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.

Some copies get a card worked out on your computer, with nothing sent anywhere: a swatch for a color, a grid for cells copied from a spreadsheet, a check on JSON, a timestamp or date in your time zone, a sum worked out, units converted, and a button to call a phone number, write to an email address or track a package. See them all in the card gallery.

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.

Image labels

Turn on Settings → Smart Cards → Label Images and cards for the images you copy say what they are: Receipt, Chart, Code, Chat, Error, Document, Diagram, Photo, Meme, QR code and more (from Pasta 0.4.42). Each new image is sent once, as a small encrypted copy, to our server and on to Jev; only the label is kept. Pasta reads the text in the image on your computer first and never sends one that looks like it shows a password or key. It's off until you turn it on, and only images copied after that are labeled.

Smart Cards are always on and need you to be signed in. Signed out, nothing you copy is sent for labels or previews.

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

Search

Open the panel and start typing (or press ⌘ F). Search runs entirely on your Mac, so it works offline and your searches are never sent anywhere.

Words, as you type

Results update with every letter. Pasta matches the word you're still typing (dock finds “docker”), finds other forms of a word (screenshots finds “screenshot”), forgives typos, and ranks by how well a card matches and how recently you copied it.

Every word you type has to be on the card. When no card has them all, Pasta shows the cards that have all but one, so “zoom link friday” still finds your Zoom link from Tuesday.

Screenshots and copied images are searchable by the text in them, which Pasta reads on your computer and never sends anywhere. With Label Images on, you can also search by an image's label, like “receipt” or “chart”.

Filters in plain words

Name an app, a kind of copy or a time and Pasta reads it as a filter, on your Mac. slack links yesterday shows every link you copied from Slack yesterday, newest first. colors from figma, screenshots last week, receipts in march and emails from chrome about the offsite work too. Apps are the ones you've copied from; kinds are links, images and screenshots, colors, code, files, emails, phone numbers, addresses and card names like Zoom, YouTube or Receipt; times are today, yesterday, this or last week or month, a weekday, a month, or “last 3 days”.

What Pasta understood shows under the search box, like “from Slack ×” or “Yesterday ×”. Click × to search that word as plain text instead. If the filters find nothing, Pasta searches your words as typed, so “link building tips” still finds your note. To be exact, type from:slack, is:link, after:2026-09-01 or before:2026-10-01.

Similar cards

When only a few cards match your words, Pasta also shows cards that are close in meaning, after the word matches under a “Similar” divider. Each one has a ✨ Similar sticker. This also runs on your Mac (from Pasta 0.3.70).

Smarter search (Apple Silicon Macs)

On Macs with Apple silicon, Similar cards understand what you mean, not just the words: “undo my last commit” finds the git command, “that docker thing that cleans up space” finds docker system prune. It's on by default. A minute or two after setup, Pasta downloads about 175 MB once, quietly in the background, and waits while your Mac is in Low Power Mode or low on battery. Then it reads your history on your Mac, newest first; until it's done, search works as before. Everything stays on your Mac: the download is the only thing it fetches, and locked passwords and keys are never read. Turn it off in Settings → Search → Smarter Search; Remove… deletes the download. Intel Macs and Windows keep the standard Similar cards for now.

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.