ClickType is a small macOS menu bar app that types the plain-text contents of your clipboard into the app you were using. Copy text, put the caret where you want it, and click the keycap icon in the menu bar. ClickType sends keyboard events character by character, which can help when ordinary paste is unavailable.
Requires macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon. The current release is an arm64 build.
- Download the latest ClickType release and extract its
ClickType-*-macOS.zipfile. - Move
ClickType.appto your Applications folder and open it. The release is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple. - On first use, grant Accessibility access if macOS asks. You can also open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and enable ClickType there. Restart ClickType if the permission does not take effect immediately.
Keep the app in Applications before turning on Run at Login so macOS can find it at the same path later.
- Copy some text.
- Place the caret in a text field in another app.
- Left-click ClickType's keycap icon in the menu bar. ClickType returns to the previous app and types the clipboard text.
Right-click or Option-click the menu bar icon to open the menu. From there you can type the clipboard now, check or request Accessibility access, open Accessibility settings, turn Run at Login on or off, or quit. If macOS requires approval for Run at Login, follow the link in that menu to Login Items settings.
ClickType reads the clipboard when you ask it to type. It ignores images and other clipboard contents without plain text. Newlines are sent as Return and tabs as Tab.
- Clipboard text is held briefly in memory while ClickType types it. The app does not save the text, send it over a network, or include analytics.
- Accessibility permission is needed to send keyboard events to other apps. Grant it only if you are comfortable with that capability; the source code is available in
Sources. - Some apps do not accept synthetic Unicode keyboard events. Secure or privileged fields may reject them. Typing long text takes time because characters are sent in sequence.
- The current build is distributed through GitHub Releases. Its Accessibility-based typing feature is incompatible with the sandbox required for Mac App Store apps.
Open ClickType.xcodeproj in Xcode and run the ClickType scheme. Xcode 15 or later is required. You can also build an unsigned local copy from Terminal:
xcodebuild -project ClickType.xcodeproj -scheme ClickType \
-configuration Debug -derivedDataPath build/DerivedData \
CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO buildThe checked-in Xcode project is generated from project.yml with XcodeGen. The app uses AppKit, SwiftUI, Core Graphics, and ServiceManagement, with no third-party runtime dependencies. Release signing is configured for bundle ID dev.quackbyte.clicktype and team 435MC3786D; contributors can override signing settings for their own builds. Publishing a release requires Developer ID signing and Apple notarization.
GitHub Actions builds the app and runs unit tests on pull requests, pushes to main, and version tags. A tag such as v1.0.1 starts the release job only after tests pass. It signs an Apple Silicon app with Developer ID, notarizes and staples it, checks it with Gatekeeper, and uploads the ZIP and its SHA-256 checksum to GitHub Releases. The release notes include a changelog of commits since the previous version tag.
To publish a new version, first merge changes into main, then push a vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH tag pointing to that commit. The workflow sets the app version from the tag and the build number from its GitHub Actions run number. The Developer ID certificate and App Store Connect API key are stored as encrypted secrets in the tag-restricted release environment; no signing key is committed to this repository.
ClickType is available under the MIT License.