clip

System clipboard bridge for the terminal. Pipe content in, paste content out. Works over SSH via OSC52.

Install

Pre-built binaries

Download from GitHub Releases (latest stable release).

Platform	Asset
Linux x86_64 (glibc)	clip-x86_64-linux-gnu
Linux x86_64 (musl, static)	clip-x86_64-linux-musl
Linux ARM64	clip-aarch64-linux-gnu
macOS Intel	clip-x86_64-macos
macOS Apple Silicon	clip-aarch64-macos
Windows x86_64	clip-x86_64-windows.exe

# Linux / macOS example
curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/clip \
  https://github.com/someoneonsmile/clip/releases/latest/download/clip-x86_64-linux-gnu
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/clip

AUR (Arch Linux)

# 稳定版
yay -S clip-cli-bin
# 或
paru -S clip-cli-bin

# 每夜构建（最新 commit）
yay -S clip-cli-nightly-bin
# 或
paru -S clip-cli-nightly-bin

From source

cargo install --path .

Requires Rust toolchain (1.85+ for edition 2024).

Usage

# Auto-detect mode (no subcommand)
echo "hello" | clip      # copy stdin to clipboard + tee to stdout
clip                     # paste clipboard to stdout

# Explicit subcommands
echo "hello" | clip copy # copy silently (no tee)
clip paste               # same as terminal auto-detect

# Pipe output
clip paste | wc -c       # count clipboard characters
clip paste | xargs ...    # use clipboard as argument

CLI reference

$ clip --help
System clipboard bridge — copy stdin to clipboard (like tee), paste clipboard to stdout.

When no subcommand is given, mode is auto-detected:
  piped input → copy + tee,  terminal → paste.

Usage: clip [COMMAND]

Commands:
  copy   Copy stdin content to clipboard
  paste  Paste clipboard content to stdout
  help   Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help     Print help
  -V, --version  Print version

Each subcommand also accepts --help for detailed usage.

SSH support

clip detects SSH sessions (SSH_TTY, SSH_CLIENT, SSH_CONNECTION) and routes clipboard operations through:

• File cache at ~/.cache/clipboard/data (or $XDG_CACHE_HOME/clipboard/data)
• OSC52 escape sequences — copies content to your local terminal's clipboard when the terminal emulator supports it (iTerm2, Kitty, WezTerm, Alacritty, Windows Terminal, and others)

No configuration needed. Just use clip the same way on local and remote machines.

How it works

Copy (echo "foo" | clip)

stdin → system clipboard (local)
     → file cache (~/.cache/clipboard/data)
     → OSC52 escape seq (SSH only, forwarded to terminal)
     → stdout (auto-detect only, like tee)

Paste (clip)

system clipboard (local, preferred)
  ↓ fallback
file cache (~/.cache/clipboard/data)
  ↓
stdout