Think of Clipbeam as your ultra‑organized, never‑forgetting buddy. Whether it’s a web page, a note, a spreadsheet, or that screenshot you know you'll need at some point, just clip it and a local offline AI swoops in to tag, summarize, and keyword‑it for future reference. Later on, you can type a casual sentence (“What did I read about solar panels?”) or ask the chat “Did I save the recipe for chocolate chip cookies?” – Clipbeam will fetch exactly what you need, fast and private.
Almost anything! Web URLs, voice recordings, Office documents, images, source code... you name it, Clipbeam will understand it. You can also snag plain‑text snippets. Each piece gets smartly analyzed and enriched with metadata. Need a quick jot? Use the Clipbeam notepad (with built-in live audio dictation) – perfect for those “aha!” moments or when just thinking out loud.
Drag & drop, click one of the three icons at the top centre, or use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + C + B (Windows) / ⌘ + C + B (Mac). The first icon opens the notepad, the second launches a file picker, and the third pastes whatever’s on your clipboard as a new Clip. You can toggle the keyboard shortcut under Edit > System‑wide ctrl/cmd + c + b.
On Windows:
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\clipbeam\Clips
On macOS:
/Users/YourUsername/Library/Application
Support/clipbeam/Clips
Keep them there – moving or deleting them manually will break the app.
Deleting a clip inside Clipbeam also removes its source file
automatically. Plain text and URLs live in an internal database.
Nope! All clips stay on your computer only. The AI that categorises and retrieves them runs locally, no internet required – except when you clip a URL, in which case Clipbeam briefly goes online just to read the page so it can tag it right.
Different AI models have different brain‑sizes. Bigger brains understand more but need more RAM and storage. Choose what fits your rig:
Macs users only need to worry about RAM & disk space; Windows users may
also need a decent GPU (Nvidia is recommended) to run Clipbeam's AI
features. Clipbeam will give you a heads‑up if an intelligence level is
too heavy for your machine.
The top search bar looks through three layers:
1. Exact words in the original file/text.
Want to filter by a tag? Wrap it in brackets, e.g.
[music]. Tags can be added manually via the edit button
on any clip.
Chat is your shortcut to the treasure chest. Ask Clipbeam for a fact, advice, or even to combine info from multiple clips (“How does my resume match this job posting?”) and it’ll whip up a response – no need to hunt down the exact clip yourself.
Global chat: Click the generic chat icon → Clipbeam scans
all your clips.
Focused chat: Attach specific clips (via the clip’s chat
button or the “Clips” tab in the chat window) → only those clips are
considered.
For deep dives, attaching relevant clips is the way to go.
Absolutely! Click Intelligence inside the chat window. Clipbeam runs on Ollama, so any model you’ve pulled into Ollama will appear as an option.
When you clip audio or video, Clipbeam silently listens, extracts the spoken words, and adds them to its metadata. In chat, hit the audio icon or press Shift + Space. You’ll hear a “ding” – that’s Clipbeam listening. Speak, then pause; it will answer automatically. If you’re in a noisy spot, tap the space bar to tell it you’re done. To stop Clipbeam from yapping on at any point, just press space to interrupt. Press Shift + Space again or click “End voice chat” to stop talking completely.
Nope. Voice processing stays on your device, just like every other AI feature – 100 % private and offline. That's just Clipbeam's jam.
Clipbeam opens URLs in the background to read them. If a page requires you to log in, Clipbeam can’t see past the login screen unless you save that account under File > Social Accounts. Currently supported are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium and Threads. For other sites, drop us a line on Reddit or LinkedIn – I love feature ideas! Some sites also block bots; in those cases you can manually add tags or a summary.
Right now it’s a beta, and I’m focused on polishing the experience rather than chasing growth. Future versions may include premium goodies like cloud backup and multi‑device sync, but the core local AI + dictation and voice chat will always stay free. And collecting or selling user data is Clipbeam's worst nightmare. It was created first and foremost to deliver a quality AI experience that is fully private and offline. Read the Privacy policy for further details on how important privacy is to Clipbeam. If you're interested in beta testing the premium version, reach out on Reddit or LinkedIn.
Your feedback fuels this project! Use the feedback form or join the conversation on Reddit. I’m listening (and occasionally replying) – let’s make Clipbeam even better together.