Count the menu bar apps you're running for text productivity. A clipboard manager - Maccy, Paste, or Alfred's clipboard history. A text expander - TextExpander, Raycast snippets, or Typinator. Maybe a dictation tool on top of that.
That's three separate apps for tasks that are deeply related: they all put text into text fields faster. Clipboard history recalls what you've already typed. Snippets expand shortcuts into text you type frequently. Dictation converts speech into text. Three tools, three subscriptions or installs, three things to configure.
ActionPiper combines all three in one menu bar app, adds AI to the mix, and runs entirely on your Mac.
Clipboard Intelligence
ActionPiper keeps a history of everything you copy - 200 items by default, configurable up to 2000. But it does more than store text.
Every item is auto-categorized: text, URL, email, code, JSON, file path, color value, number. You can filter your history by category, search with fuzzy matching, or pin frequently used items to the top.
Images get OCR. Copy a screenshot and ActionPiper extracts the text from it automatically. The extracted text is searchable alongside your regular clipboard entries. Useful for grabbing text from images, error dialogs, or anything you can't select with your cursor.
Source tracking. ActionPiper records which app you copied from - including the browser tab URL for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Arc, Brave, Edge, and Vivaldi. When you're trying to find "that thing I copied from that article an hour ago," you can trace it back to the exact page.
Smart filtering. Password manager entries, one-time passwords, and other concealed pasteboard items are automatically skipped. You won't find your 1Password autofills cluttering your clipboard history.
Press Cmd+Shift+V to open the clipboard panel. Cmd+1 through Cmd+9 for quick paste of recent items.
Snippet Engine
Type a trigger, get expanded text. ActionPiper supports three types of snippets:
Static snippets. Type ;addr and your full mailing address appears. Type ;sig for your email signature. Type ;meet for your Zoom link. Classic text expansion - fast, reliable, no AI involved.
Date snippets. Type ;today and get today's formatted date. Define custom date formats for contracts, invoices, filenames, or whatever your workflow needs.
AI-powered snippets. This is the part that's new. Select a paragraph and type ;fix - ActionPiper sends it to a language model running on your Mac, which rewrites it with correct grammar and spelling. The result replaces your selection. Other built-in triggers:
;formal- rewrite in professional tone;casual- rewrite conversationally;bullets- convert to bullet points;summarize- condense to key points
You can define your own triggers with your own prompts. The language model runs locally via ToolPiper (our local AI engine) - your text stays on your Mac, there's no per-use cost, and it works offline.
Cursor placement. Include %| in any snippet to position the cursor there after expansion - useful for templates where you need to fill in a specific field.
Import your existing snippets. ActionPiper imports from TextExpander (.textexpander files), Raycast (JSON export), and CSV. If you're switching from another tool, your library comes with you.
Push-to-Talk Dictation
Hold the Right Option key and speak. Release it, and the transcribed text appears in whatever field has focus. That's the entire workflow.
The speech-to-text runs on Apple's Neural Engine via ToolPiper - the same Parakeet engine described in our voice transcription article. Latency is about 140 milliseconds end-to-end. It works offline.
This is different from macOS built-in dictation, which sends your audio to Apple's servers. With ActionPiper, nothing leaves your Mac. If you dictate confidential information - client names, medical terms, legal details - it stays local.
How do you set up ActionPiper?
1. Download and install. Grab the DMG from modelpiper.com. ActionPiper isn't on the Mac App Store because it needs system-level permissions that the App Store sandbox doesn't allow (this is also why TextExpander, Raycast, and Alfred aren't on the App Store).
2. Grant Accessibility permission. On first launch, macOS asks for Accessibility access. This is what allows ActionPiper to monitor your typing for snippet triggers and inject expanded text. Grant it once.
3. Start using clipboard and snippets. Clipboard history and static snippets work immediately - no other apps needed.
4. For AI features, install ToolPiper. AI-powered snippets (like ;fix) and push-to-talk dictation need ToolPiper running on your Mac. ToolPiper provides the language models and speech-to-text engine. ActionPiper talks to it automatically - no configuration needed.
5. Import existing snippets (optional). If you're coming from TextExpander or Raycast, import your library from Settings.
What people actually use this for
Rewriting a client email in two keystrokes. You drafted a reply but the tone is off. Select the text, type ;formal, and the language model rewrites it professionally. No switching to ChatGPT, no pasting sensitive client correspondence into a cloud service, no waiting. The text stays on your Mac and the rewrite appears in place.
Finding that thing you copied three hours ago. You copied a URL, a code snippet, and an error message from three different browser tabs this morning. Open clipboard history (Cmd+Shift+V), search for any part of it, and ActionPiper shows you what you copied, when, and from which app and browser tab. The source tracking means you can trace it back to the exact page.
Writing code faster. Snippets for your most-typed patterns - import statements, boilerplate functions, common SQL queries. Clipboard history auto-categorizes code vs. URLs vs. JSON, so you can filter by type. Source tracking shows which Stack Overflow tab that error message came from.
Talking instead of typing. You're on a call and need to take notes, but typing is disruptive. Hold Right Option, speak, release. The text appears in your notes app. At 140ms latency, it feels like it's transcribing as you speak. Useful for RSI, accessibility, or any situation where your hands are busy.
Grabbing text from images. A screenshot of an error dialog. A photo of a whiteboard. A PDF rendered as an image. Copy it to the clipboard and ActionPiper OCRs it automatically - the extracted text is searchable in your clipboard history.
What ActionPiper doesn't do
Snippet expansion works in most standard text fields, but some apps handle text input in non-standard ways. Terminal emulators, some Electron apps, and apps with custom text rendering may not respond to text injection. Clipboard history and AI snippets still work - you just paste manually instead of getting auto-expansion.
AI features (the ;fix / ;formal snippets and push-to-talk dictation) require ToolPiper running. Without it, ActionPiper works as a standalone clipboard manager and static text expander - the AI parts just won't be available.
Dictation accuracy depends on audio quality. A quiet room with a decent microphone gives excellent results. Noisy environments, heavy accents, or very technical jargon may produce errors - same as any speech-to-text system.
Get ActionPiper
ActionPiper is a free download from modelpiper.com (DMG). Requires macOS 26 or later and Apple Silicon (M1+). AI features require ToolPiper.
This is part of a series on local-first AI workflows on macOS. See also: Voice Transcription, Text to Speech.