MacPasteNext

Created by Joe Mild. Because in 2026, he was still absolutely sick of macOS being too stupid for basic Linux copy & paste. Sometimes you just have to fix this shit yourself.

What is this?

MacPasteNext is a lightweight, background macOS application that finally brings the beloved Linux X11-style middle-click copy-paste functionality to your Mac. In addition, it packs an elegant system-wide microphone mute toggle mapped directly to your mouse buttons, complete with colorized visual feedback in your menu bar.

MacPasteNext. Because middle-click just makes sense.

Install (Apple Silicon, macOS 13+)

The app is distributed as a signed ZIP on the Releases page. The build is self-signed (no Apple Developer Program subscription), so macOS quarantines it on first launch — you only have to clear that once, and Sparkle handles every update from then on.

Option A — One-line installer (recommended)

Open Terminal and paste:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/d0dg3r/MacPasteNext/releases/latest/download/MacPasteNext-macos-arm64.zip -o /tmp/MacPasteNext.zip \
  && unzip -oq /tmp/MacPasteNext.zip -d /Applications \
  && xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MacPasteNext.app \
  && open /Applications/MacPasteNext.app

This downloads the latest signed build, drops it into /Applications, removes the Gatekeeper quarantine flag, and launches the app.

Option B — Manual install

1. Download MacPasteNext-macos-arm64.zip from the latest release.

2. Double-click the ZIP to unpack MacPasteNext.app.

3. Move MacPasteNext.app into /Applications.

4. Clear the Gatekeeper quarantine (otherwise macOS will refuse to launch a self-signed app):

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MacPasteNext.app

5. Launch the app from Launchpad or Spotlight.

First launch — grant Accessibility

On first start MacPasteNext asks for Accessibility access. This is the macOS permission that lets the app:

• observe global mouse clicks (so it can detect selections and middle-clicks), and
• simulate Cmd+C / Cmd+V (so it can paste into any focused app).

Allow it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, then click "Refresh Permission Status" in the app window. If macOS gets stuck and stops prompting, the settings panel has a built-in tccutil reset button that gives it a fresh start.

Updates are automatic

The app embeds Sparkle and checks the signed appcast.xml from the latest GitHub release in the background. When a newer build is available, you get a small update prompt right inside MacPasteNext — no more re-running the install commands. Every update ZIP is verified with an EdDSA signature before installation. You can disable background checks in Settings → Updates or trigger a check on demand from there or from the menu bar.

Features

• 🖱 Auto-Copy on Selection: Highlight text in any app, and it is instantly captured into an internal Linux-style PRIMARY buffer. Your regular Cmd+C clipboard is preserved.
• 🖱 Middle-Click Paste: Click your middle mouse button to paste your PRIMARY buffer instantly.
• 🎤 Global Microphone Mute: Toggle your system microphone on/off using a side mouse button. It remembers your previous volume level and displays a distinct Red/Green indicator in the macOS Menu Bar.
• ♻️ Auto-Updates: Powered by Sparkle. The app checks for new releases in the background and offers one-click updates. EdDSA signatures verify every download.
• 🌍 Localization: Fluent in both English and German.
• 🐞 Debug Friendly: Fully integrated real-time logging console visible directly in the app.

Screenshots

Dark Mode	Light Mode

These screenshots can be refreshed using the GitHub Actions workflow:

• Capture macOS Screenshots (.github/workflows/screenshots.yml)
• The workflow creates real macOS screenshots and commits updates to:
  • assets/screenshot-dark.png
  • assets/screenshot-light.png

Build from source

If you want to hack on MacPasteNext or build it yourself instead of using the prebuilt release:

1. Clone this repository.

2. Open a terminal in the cloned directory.

3. Build a release app bundle:

   chmod +x scripts/build-release.sh
   ./scripts/build-release.sh

4. Self-sign locally for quick tests:

   codesign --force --deep --sign - dist/MacPasteNext.app

5. Move dist/MacPasteNext.app to /Applications/ and launch it.

The build expects Swift 5.9+ and uses Apple's sips, iconutil, codesign, and security toolchain, so it must run on macOS.

Release pipeline (No Apple Developer subscription)

This project supports a GitHub Actions macOS ARM release pipeline using one persistent self-signed certificate. This keeps app identity stable across releases for sideloading:

• Constant bundle id: io.github.joemild.macpastenext
• Always sign with the same certificate identity
• Run smoke checks on each release build

Workflow file:

• .github/workflows/release.yml

Scripts:

• scripts/build-release.sh
• scripts/sign-selfsigned.sh
• scripts/smoke-test-macos.sh

One-time self-signed certificate setup

Run these steps on a macOS machine once, then reuse the same cert for all future releases.

