Launching today
PasteGuard for Mac
Keep secrets and personal data out of AI chats
54 followers
Keep secrets and personal data out of AI chats
54 followers
PasteGuard masks API keys, passwords, emails, card numbers and more on your Mac's clipboard the moment you copy, so every paste into ChatGPT, Claude, Slack or a terminal is safe. An optional Apple Intelligence check on your Mac catches what rules miss. For what only you know, add custom rules, import CSV word lists or keep an Ignore list. Restore puts the real values back. No permissions, no account, nothing leaves your Mac.
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Hi Product Hunt 👋
I built PasteGuard after catching myself pasting a production config — database URL, credentials and all — into an AI chat.
The idea is simple: keep sensitive data out of AI chats without changing how you copy and paste.
PasteGuard checks your clipboard locally and replaces sensitive values with placeholders like [API_KEY_1] the moment you copy. So whether you paste into ChatGPT, Claude, Slack or a support ticket, the original secrets stay on your Mac.
When you need the original values back, press ⌃⌘R to restore them from the placeholders.
• Works across apps, no Accessibility permission required
• Fully local: originals stay in an encrypted vault on your Mac
• Ignore or Mark As when detection gets something wrong
• Pro: custom detection rules and CSV word lists
It's free to download. I'd love to hear what it misses, what it flags incorrectly, or what would make it more useful in your daily workflow!
Can someone put one detail back and leave the rest hidden?
@vijay_navaluri Not yet. Right now, Restore Originals replaces all recognized placeholders in the copied text, rather than letting you restore just one.
Selective restore is a great idea, though. Being able to reveal one value while keeping everything else masked would be really useful. I'll look into adding it. Thanks for the suggestion!
does it catch keys inside a bigger paste like a whole .env file, or mostly single copied values?
@neerajnathany Yes! PasteGuard scans the entire copied text, not just individual values. So if you copy a whole .env file, JSON config, or production logs, it can detect and mask multiple secrets within the same paste, including API keys, passwords, tokens, and database URLs.
It replaces detected values with placeholders like [API_KEY_1] while keeping the rest of the content intact. Everything is processed locally on your Mac.
It's not perfect, though, so I'd still recommend reviewing sensitive content before sharing it.
This solves one of those small security risks that's easy to overlook when switching between AI tools all day. Congratulations!
@henry_habib Thank you! That's exactly why I built PasteGuard. It's so easy to accidentally share sensitive data when switching between AI tools. I wanted to make protecting it feel effortless, without changing how people work. Really appreciate your support!
Half the time I copy a key, it's because I'm pasting it somewhere it belongs, like a Vercel env var or a .env file. How does that work here? Do I hit restore every time, or can I tell it certain apps and sites get the real value? Also wondering about clipboard managers: if one saves the original before you mask it, is the secret safe in the paste but still sitting in my history?
@robksawyer Great questions! Thanks for bringing these up.
Pasting keys where they belong: With Auto-mask enabled, PasteGuard masks sensitive values as soon as you copy them. If you need the original for Vercel or a .env file, just select Show Original under Last Copy in the menu, or click Undo on the notification before pasting.
If you work with API keys frequently, you can turn Auto-mask off. Your normal copy and paste stays unchanged, and you can use Safe Paste (⌃⌘V) whenever you want masking, or configure specific apps under Settings → Apps to mask when using ⌘V. Automatic trusted destinations aren't supported yet.
Clipboard managers: This is a valid concern. PasteGuard doesn't store clipboard history, but other clipboard managers may capture the original value before masking takes effect. PasteGuard can't prevent that or remove entries they've already saved.
For now, the safest approach is to configure your clipboard manager to ignore apps where you handle secrets, or use a password manager that marks copied secrets so compatible clipboard managers can skip them.
Really appreciate the thoughtful questions. They're helpful for making PasteGuard better!
congrats on the launch!!!
masking on the way out is the easier half, i think. the model answers talking about EMAIL_1 and DB_PASSWORD_2 and then, i'm the one sitting there mapping it back, which is usually where i give up and stop using the tool.
does restore work on text i copy out of the chat? not matching what i sent, but finding the placeholders inside a reply and swapping them back.
@seenew Thanks! And yes, Restore works on text you copy out of the chat, even if the reply looks nothing like what you sent. It scans for placeholders PasteGuard created and swaps the originals back, including repeats and placeholders inside code blocks.
Just copy the reply and press ⌃⌘R, or choose Restore Originals from the menu. Originals stay local and are kept for 24 hours by default. I tested this on a Mac with [EMAIL_1], [DB_URL_1], and [API_KEY_1], and all three came back correctly throughout the reply.
One catch: placeholders currently have to match exactly. [EMAIL_1] works, but EMAIL_1 or [email_1] won’t, so if the model drops the brackets as in your example, Restore will miss it. I’m looking into handling dropped brackets, changed capitalization, and Markdown escaping, while still only restoring values from your local vault.
the ignore list matters almost as much as the detection here
clipboard tools get frustrating fast if ordinary copying turns into a cleanup job every time
@saad_el_gueddari Totally agree! False positives can be just as frustrating as missed detections. That's why PasteGuard has Ignore and Mark As options, so users can quickly correct mistakes. You can also control masking behavior for specific apps. The goal is to protect sensitive data without interrupting your everyday workflow. Thanks for the feedback!