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 and credit-card-like numbers, and helps anonymize copied content before it is pasted elsewhere.

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
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.

AmpelClip is not a DLP platform and does not guarantee complete redaction. It is a helper for privacy workflows, not a substitute for manual review.

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
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. It is closest to a clipboard redaction helper, not to a full DLP gateway, password manager, cloud content scanner or browser extension. 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

German README

A full German README is available in README_de.md.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.

This project is an unpaid open-source donation. Liability is limited to intent and gross negligence (§ 521 German Civil Code). Use at your own risk. No warranty, maintenance guarantee or fitness-for-purpose is assumed.