Smart Cards and search

Smart Cards

Every copy becomes a card labeled by what it is: a git command, a stack trace, a tracking number, a Figma link, a recipe. There are nearly 8,000 kinds, grouped into categories like code, commands, errors, data, links, messages and documents.

The labels come from Jev, an AI model by TypeSafe AI, reached through our server. When you copy something, its text (up to the first 4,000 characters, with emails, phone numbers and link query strings removed) goes to our server and on to Jev. Nothing is stored or logged there in readable form.

Links get a preview too. Our server fetches the page to show its title, description and image, so the website sees a visit from our server, not from you.

Smart Cards are on by default and need you to be signed in. To switch them off, go to Settings → Smart Cards. With them off, nothing you copy is sent for labels or previews, and search uses words only.

Passwords, keys and other secrets Pasta detects are never sent. See Privacy and secrets.

Search

Open the panel and start typing (or press ⌘ F). Pasta searches in two steps.

1. Words, instantly

As you type, Pasta matches the words against your history on your Mac and shows the newest matches right away. Matching works on the start of words, so dock finds “docker”. This part never leaves your Mac.

2. Meaning, a moment later

When you pause for a moment (and you’ve typed at least 3 characters), Pasta also asks Jev what you meant. You’ll see “Jev is looking for what you mean…” above the cards.

1. Jev reads your search and guesses what kind of thing you want, roughly when you copied it, and from which app. “Tracking number from Slack yesterday” becomes data, around yesterday, from Slack.
2. Pasta uses that guess to pick up to 255 likely cards from your whole history, plus the word matches.
3. It sends Jev a short description of each one (its label, app, age and a snippet or link title), and Jev ranks them against your search.
4. Up to 5 of the best matches appear first, under “You might mean these”. The word matches follow.

Search by meaning needs Smart Cards on and an account. Secrets are never sent as candidates, and a search that looks like a secret itself is never sent at all.

Press Enter to paste the highlighted result, or use ↓ and ↑ to move between results first (from Pasta 0.3.14). You can also double-click a result. Press Esc to clear the search.