Configuring Actions

Settings → Actions is where you shape the Copy as… menu — the list of alternate formats the HUD offers after a copy. You can reorder the built-in formats, hide the ones you never use, and write your own.

The Copy as… menu

Copy something, hover the HUD, click Copy as… (or press ⌘C while the HUD is up). Every entry in the menu is one format. The first nine can be fired with the number keys 1–9.

Built-in formats for files and folders

Formats for web links

Any copied URL offers Markdown Link ([Page title](https://…)) and HTML Link.

Context-aware extras

Some pins bring their own formats along:

• GitHub URLs — the repo slug, HTTPS and SSH clone URLs, a ready-made gh repo clone command, and raw-file URLs.
• PDFs — plain-text extraction, and Markdown via Mistral OCR.
• Google Drive and Notion — Markdown, CSV, and download options once connected.
• Music — links for a dozen streaming platforms via song.link.

Reordering and hiding formats

In Settings → Actions, the left column lists every format:

• Drag to reorder. The order here is the order in the menu — put your favorites in the first nine slots so they get number keys.
• Uncheck a format to hide it from the menu.

Writing your own formats

Click Add in Settings → Actions to create a custom format. Custom formats work on file and folder pins. A format is a small template; whatever it produces lands on your clipboard.

Give it a Name (that's the menu label), write the template, and pick how it runs:

1. Text templates

The template is copied as-is, with tokens replaced. Instant, and completely safe.

Example — an HTML image tag for the copied file:

<img src="[file-url]" alt="[basename]">

Example — a file reference for a bug report:

[filename] (in [folder])

2. Shell scripts

The template runs in zsh and its output is copied. Homebrew's /opt/homebrew/bin and /usr/local/bin are on the PATH, and the script starts in the file's own folder.

Some ideas — these are the same examples behind the Some inspiration link in the editor:

# Copy the file's contents
cat [full-path]

# Count the lines in the file
wc -l < [full-path]

# The file's size, human-readable
du -sh [full-path] | cut -f1

# Pixel dimensions of an image
sips -g pixelWidth -g pixelHeight [full-path]

# The last Git commit that touched this file
git -C [folder] log -1 --format="%h %s" -- [full-path]

# Extract plain text from an RTF or Word document
textutil -convert txt -stdout [full-path]

# Pretty-print JSON (needs jq, via Homebrew)
jq . [full-path]

3. AppleScript

The template runs through osascript and the result is copied. AppleScript formats can also have side effects — reveal the file, show a notification — as long as they return something for the clipboard.

-- Copy the file's Finder comment
tell application "Finder" to return comment of (POSIX file [full-path] as alias)

-- Reveal the file in Finder
tell application "Finder"
	reveal (POSIX file [full-path])
	activate
end tell
return [filename]

-- Show a notification with the file name
display notification [filename] with title "Pinza"
return [full-path]

The tokens

Write tokens in square brackets, exactly as shown. The editor has chips that insert them for you.

In shell and AppleScript templates you don't need to quote tokens. Pinza hands the values to your script through environment variables (PINZA_FULL_PATH and friends), so file names with spaces, quotes, or other odd characters can't break — or abuse — your script.

Previewing

The editor's Preview runs your template against a sample file and shows exactly what would land on the clipboard. Copy a file in Finder and the preview adopts it as the sample.

Guardrails

A few limits keep custom formats safe and snappy:

• Destructive commands are refused. Templates containing rm, sudo, dd, kill, shutdown, and similar won't save and won't run.
• Content-reading templates know their limits. A format that reads the file's contents (cat, head, grep, …) is greyed out in the menu for folders, binary files, and files over 10 MB.
• Scripts get 10 seconds to finish and may produce up to 1 MB of output.

Where custom formats live

Your formats are part of Pinza's settings and are mirrored to the plain-JSON config file at ~/.config/pinza/config.json under actions.copyFormats — handy for versioning them in dotfiles or copying them to another Mac. See Power users.