Stop your password manager from filling your clipboard history

Every time you copy a password out of 1Password, Bitwarden, or another vault, your clipboard manager dutifully records it. That’s a problem — passwords, 2FA codes, recovery phrases, and secure notes all end up sitting in your history where they shouldn’t be.

Two paths

Native macOS. Most password managers clear the system clipboard after 30 or 60 seconds, which protects against snooping but does nothing to prevent a clipboard history app from grabbing the value while it’s there. macOS itself doesn’t offer per-app clipboard exclusions — that’s a job for the clipboard tool.

Perch. Has a per-app exclude list. Add your password manager’s bundle ID and Perch will never capture anything copied from that app — the value passes through the system clipboard so paste still works, but it never enters Perch’s history.

Exclude a password manager

1. Open Perch's Settings.
2. Go to the Privacy tab.
3. Under Excluded apps, click + and pick your password manager from the list — 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Proton Pass, Keeper, whatever you use.
4. Test it: copy a password from the vault, open Perch with ⌘⇧V, and confirm the value isn't there.

Anything copied from that app from now on is ignored. Already-captured items don’t get removed retroactively — if you’ve been using Perch for a while, also delete any password-looking entries from your existing history before you trust the exclude list.

A safer default for sensitive copies

Even with an exclude list, anything you copy out of a browser autofill or a “show password” toggle inside a website still goes through the regular clipboard and into Perch. A few habits help:

• Use the password manager’s built-in autofill instead of copy-paste when you can.
• Right-click any sensitive Perch item and delete it as soon as you’ve used it.
• Set Perch’s history retention to a shorter window (Settings → General) so old data doesn’t accumulate.

Privacy posture

Perch keeps everything local — no cloud sync, no telemetry of clipboard contents — so excluded apps stay excluded only on this Mac. If you use Perch on multiple machines, you’ll need to add the exclude list on each one. That’s a fair tradeoff for a clipboard manager that never sends your data anywhere.