xclip

Desktop clipper that turns social video URLs into pasteable MP4/GIF clips in seconds.

Paste a video URL, trim a clip, and copy it to your clipboard — ready to paste straight into X, Discord, Slack, etc. Built as a small Tauri 2 + Svelte 5 desktop app for Windows.

The headline feature is Focus Tools: select a region on the video and either reframe the export crop to follow it, or render a moving overlay (highlight box, label, blur/censor, pixelate, spotlight) on top of the original framing. Tracking is manual, recorded mouse path, or auto.

Features

• Paste a video URL — TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Reddit — downloads via yt-dlp, plays in-app
• yt-dlp self-updates weekly from its official GitHub releases, with validation, rollback, and a manual Check yt-dlp button. Bundled copy is the immutable fallback.
• Trim with [ / ] (or the inputs)
• Export to MP4 or GIF at three quality presets
• Auto-copies the finished file to clipboard; Copy Last re-copies the previous export
• Custom output folder + live output-size estimate
• Focus Tools for following a subject on export:
  • Reframe Camera — animate a crop to follow the subject; lock to 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9
  • Highlight Box / Label Box — moving outline (and text) over the original frame
  • Blur / Censor / Pixelate — moving privacy mask
  • Spotlight — clear region with the rest dimmed
  • Shape: Rectangle or Circle (export honors the shape via geq alpha-mask)
• Three tracking methods: manual keyframes, record-mouse-path (with EMA smoothing + post-record Smooth pass), auto-track (stub returning a friendly "not supported" error)
• Hold-to-record: click+hold the focus box, press R, drag to trace, release to stop while video keeps playing
• Timeline with keyframe markers, drag-select range, right-click delete
• Persistable Focus Tools defaults across clips, with a Reset button

Quick start

Grab the latest from the Releases page:

• Portable (*-portable.zip) — unzip anywhere, run xclip.exe. No installer, no SmartScreen signature prompt. Recommended for most users.
• Installer (*-setup.exe or .msi) — if you want Start Menu integration / uninstaller.

For development setup see INSTALL.md.

Keyboard shortcuts

Tech stack

• Frontend: Svelte 5 (runes) + TypeScript + Vite
• Backend: Tauri 2 (Rust)
• Media: bundled ffmpeg + ffprobe (BtbN GPL build) + yt-dlp as sidecar binaries
• HTTP: reqwest (rustls) for the yt-dlp updater

See NOTICES.md for third-party licenses.

Project layout

src/                  Svelte frontend
src/lib/focus/        Focus Tools utilities (types, interpolation, coords)
src/lib/Focus*.svelte Focus Tools UI (overlay, panel)
src/stores/           App state (clip + focus state with localStorage persistence)
src/bindings/tauri.ts Tauri command bindings
src-tauri/src/        Rust backend
src-tauri/src/focus/  Focus filter graph generator
src-tauri/binaries/   Sidecar binaries (NOT committed — see binaries/README.md)
.github/workflows/    CI: builds + auto-releases on tag push

License

xclip itself is MIT. Bundled third-party binaries (ffmpeg, ffprobe, yt-dlp) keep their own licenses — see NOTICES.md for full disclosure.

yt-dlp self-updates from its official GitHub releases at most once per 7 days. The bundled copy is the immutable fallback — manual update available via the Check yt-dlp button next to the URL field.