AmpelClip

English | Deutsch

Local-first clipboard privacy guard — traffic-light workflow to detect and anonymize sensitive text before you paste it.

AmpelClip is a local-first Windows clipboard privacy monitor. It watches clipboard text, detects sensitive patterns such as IBANs, email addresses, German phone numbers, credit-card-like numbers, postal codes, and dates, and helps anonymize copied content before it is pasted into documents, tickets, chat applications, LLM prompts, or web forms.

Note

AI / Agent & Developer Note: AmpelClip operates 100% offline with zero cloud telemetry. It provides structured regex pattern matching and custom term whitelisting for manual privacy verification. An AI-optimized index is available at llms.txt.

Architecture & Data Flow

flowchart TD
    subgraph Input ["Clipboard Event"]
        A["Windows Clipboard"] -->|Copy Event| B["PySide6 Monitor"]
    end

    subgraph Core ["Detection & Anonymization Engine"]
        B --> C{"Pattern Matcher"}
        C --> D["Built-in Regex\n(IBAN, Email, Phone DE, Credit Card)"]
        C --> E["Custom Terms\n(Sensitive Import File)"]
        C --> F["Whitelist Terms\n(Allowed Exceptions)"]
    end

    subgraph Modes ["Traffic-Light Decision Workflow"]
        D & E & F --> G{"Ampel Status"}
        G -->|RED| H["Monitor Only\n(Alerts on Sensitive Content)"]
        G -->|YELLOW| I["Preview & Review\n(Interactive Diff Modal)"]
        G -->|GREEN| J["Auto-Replace\n(Pastes [ANONYM] to Clipboard)"]
    end

    subgraph Output ["Local Storage & Companion"]
        H & I & J --> K["Tray Icon & History (Last 15)"]
        H & I & J --> L["PWA Companion\n(Local Browser Redaction)"]
    end

    style Input fill:#e1f5fe,stroke:#0288d1
    style Core fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#f57c00
    style Modes fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#388e3c
    style Output fill:#f3e5f5,stroke:#7b1fa2

Loading

Start Here

Need	Use
Run the desktop tool	python Ampel6.py or START.bat
Configure detection	Enable built-in regex patterns and import sensitive/whitelist terms
Review before replacing	Use yellow preview mode
Auto-anonymize clipboard text	Use green mode after checking the rules
Run offline PWA companion	Open web_companion/index.html in browser
Understand limits	Read the manual-review warning below

Why AmpelClip

• Traffic-light workflow: red for monitor-only, yellow for preview, green for automatic replacement.
• Clipboard-focused privacy support: useful before pasting text into documents, tickets, chat tools, LLM prompts or web forms.
• Built-in pattern detection: IBAN, email, German phone numbers, credit-card-like numbers, postal codes and dates.
• Custom lists: import sensitive terms and whitelist terms from TXT or Excel files.
• Local-first desktop app: clipboard handling stays on the local Windows machine.
• Tray integration and history: colored tray icon plus the last 15 clipboard entries.
• Web Companion (PWA): offline-first browser companion for manual text redaction and profile exchange.

Warning

AmpelClip is not a complete Data Loss Prevention (DLP) platform and does not guarantee complete redaction. It is a helper for privacy workflows and requires manual verification for critical data.

Install

Requirements:

• Python 3.10+
• Windows

git clone https://github.com/file-bricks/AmpelClip.git
cd AmpelClip
pip install -r requirements.txt
python Ampel6.py

You can also start the app with START.bat.

How It Works

1. Choose red, yellow or green mode.
2. Enable built-in patterns and optionally import sensitive terms or whitelists.
3. Copy text as usual.
4. AmpelClip checks the clipboard content locally.
5. In yellow mode, review the original and anonymized preview.
6. In green mode, matching sensitive content is replaced with [ANONYM].

Configuration

Settings are saved in config.json, which is created on first start.

Setting	Description
builtin_patterns	Enabled and disabled built-in pattern types
ampel_status	Current traffic-light mode (red, yellow, green)
case_sensitive	Case-sensitive matching
whole_words	Whole-word matching only
files	Previously imported list files

Build Executable

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller --onefile --noconsole --icon=ICO.ico --name=AmpelClip Ampel6.py

Search Context

AmpelClip is part of the file-bricks local-first desktop tools family. Useful search phrases:

• AmpelClip clipboard privacy monitor
• file-bricks AmpelClip
• local-first clipboard privacy tool
• Windows clipboard anonymization helper
• local clipboard anonymization PySide6
• Windows clipboard redaction helper
• privacy traffic light clipboard tool
• clipboard PII redaction desktop app
• PySide6 clipboard privacy utility

German README

A full German README is available in README_de.md.

License

MIT License.