declutter

A macOS CLI that converts pasted text and TXT, Markdown, HTML, RTF, and DOCX files to plain text. Built with Go and Charmbracelet. All processing is local.

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/michaelmjhhhh/declutter/main/install.sh | sh

Installs to /usr/local/bin after verifying the release checksum. Supports Apple Silicon and Intel; Go is not required. Run again to update.

For a custom directory, append INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.local/bin" before sh and add that directory to your PATH. To uninstall the default installation:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/declutter

Usage

declutter                              # Interactive mode
declutter -o clean.txt document.docx    # Save to a new file
declutter -i notes.rtf                  # Preview a file
cat page.html | declutter > clean.txt   # Pipe input
declutter --format markdown notes.txt  # Override input format
declutter --help

In interactive mode, choose Paste text or Open a file. Paste with Cmd+V, then press Ctrl+D to clean. For files, enter the path and press Enter.

Key	Action
C	Copy
S	Save
P	Print and exit
Ctrl+F	Change input format
↑ / ↓	Scroll
N	New conversion
Esc	Back
Ctrl+C	Quit

Flags must precede the filename. Output preserves paragraphs, Unicode, and link addresses, using UTF-8 without a BOM. Preview wrapping is not included in copied or saved text. Existing files are never overwritten.

Limits

• Text input: UTF-8 or BOM-marked UTF-16, up to 32 MiB.
• TXT mode preserves literal # and **; choose Markdown mode to remove markup.
• DOCX extracts the main document only. RTF supports common body-text formatting.
• Table alignment and code indentation are removed. HTML scripts and CSS are not evaluated.
• PDF, legacy .doc, and images are unsupported.

Development

Requires Go 1.26.1 or later.

go build -o declutter .
go test -race ./...
go vet ./...
python3 scripts/test-install.py

Build macOS release archives with sh scripts/build-release.sh v0.1.0.