Pastree began as a clipboard history for the browser. A year later it's a side panel for the text, files and AI prompts people reuse, with a new brand, a new website, and a release that fixed what version 1 got wrong. I designed it, built it and shipped it.
Version 1 was a popup that kept a clipboard history and three paste shortcuts. It worked, until you looked closely. Drag the handle to compare the panel then and now.
ShortcutsTied to list position, so every new copy moved them. Now each shortcut belongs to an item, pinned under SHORTCUTS.
Keys
Option keys typed odd characters on a Mac. Now ⌃⇧U⌃⇧I⌃⇧O, left to right.
ScopeClipboard and Lists only. Now Files and Prompts too, behind one search.
ContainerA popup that closed when you clicked the page. Now Chrome's side panel and Firefox's sidebar, open beside your work.
v1.0v1.2.1
Drag the handle, or use the left and right arrow keys · sample data
02 / The audit
I reviewed my own v1 like a stranger's.
Before adding anything, I wrote a code review of the shipped extension and tested every setting against what its label promised. Several didn't do what they said. Those broken promises became the brief for 1.1 and 1.2.
The promise
What v1 did
What 1.2 does
“Exclude passwords”
The setting did nothing. Passwords pasted into login forms were saved.
On by default. Skips password, card and one-time-code fields, and text that looks like keys, tokens or card numbers.
“Clear All Data”
Cleared only the clipboard and lists. Deleted text stayed in a second copy.
A checklist of what to clear. Stray copies are gone, and the update removed old ones.
Paste the last three items
Every copy shifted the shortcuts, so the key you learned pasted something else.
Shortcuts bound to an item until you reassign it. Existing installs kept their bindings on update.
Automatic capture
Stopped a few seconds after the service worker went idle, and reset to off on every update.
Survives worker restarts and updates. Off until you choose to turn it on.
Light theme
Broken at the root: the gray scale existed only in dark mode.
Both themes first-class, from one token set, with contrast floors.
Delete
A dialog closed with Esc kept its handler, so the next delete removed two items.
Dialog listeners are scoped to the open dialog and torn down however it closes.
Source: CHANGELOG.md 1.1.0 to 1.2.1, docs/CODE_REVIEW.md
03 / Design decisions
Six decisions that shaped 1.2.
Each one started as a problem in how people actually use a browser, and ended as a rule the product follows.
Decision 1 · Keyboard
Shortcut keys that work on every keyboard
Problem
On a Mac, Option plus a letter types a character, so Firefox typed “π” instead of pasting. And inside text fields macOS uses ⌃⇧P to move the cursor.
Decision
New Mac keys that avoid every letter macOS reserves, running left to right across the keyboard like Alt+I, O, P on Windows. The panel always shows the keys the browser actually has, including ones the user changed.
Item 1Item 2Item 3v1 Mac⌥P⌥O⌥I1.2 Mac⌃⇧U⌃⇧I⌃⇧OWindowsAlt+IAlt+OAlt+POpen⌃⇧V · Alt+Shift+V(Ctrl+Shift+V is the browser's “paste as plain text”)
Decision 2 · Mental model
A shortcut belongs to an item, not a position
Problem
“Paste the most recent item” changes meaning with every copy. People memorize what a key pastes, not where it sits.
Decision
Bind each key to an item and pin those items under a SHORTCUTS heading, with RECENT below. Migrate existing installs by freezing the bindings they already had.
Decision 3 · Trust
Ask for access at the moment it's needed
Problem
An install prompt that says “read and change all your data on all websites” scares people off a clipboard tool.
Decision
Make site access optional. Pastree asks when you turn on auto-capture or first paste from the panel. Shortcuts and the right-click menu work without it.
Decision 4 · Scope
From clipboard history to a reuse workspace
Problem
What people retype isn't only text. It's the same résumé upload and the same AI prompt, every day.
Decision
Add Files, which attach straight into upload fields with no file picker, and Prompts with fill-in {audience} and automatic {{date}} variables.
Decision 5 · Defaults
Private unless you say otherwise
Problem
A tool that captures everything you copy will, sooner or later, capture a password.
Decision
Auto-capture off by default, Exclude passwords on, auto-delete that never touches starred items or lists. No accounts, no servers, no analytics.
Decision 6 · Access
Keyboard and screen reader, not just shortcuts
Problem
A keyboard-first product whose dialogs lost focus and whose icon buttons had no names.
Decision
Dialogs announce themselves, trap focus and return it. Every row button is named. Checked by hand with VoiceOver in Chrome and Firefox.
Also in 1.2
Bulk actions and search everywhere
Added
Select cards with click, shift-click and ⌘-click, then Star, Add to List or Delete in one step. Search now covers the List tab with highlighted matches.
04 / The product
Everything you reuse, beside the page.
Clipboard tab, light theme · sample data
Clipboard
Everything you copy on the web, searchable, with your three shortcut items pinned on top.
Shortcut items 1–3 pinned under SHORTCUTS
Auto-capture off until you turn it on
Star, list, edit, paste or delete from each card
Select several and act on them at once
List tab, dark theme · sample data
List
Group the snippets you reuse by what they are for: application answers, support macros, bios.