1. Create a self-signed code-signing certificate in Keychain Access

   • Keychain Access -> Certificate Assistant -> Create a Certificate
   • Name example: MacPasteNext Self Signed
   • Identity Type: Self Signed Root
   • Certificate Type: Code Signing

2. Export as .p12 (with password).

3. Convert for GitHub secret:

   base64 -i MacPasteNext-selfsigned.p12 | pbcopy

4. Add GitHub repository secrets:

   • MAC_CERT_P12_BASE64: base64 of the exported .p12
   • MAC_CERT_P12_PASSWORD: password used during export
   • MAC_CERT_IDENTITY: exact certificate name (for example MacPasteNext Self Signed)

Required variables

Set these in GitHub (Settings -> Secrets and variables -> Actions -> New repository secret):

• MAC_CERT_P12_BASE64
• MAC_CERT_P12_PASSWORD
• MAC_CERT_IDENTITY

Local equivalents for manual test runs:

export MAC_CERT_P12_BASE64="<base64_of_p12>"
export MAC_CERT_P12_PASSWORD="<your_p12_password>"
export MAC_CERT_IDENTITY="MacPasteNext Self Signed"

One-time Sparkle EdDSA setup (auto-updates)

Sparkle signs every update with EdDSA so the app can verify the download even without Apple notarization. You generate the keypair once on macOS, add the private key as a GitHub secret, and the public key as a GitHub Actions variable that gets embedded into every build.

1. On your Mac, run:

   ./scripts/sparkle-bootstrap.sh

   The script downloads the matching Sparkle release, runs generate_keys, stores the private key in your Keychain, and prints both keys with copy instructions.

2. Open Settings -> Secrets and variables -> Actions and add:

   • Variable SPARKLE_PUBLIC_ED_KEY -> the public key from step 1 (safe to commit-visible; it ends up in the app's Info.plist)
   • Secret SPARKLE_ED_PRIVATE_KEY -> the private key from step 1 (the release workflow uses it to sign the update ZIP)

3. The next tag push will sign the update with Sparkle, generate an appcast.xml referencing the embedded public key, and upload both the ZIP and the appcast as release assets. Installed apps poll https://github.com/d0dg3r/MacPasteNext/releases/latest/download/appcast.xml for new versions.

If the secret/variable are missing the workflow still builds and uploads the ZIP, just without auto-update metadata, and emits a warning.

Triggering releases

• Final/stable tags use: v1.0.0, v1.0.1, ...
• Beta tags use: v1.0.0-beta.1, v1.0.0-beta.2, ... (the -beta.N suffix communicates the channel; the tag name is the source of truth).
• Every tag is published as a normal (non-prerelease) GitHub release and explicitly promoted to latest so Sparkle's poll URL https://github.com/d0dg3r/MacPasteNext/releases/latest/download/appcast.xml always resolves. GitHub refuses to set a prerelease as "latest", which would break the auto-updater for all installs.
• Each release builds, signs, runs smoke tests, uploads MacPasteNext-macos-arm64.zip + appcast.xml, and then triggers screenshot refresh automation.

Local preflight checks before CI

These checks are safe on Linux and help catch obvious issues before pushing:

# Shell syntax checks
bash -n scripts/build-release.sh
bash -n scripts/sign-selfsigned.sh
bash -n scripts/smoke-test-macos.sh
bash -n scripts/validate-release-inputs.sh
bash -n scripts/sparkle-bootstrap.sh
bash -n scripts/sparkle-publish-update.sh

# Changelog extraction sanity check (replace tag as needed)
./scripts/extract-changelog.sh v1.0.0-beta.1 CHANGELOG.md /tmp/release-notes.md allow-missing

Full app build/sign/smoke requires macOS because it depends on Apple tooling (sips, iconutil, codesign, security, spctl).

Troubleshooting

• "App is damaged and can't be opened" — Gatekeeper still sees the download as quarantined. Run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MacPasteNext.app once and try again. The installer one-liner in Install does this for you.
• Accessibility permission stuck / not prompting — open the app, switch to Settings and use the "Request Permission Again (tccutil reset)" button. macOS occasionally caches a stale denied decision; the button clears it via tccutil reset Accessibility io.github.joemild.macpastenext.
• Middle-click is doing the wrong thing — toggle Middle-Click Paste in the settings; if you map the mic-mute feature to button 2 it will take precedence over the paste action.
• Update check fails — open Settings → Updates and click Check for Updates. If you see a feed error, the path is shown in the About dialog so you can verify it matches https://github.com/d0dg3r/MacPasteNext/releases/latest/download/appcast.xml.

Contributing

Community contributions to deal with macOS quirks are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for our contribution guidelines.

Support and Reporting

• Usage/setup questions: GitHub Discussions
• Bug reports: GitHub Issues
• Security vulnerabilities: GitHub Security Advisory (private)
• Code of Conduct concerns: Maintainer profile

Project Health

• Roadmap: ROADMAP.md
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
• Code of Conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
• Security Policy: SECURITY.md
• Privacy Policy: PRIVACY.md

License

Provided under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.