Paste as

Press ⌃⌥V instead of ⌘V to paste the clipboard as plain text, Markdown, JSON, text from an image or a file, with a live preview, or have AI rewrite it on the way in.

You copied something in the wrong shape: a web page with its fonts, a spreadsheet range you want as JSON, a screenshot of text. Press ⌃⌥V instead of ⌘V. A small panel opens at the text cursor (at the pointer when the app doesn't say where the cursor is) and lists what the clipboard can become. Each row shows a preview of its result, and the selected row shows it in full below.

Key	What it does
`⏎`	Pastes the selected row's result into the app you were in.
`⌘⏎`	Copies the result instead of pasting it.
`⌘1` to `⌘9`	Pastes that row straight away.
`↑`, `↓`	Moves through the rows.
`⇥`	Jumps to the Paste with AI line.
`⌘S`	On an AI instruction: keeps it as an action.
`⎋`	Clears the field; pressed again, closes the panel.

Typing in the field at the top filters the rows by name. Words no row matches become an instruction for AI.

What is in the list #

Every row is a macro. The panel lists the enabled macros whose first input takes what you copied (a link, code, an image, text, or any) and whose Shows in has Paste as ticked, in groups that are on, and whose Only if passes. The result a macro returns is the preview and what gets pasted. Only transforms are listed: a macro that opens or does something has nothing to paste.

The Clipboard actions group has the starting set, shared with the clipboard panel: Plain text, case, quotes, Clean URL, Pretty JSON, colour formats, Text from image. Paste as adds rows that show only here:

Markdown from rich text: copied web or document text as Markdown, with headings, links, lists, tables, bold and italic kept. Listed when the clipboard has HTML or RTF.
Rich text from Markdown: Markdown as formatted text that pastes with its headings and links into Mail, Notes and other rich editors.
JSON from CSV, TSV or YAML: a table with a header row, YAML, or a list of key: value lines, as pretty JSON.
CSV from JSON: an array of objects as CSV with a header row.
Image as a file and Text as a file: pastes a PNG or a .txt file, so it drops into upload fields and Finder.

A row that can't work on this clipboard (JSON from CSV on a sentence) leaves the list once its preview fails. Rows are ordinary macros: edit them, turn them off, or make your own with File › New Paste As Row. Under the first input, Shows in says where a macro is listed.

A row that wraps whatever you copied in a code fence is these steps, in a macro whose input is thing:text and whose Shows in is Paste as:

Paste in a code fence

Transform “{{text}}” with fence code
Return “{{out}}”

Open in Switchboard to try it

Paste with AI #

Type an instruction in the field (“as a bullet list”, “fix the grammar”, “in French”, “as a SQL INSERT”) and press ⏎. The result appears in the preview with where it was made: On this Mac · free, or the model and what it cost (Claude Haiku · 0.1¢). Press ⏎ again to paste it, ⌘⏎ to copy it. The last ten instructions are listed as Recent rows, and ⌘S turns one into a macro in the Clipboard actions group.

By default the instruction runs on this Mac with Apple Intelligence (free, about 4,000 tokens). Settings › Paste As › Paste with AI uses can let the cloud model answer when the text is too long, with your key or plan and the monthly cap from Settings › AI. A picture on the clipboard is read with OCR first and the text is rewritten.

Pasting #

The result goes on the clipboard, ⌘V goes to the app you were in, and 0.3 seconds later your original clipboard comes back. Clipboard history records the result once and skips the in-between copy. In a password field (secure input) the panel still opens, but ⏎ copies and says so.

From the palette #

Type paste in the palette (⌥Space) to see the same rows with a preview each: ⏎ pastes, ⌥⏎ copies. paste json filters them. The first row opens the panel. Turn the rows off in Settings › Palette › Also show.

Settings #

Settings › Paste As records the key (⌃⌥V by default; None turns it off) and sets what Paste with AI uses. The menu bar's Paste as… item opens the panel either way.

Gotchas #

{{clipboard.rich}} is the clipboard as HTML when it holds rich text (RTF is converted); {{clipboard}} stays the plain text. A macro that wants the rich flavor reads it there; {{thing}} and the input are the plain text.
The preview runs the macro in a dry run, so it must be safe: text transforms are. A macro that changes something shows a sentence instead and runs when you press ⏎.
Replacing ⌘V everywhere with a plain paste is a one-line macro, not a setting: ⌘V in a group scoped to Mail, running Plain text on the clipboard.