Lists shown as a tree, navigable with arrow keys
Add from history in one click
Paste list items from the right-click menu
Search finds lists and items, with highlights
Files tab, light theme · sample data
Files
Keep your résumé and other documents in the panel and attach them to upload fields without opening a file picker.
PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, MD, RTF, ODT and images
Up to 50 files, 20 MB each
List, grid and thumbnail views
Works with drop zones and forms inside iframes
Prompts tab, dark theme · sample data
Prompts
Save the prompts you use with AI tools as templates, then fill in the blanks and copy.
Fill-in {variables} and automatic {{date}}, {{clipboard}}
Up to 20 versions, with compare and restore
Tags, lists, favorites and pinning
Pastree connects to no AI service
Settings, light theme · sample data
Settings
Privacy and retention controls written in plain language, with safe defaults.
Exclude passwords on by default
Auto-delete never touches starred items or lists
Clear All Data as a checklist
Every shortcut listed with the keys your browser has
05 / Brand and design system
One token set, two first-class themes.
I designed the Pastree mark, wordmark and palette, then rebuilt the extension's styles so light and dark come from the same tokens. The panel was first drawn from dark mockups, with about 300 hardcoded white-on-dark values that vanished on a light background.
An ink channel instead of 300 literals
--ink is a bare RGB triple, so any surface can take it at any strength. A contrast floor stops secondary text from dropping below what each theme can read.
/* light */--ink: 26 26 32;
--ink-floor: 64%; /* dark: 52% *//* at the use site */
color: rgb(var(--ink) / max(40%, var(--ink-floor)));
Brand orange, split by job
Pastree orange is 2.9:1 on white: fine for fills, too faint for text. Text and icons on light surfaces use a deeper orange; fills and the logo keep the true brand color.
Aa
#FF6520 fill · 6.7:1 w/ ink
Aa
#B63D0B text on light · 5.7:1
Aa
#FF6520 text on light · 2.9:1 ✕
Aa
#0A0A0C ground · 17.4:1
06 / Engineering
Built for browsers that stop your code without asking.
Manifest V3 service workers are shut down whenever the browser likes. Tabs come and go. Chrome and Firefox disagree on panels, permissions and keys. The architecture is built around those facts.
Architecture: content scripts on web pages send messages to the service worker, which routes them through a serial queue to local storage and IndexedDB. The side panel talks to the same service worker.
Capture died when the worker slept
SymptomAuto-capture stopped a few seconds after the browser idled the service worker.
CauseOrphan detection used a runtime port. An idle MV3 worker drops every port, which looked the same as an extension reload, so every tab tore down its listeners.
FixDetect orphans with runtime.id, which survives worker restarts, and retry cold-start messaging errors instead of treating them as fatal.
Copy twice, and the item can't be deleted
SymptomCopying the same text again made that item impossible to delete, edit or star.
CauseDe-duplication wrote a new timestamp to the item but not to the index, so every lookup missed.
FixThe index tracks the item it points at, and lookups fall back to a scan, so installs that already drifted repair themselves on first use.
Races between capture and delete
SymptomA capture landing during a delete could bring the deleted item back, or be lost.
CauseConcurrent read-modify-write cycles on the same storage keys.
FixA serial queue in the service worker, so storage writes run one at a time, covered by its own tests.
Web pages could ask to wipe your data
SymptomThe background script accepted clear, import and overwrite requests from any sender.
CauseNo check on who sent a message, and imported backups could write any setting.
FixDestructive requests are accepted only from Pastree's own pages. Imports are validated, and file names render as text, never markup.
136commits up to v1.2.1first: 2025-10-12
512unit testsVitest
2store builds from one sourceChrome MV3 · Firefox
0network requests from the extensioneverything stays on device
What went into 1.2.0
55 changelog entries, released Sep 28, 2026
2515104
Fixed 25
Changed 15
Security 10
Added 4
Removed 1
07 / pastr.ee
A new website, built from scratch.
The old site said “Supercharge your clipboard” and described things Pastree no longer offers, such as open source code. I rebuilt it around one line, “Stop retyping yourself.”, real scenarios, and the product's own UI as the main image. Every claim was checked against a single product-facts file taken from the code.
pastr.ee
Scroll inside the frame · 1440 px build
390 px build
Next.js 16 static export, over 20 pages, hosted on AWS Amplify
Automated WCAG 2.2 A/AA checks pass on every content page
No horizontal overflow at 320, 390, 768, 1024, 1280 and 1440 px
Reduced motion stops every animation, including the hero
Four use-case pages and a full support guide set
Cookieless analytics, no ads, fonts self-hosted
08 / How one person shipped all of it
I direct, specify and verify. Agents speed up the typing.
A solo designer-engineer ships three products at once by being strict about inputs and checks. I used AI coding agents for implementation, inside a process where the design calls and the final review stayed mine.
Specify
A plan per piece of work, with decisions, scope and acceptance criteria, written before any code.
One source of truth
A product-facts file, checked against the code, that every line of website and store copy is tested against.
Build in small steps
Designer, developer and QA passes on a branch, one checkpoint commit per phase.
Verify by hand
Lint, types, 512 tests and axe on every change, then keyboard, VoiceOver, Windows and Brave checks by hand.
