teeclip

Like Unix tee, but for your clipboard — with history and encryption. One command, every platform.

Why teeclip?

Platform clipboard tools (clip.exe, pbcopy, xclip) are sinks — they consume stdin and produce no output. That means cmd | clip | tee doesn't work the way you'd expect: clip eats the data and nothing reaches tee.

# What you'd expect to work (but doesn't):
echo hello | clip | tee output.txt       # output.txt is EMPTY — clip ate stdin

# The workaround (but you lose stdout):
echo hello | tee output.txt | clip       # works, but you can't see the output

# With teeclip — stdout + clipboard + file, one command:
echo hello | teeclip output.txt

teeclip is a filter, not a sink. Data flows through it to stdout while being copied to the clipboard. It also keeps an encrypted local history so you can recall past clips, and it works identically on Windows, macOS, Linux, and WSL — your scripts stay portable.

Task	Without teeclip	With teeclip
Copy + see output	cmd | tee /dev/tty | clip	cmd | teeclip
Copy + file + stdout	cmd | tee file | tee /dev/tty | clip	cmd | teeclip file
Recall a previous copy	Not possible	teeclip --get 2
Encrypted history at rest	Not possible	Automatic with config
Same script, any OS	Requires platform detection	Just works

Features

• Tee-style pass-through: stdin flows to stdout unmodified while being copied to clipboard
• Clipboard history: Automatically saves piped content to a local SQLite database
• History recall: Browse (--list), retrieve (--get N), and manage (--clear) past clips
• Encrypted storage: AES-256-GCM encryption with OS-integrated key management (DPAPI, Keychain, Secret Service)
• Cross-platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (X11 + Wayland), and WSL — auto-detected, one command everywhere
• Configurable: ~/.teeclip/config.toml for persistent settings (history size, encryption, backend)
• Zero core dependencies: Uses only Python stdlib and native OS clipboard commands
• File output: Supports writing to files just like standard tee
• Paste mode: Read clipboard contents back to stdout with --paste

Installation

pip install teeclip

For encrypted clipboard history:

pip install teeclip[secure]

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/DazzleTools/teeclip.git
cd teeclip
pip install -e ".[secure]"

Usage

# Copy command output to clipboard (and still see it)
echo "hello world" | teeclip

# Pipe a diff to clipboard for pasting into a PR comment
git diff | teeclip

# Copy to clipboard AND write to a file
cat data.csv | teeclip output.csv

# Append to a log file while copying to clipboard
make build 2>&1 | teeclip -a build.log

# Print current clipboard contents
teeclip --paste

# Pipe clipboard into another command
teeclip --paste | grep "error"

# Skip clipboard (act as plain tee)
echo test | teeclip --no-clipboard output.txt

# Browse clipboard history
teeclip --list

# Retrieve the 2nd most recent clip
teeclip --get 2

# Save clipboard to history (for content copied outside teeclip)
teeclip --save

# Show current config
teeclip --config

# Encrypt all stored clips (requires teeclip[secure])
teeclip --encrypt

Platform Support

Platform	Clipboard Tool	Notes
Windows	clip.exe / PowerShell	Built-in, no setup needed
macOS	pbcopy / pbpaste	Built-in, no setup needed
Linux (X11)	xclip or xsel	Install: sudo apt install xclip
Linux (Wayland)	wl-copy / wl-paste	Install: sudo apt install wl-clipboard
WSL	Windows clipboard via /mnt/c/	Auto-detected, no setup needed

Options

usage: teeclip [-h] [-a] [--paste] [--backend NAME] [--no-clipboard] [-q]
               [--list [N]] [--get N] [--clear [SELECTOR]]
               [--save] [--config] [--no-history] [--encrypt] [--decrypt]
               [-V] [FILE ...]

positional arguments:
  FILE              also write to FILE(s), like standard tee

options:
  -a, --append      append to files instead of overwriting
  --paste, -p       print current clipboard contents to stdout
  --backend NAME    force clipboard backend
  --no-clipboard, -nc
                    skip clipboard (act as plain tee)
  -q, --quiet       suppress warning messages
  --list [N], -l [N]
                    show recent clipboard history (default: 10)
  --get N, -g N     retrieve Nth clip from history (1 = most recent)
  --clear [SELECTOR]
                    delete history entries (all, or by index/range/combo)
  --save, -s        save current clipboard contents to history
  --config          show current configuration
  --no-history      skip history save for this invocation
  --encrypt         enable AES-256-GCM encryption (requires teeclip[secure])
  --decrypt         decrypt all stored clips
  -V, --version     show version and exit

For detailed documentation on all options and the config file, see docs/configuration.md. For database internals and encryption details, see docs/database.md.

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details.

Like the project?

License

teeclip, Copyright (C) 2025 Dustin Darcy

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE for details.