Does anyone know how Spotlight Clipboard History is stored internally?

[paaast]

When using Clipboard History in Spotlight, there is a noticeable delay before clipboard items are displayed.

Does anyone know how Spotlight Clipboard History is stored internally in macOS Tahoe?

I'm asking because I consistently experience a delay when opening Clipboard History (⌘+Space → ⌘+4). The view appears immediately, but the clipboard entries take several seconds to load.

I would expect the items to be available instantly, so I'm wondering whether the data is loaded on demand from a database or another service, or if this is simply a performance bug.

I've done some investigation with fs_usage and noticed activity from processes like Campo, searchpartyd, and useractivityd, but I haven't yet found where the clipboard history itself is stored.

Has anyone looked into this or discovered how the feature works internally?

 

[!!!]

The first step would be to attack Instruments to the process (I'm guessing Spotlight?) and record it during the interaction. From there, you can look at the stack trace and see what's going on.

 

[paaast]

The first step would be to attack Instruments to the process (I'm guessing Spotlight?) and record it during the interaction. From there, you can look at the stack trace and see what's going on.

That's a good idea, I just don't know which process I should stick to.

 

[keksikuningas]

For me it's instantaneous but most of the items are missing from it. I am not sure if it's related to how the stuff is copied (shortcut, right click > copy, or 'copy to clipoard' button in an app / website) or if it's just very buggy and eats a lot of clipboard content

 

[paaast]

I am now on the macOS 27 (Beta 4) and since this version it is also almost instant. It was never this fast on macOS 26. 👏