clipboard.yazi

Synchronize files between the Yazi file manager and your system clipboard. Supports both copy and paste on Linux, macOS, and Windows desktops.

Features

• Copy: Yank files in Yazi and make them available to other applications via the system clipboard.
• Paste: Copy files from the system clipboard into the current Yazi directory, with conflict resolution (overwrite / rename / skip).

Requirements

Platform	Copy	Paste
Linux (X11)	xclip	xclip
Linux (Wayland)	wl-copy (wl-clipboard)	wl-paste (wl-clipboard)
macOS	Built-in osascript	Built-in osascript
Windows	Built-in powershell.exe	Built-in powershell.exe

Installation

Install the plugin via the package manager:

ya pkg add XYenon/clipboard

This clones the repository, adds it to ~/.config/yazi/package.toml, and pins the current revision.

Usage

Add shortcuts in ~/.config/yazi/keymap.toml:

# Copy yanked files to the system clipboard
[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
on  = "y"
run = [ "yank", 'plugin clipboard -- --action=copy' ]
desc = "Yank selected files (copy)"

# Keep behaviour consistent with cut
[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
on  = "x"
run = [ "yank --cut", 'plugin clipboard -- --action=copy' ]
desc = "Yank selected files (cut)"

# Paste files from the system clipboard into the current directory
[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
on  = "<C-p>"
run = [ 'plugin clipboard -- --action=paste' ]
desc = "Paste yanked system clipboard files"

Optional arguments

The plugin accepts the boolean argument notify-unknown-display-server:

• Default false: silently exit when the Linux display server is unknown (useful for TTY or remote sessions).
• true: show a notification to warn that the operation is unavailable in the current session.

Example invocation:

[[mgr.prepend_keymap]]
on  = "y"
run = [ "yank", 'plugin clipboard -- --action=copy --notify-unknown-display-server' ]

Troubleshooting

• Copy failed: xclip/wl-copy not found: install xclip for X11 or wl-clipboard (wl-copy) for Wayland.
• Paste failed: xclip/wl-paste not found: install xclip for X11 or wl-clipboard (wl-paste) for Wayland.
• Unknown display server: ensure Yazi runs in a Wayland or X11 session. Enable notify-unknown-display-server to surface a visible warning.
• powershell.exe not found: ensure %SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0 is on your PATH.

Development

This repository uses treefmt for formatting:

nix fmt

Feel free to open a PR to support more desktop environments.