Name

       kitten-clipboard - Copy/paste with the system clipboard, even over SSH

Overview

       Copy/paste to the system clipboard from shell scripts

       The  clipboard  kitten can be used to read or write to the system clipboard from the shell. It even works
       over SSH. Using it is as simple as:

          echo hooray | kitten clipboard

       All text received on STDIN is copied to the clipboard.

       To get text from the clipboard:

          kitten clipboard --get-clipboard

       The text will be written to STDOUT. Note that by  default  kitty  asks  for  permission  when  a  program
       attempts to read the clipboard. This can be controlled via clipboard_control.

       Added in version 0.27.0: Support for copying arbitrary data types

       The clipboard kitten can be used to send/receive more than just plain text from the system clipboard. You
       can transfer arbitrary data types. Best illustrated with some examples:

          # Copy an image to the clipboard:
          kitten clipboard picture.png

          # Copy an image and some text to the clipboard:
          kitten clipboard picture.jpg text.txt

          # Copy text from STDIN and an image to the clipboard:
          echo hello | kitten clipboard picture.png /dev/stdin

          # Copy any raster image available on the clipboard to a PNG file:
          kitten clipboard -g picture.png

          # Copy an image to a file and text to STDOUT:
          kitten clipboard -g picture.png /dev/stdout

          # List the formats available on the system clipboard
          kitten clipboard -g -m . /dev/stdout

       Normally, the kitten guesses MIME types based on the file names. To control the MIME types precisely, use
       the --mime option.

       This  kitten  uses a new protocol developed by kitty to function, for details, see Copying all data types
       to the clipboard.

Source code for clipboard

       The source code for this kitten is available on GitHub.

Command line interface

          kitten clipboard [options] [files to copy to/from]

       Read or write to the system clipboard.

       This kitten operates most simply in filter mode.  To set the clipboard text, pipe  in  the  new  text  on
       STDIN.  Use  the  --get-clipboard  option to instead output the current clipboard text content to STDOUT.
       Note that copying from the clipboard will cause a permission popup, see clipboard_control for details.

       For more control, specify filename arguments. Then, different  MIME  types  can  be  copied  to/from  the
       clipboard. Some examples:

          # Copy an image to the clipboard:
          kitten clipboard picture.png

          # Copy an image and some text to the clipboard:
          kitten clipboard picture.jpg text.txt

          # Copy text from STDIN and an image to the clipboard:
          echo hello | kitten clipboard picture.png /dev/stdin

          # Copy any raster image available on the clipboard to a PNG file:
          kitten clipboard -g picture.png

          # Copy an image to a file and text to STDOUT:
          kitten clipboard -g picture.png /dev/stdout

          # List the formats available on the system clipboard
          kitten clipboard -g -m . /dev/stdout

   Options
       --get-clipboard, -g
              Output the current contents of the clipboard to STDOUT. Note that by default kitty will prompt for
              permission to access the clipboard. Can be controlled by clipboard_control.

       --use-primary, -p
              Use the primary selection rather than the clipboard on systems that support it, such as Linux.

       --mime <MIME>, -m <MIME>
              The  mimetype  of  the  specified  file.  Useful  when  the auto-detected mimetype is likely to be
              incorrect or the filename has no extension and therefore no mimetype can be detected. If more than
              one file is specified, this option should be specified multiple times,  once  for  each  specified
              file.  When  copying  data  from  the  clipboard,  you  can use wildcards to match MIME types. For
              example: --mime 'text/*' will match any textual MIME type available on the clipboard, usually  the
              first matching MIME type is copied. The special MIME type . will return the list of available MIME
              types currently on the system clipboard.

       --alias <ALIAS>, -a <ALIAS>
              Specify  aliases  for  MIME  types.  Aliased MIME types are considered equivalent. When copying to
              clipboard both the original and alias are made available  on  the  clipboard.  When  copying  from
              clipboard  if  the  original  is  not  found,  the  alias is used, as a fallback. Can be specified
              multiple times to create  multiple  aliases.  For  example:  --alias  text/plain=text/x-rst  makes
              text/plain  an  alias of text/rst. Aliases are not used in filter mode. An alias for text/plain is
              automatically created if text/plain is not present in the input data, but some other  text/*  MIME
              is present.

       --wait-for-completion
              Wait  till  the  copy  to  clipboard is complete before exiting. Useful if running the kitten in a
              dedicated, ephemeral window. Only needed in filter mode.

Author

       Kovid Goyal

Copyright

       2025, Kovid Goyal

0.41.1                                            Jun 05, 2025                               kitten-clipboard(1)