get_clipboardLABSCO SUMMARY
The clipboard as a two-way channel.
It closes the copy-paste loop: what you copy is readable by the assistant, and what the assistant produces goes back to where you will paste it. watch_clipboard means it can act the moment you copy something.
What it is
A single Rust binary that gives an assistant read and write access to your system clipboard. It uses 1Password's arboard library rather than shelling out to pbcopy or xclip, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux under both X11 and Wayland.
What you get
- get_clipboard reads the current text; content over 100 KB is truncated
- set_clipboard writes text back, up to 1 MB
- get_clipboard_html reads HTML content, so rich text copied from a browser keeps its markup
- watch_clipboard waits for the clipboard to change — a default timeout you can raise through timeout_secs, with several watches running at once
- list_clipboard_formats probes what is available: text, HTML, image or files
- clear_clipboard empties it
- One binary with no Python or Node runtime behind it; stdio by default, HTTP when a remote agent needs to reach it
Requirements
cargo install clipboard-mcp, or a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases. Nothing else to install.
Setup effort
One command — cargo install clipboard-mcp
USE CASES
01
Fixing an error you just copied
The stack trace is read straight off the clipboard and the corrected code is written back, ready to paste into the editor.
02
Having an agent react the moment you copy something
A watch blocks until the clipboard changes, so copying becomes the trigger for whatever should happen next.
03
Keeping the formatting from a page you copied
HTML content is read as HTML, so a table or a formatted block survives the trip instead of collapsing to plain text.
04
Getting a generated command into your terminal
The command is written to the clipboard rather than printed for you to select, which is where the transcription errors come from.
05
Clearing something sensitive off the clipboard
A password or token pasted a moment ago is removed deliberately rather than left sitting there.
6 tools
Listed in project docs. Your client may show a different list.
get_clipboard_htmlset_clipboardwatch_clipboardlist_clipboard_formatsclear_clipboardBEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
6 tools named in the project's documentation.
Requires
- Rust with cargo, for cargo install clipboard-mcp (or download a binary from the project's GitHub Releases)
- clipboard-mcp on PATH
- On Linux: X11, or a Wayland compositor with wl-data-control support
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
cargo install clipboard-mcpMCP Clients
Claude Desktop
CLAUDE DESKTOP · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"clipboard": {
"command": "clipboard-mcp"
}
}
}Claude Code
CLAUDE CODE · TERMINAL
claude mcp add clipboard clipboard-mcp
