| name | human-clipboard |
| description | Copy text to the HUMAN's system clipboard via `tclaude agent clipboard` — for when the human asks you to put a draft, command, or snippet on their clipboard. The `tclaude agentd` daemon runs the platform copy tool on the host (your sandbox can't reach the display). Permission-gated on the `human.clipboard` slug: NOT granted by default and NOT implied by group ownership, so you need an explicit grant or a per-call `--ask-human` popup approval. Use when the human says "copy this to my clipboard / put X on my clipboard". NOT for agent-to-agent data passing — that is `agent-coord`. |
Copying to the human's clipboard
When the human asks you to put something on their clipboard — a drafted
message, a shell command, a code snippet — copy it with:
tclaude agent clipboard "git rebase -i main"
Your sandbox can't reach the human's display, so the tclaude agentd
daemon performs the write on the host using the platform copy tool
(wl-copy/xclip/xsel on Linux, pbcopy on macOS, clip.exe under
WSL). If no tool is available the command fails with a clear error rather
than silently dropping the copy.
Prefer --file / stdin for anything non-trivial
Inline command-line text suffers shell quoting (backticks are eaten) and
is visible in /proc. For long, multi-line, or code-heavy content, pass
it via a file or stdin:
tclaude agent clipboard --file draft.md
generate-snippet | tclaude agent clipboard --file -
Content is copied verbatim — leading/trailing whitespace and newlines
are preserved. The payload is capped at 256 KiB.
Permission
Copying is gated on the human.clipboard slug. Unlike human.notify,
it is not default-granted and not implied by group ownership —
writing the operator's real clipboard is a machine surface that always
needs an explicit grant or a one-off approval. Without the grant you get a
403 naming the slug.
To copy just this once without the grant, add --ask-human <duration>:
tclaude agent clipboard --ask-human 60s "text to copy"
That creates an access request in the dashboard Messages tab, showing a
preview of exactly what would be copied before they Approve / Deny.
Timeout = deny. Do not retry in a loop if denied. A browser auto-open or
OS banner only happens when the human has opted into those extra
access-request alerts in tclaude config.
When to use this — and when not to
Use it when the human explicitly wants something on their clipboard so
they can paste it elsewhere (into a browser, another app, a chat).
Do not use it for:
- Passing data to another agent. That is
agent-coord
(tclaude agent message). The clipboard reaches the human's machine,
not an agent.
- Routine output. Your normal terminal output is still your primary
channel; the clipboard is only for content the human asked to have on
hand for pasting.
