Clip

OSC 52 clipboard copier

Copy a file or stdin to the host clipboard using the OSC 52 escape sequence. Works from terminals, SSH sessions, tmux, and Windows consoles without a native clipboard API.

When to use

• The user asks to copy output, a file, or a snippet to the clipboard.
• The agent is in a terminal, SSH session, or tmux pane and cannot call a GUI clipboard manager.
• The destination is the local terminal's host clipboard.

Public entrypoint

python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py [FILE]

• FILE: optional path to copy. Reads from stdin if omitted.
• Emits the OSC 52 sequence to the active terminal output.

Common calls

# copy a file
python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py ./key.pem

# copy command output
some-command | python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py

# copy stdin (type or paste, then Ctrl-D)
python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/cli.py

Platform notes

• macOS / Linux: writes to SSH_TTY or /dev/tty first, then falls back to stdout.
• Windows: opens CONOUT$, then falls back to stdout.
• tmux: detects TMUX and wraps the sequence in tmux DCS passthrough unless the output goes directly to the outer SSH TTY.
• The terminal must support OSC 52 for the copy to reach the host clipboard.

Exit codes

• 0: success
• 1: write or runtime error
• 2: usage or file error

Empty input

Empty input is a no-op. The script does not emit an empty OSC 52 sequence, so it never clears the host clipboard.