and text. Blur, pixelate, or black out anything sensitive. Drop a spotlight, add a magnifier callout, measure in pixels with the ruler, or wrap the shot in a gradient backdrop. Pin it on top of everything, scan a QR code, or stitch a before/after — then copy, save, or drop it on your shelf.

On-device AI

Private AI that never leaves your Mac

Summarize, rewrite, translate, and smart-search your shelf — powered by Apple's on-device models. No accounts, no cloud, no cost, and it runs only when you ask.

App cleaner

Uninstall apps completely

Drag an app in and FlowShelf finds every leftover — caches, preferences, support files — and moves them to the Trash. It even tells you what it couldn't remove.

One app, instead of five.

FlowShelf does what you actually used these popular Mac apps for — in one free, private menu-bar app.

What you’d reach forTypical priceFlowShelf

Paste / Maccy clipboard & shelf$29.99/yr✓ Included

Magnet window snapping$4.99✓ Included

AltTab window switcherFree✓ Included

CleanShot X screenshots & annotate$29✓ Included

AppCleaner uninstallerFree✓ Included

… plus snippets, a notch shelf & on-device AI$60+/yr valueFree

Easy installation.

Drag, drop, and you're good to go.

FlowShelf

Applications

1

Open the branded installer

Double-click the .dmg file.

2

Drag to Applications

Install FlowShelf like any native Mac app.

3

Launch & Go

FlowShelf is ready. No setup. No signup.

FlowShelf 1.4.0 is Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple. Its polished drag-to-install window opens normally on macOS.

Privacy First

Your data stays on your Mac.

Native Performance

Built with Swift, ~7 MB, light on memory.

Apple Silicon + Intel

All modern Macs.

No Subscription

One-time, yours forever.

Built in the open.

FlowShelf's source is public. Read every line, verify the privacy claims for yourself, and open a pull request — no black boxes, no hidden network calls.

View source on GitHub

Contributing guide

Made by one person, not a corporation.

Hi, I'm Mahin Kadery — a solo developer. I built FlowShelf because I was tired of running five separate apps (and paying five subscriptions) for the little things a Mac should just do. No investors, no growth team, no data collection — just an app I use every day and keep improving. If something breaks, the person reading your bug report is the person who wrote the code.

More of my work → toolfoliohub.com GitHub ☕ Buy me a coffee

Loved by people who hate clutter.

Real reviews from FlowShelf users — no account needed to read or leave one.

0.0 ★★★★★

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Reclaim your Mac's clutter.

Free, native, and yours forever. macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon & Intel.

Download for macOSOne-time download · No subscription

☕ Support FlowShelf

✓ Signed & notarized by Apple (Developer ID)

✓ Source-available — read the code

✓ 100% on-device — no account, no tracking, no servers

— downloads · View on GitHub

The button copies: brew install --cask mahinkadery/tap/flowshelf

Verify your download (SHA-256)

Every release ships with its checksum in the release notes. Current version 1.6.1:

e51f9bc153eb1bc0ca3dbffdaa0ca53296ec128534debdf69eb3e9f8829b6250

In Terminal, run shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/FlowShelf.dmg — the output must match exactly.

Questions & answers

Everything you need before your first launch.

Is FlowShelf really free?

Yes. FlowShelf is free and source-available, with no subscription and no account required. Download it once and it's yours.

Can FlowShelf turn a screenshot into text (OCR)?

Yes. Press ⌘⇧O to select any region of your screen and FlowShelf extracts the text straight to your Shelf and clipboard. Press ⌘⇧7 for a plain region screenshot.

What is the floating shake-to-summon shelf?

Shake your cursor (or use a global hotkey) and a floating glass shelf appears right at your pointer, so you can drop and grab items without leaving what you're doing. You can also use the menu-bar popover or the dashboard.

Does FlowShelf have a private mode?

Yes. Private mode pauses clipboard capture whenever you want, so sensitive copies never land on your Shelf.

How do updates work, and why do my permissions persist?

FlowShelf checks for updates daily and installs them with Sparkle, the standard macOS auto-updater. Version 1.3.4 and later use the same Apple Developer ID identity, helping Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions persist across future updates.

Is FlowShelf signed and notarized by Apple?

Yes. FlowShelf is Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple, so the app opens normally on macOS.

Where is my data stored?

Everything stays on your Mac. FlowShelf has no servers and no tracking — your clipboard, screenshots, files, links, and text never leave your device.

How does auto-delete work?

Shelf items expire automatically after 24 hours to keep today's workspace light. Pin anything you want to keep, or clear items manually whenever you like.

Which Macs are supported?

macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, as a universal binary for both Apple Silicon and Intel.

How is FlowShelf different from Yoink, Dropover, or a clipboard manager?

FlowShelf combines a drag-and-drop shelf, automatic clipboard capture, screenshot OCR, and live window previews in one private menu-bar app — and it auto-cleans daily so it never becomes clutter. It's free and source-available.