Show HN: Clippy – a better pbcopy for macOS that handles files properly
10 months ago
- #macOS
- #productivity
- #terminal
- Clippy allows copying files from the terminal and pasting them into GUI apps on macOS.
- It bridges the gap between terminal and GUI by detecting the right clipboard format (file references for GUI apps).
- Supports copying multiple files at once (e.g., `clippy *.jpg`).
- Handles piped/streamed data, converting it to files for pasting (e.g., `curl -s https://picsum.photos/300 | clippy`).
- Smart detection: copies text content for text files and file references for binary files.
- Automatic cleanup of temporary files created from piped binary data.
- Install via Homebrew (`brew install neilberkman/clippy/clippy`) or build from source.
- Configurable via `~/.clippy.conf` for persistent settings like verbose output.
- Comparison with `gcopy`: Clippy is macOS-specific, uses native APIs, supports multiple files, and auto-cleans temp files.
- MIT licensed.