pb - Cross-Platform Clipboard

The pb module provides a unified interface for system clipboards across macOS, Windows, Linux, and Android. It automatically detects the environment and even supports SSH-based copying through the OSC52 protocol.

When to Activate

• When the user wants to copy command output or text to the system clipboard.
• When pasting clipboard content into the terminal or a command.
• When working in a remote SSH session and needing to sync the remote clipboard with the local machine.

Core Principles & Rules

• Environment Agnostic: One command (x pb) replaces pbcopy, xclip, wl-copy, and clip.exe.
• Remote Synchronization: Automatically uses OSC52 in SSH sessions to allow copying from a server to a local client.
• Input Flexibility: Supports both piped input and direct arguments for copying.

Patterns & Examples

Copy from Pipe

# Copy the result of a command to clipboard
echo "data to copy" | x pb

Copy Arguments

# Copy specific text directly
x pb copy "Hello World"

Paste to Terminal

# Paste current clipboard content
x pb paste

Checklist

• Confirm if the operation is a copy or a paste.
• Ensure the system has a clipboard manager installed if on Linux (xclip/wl-copy).
• Verify SSH client support for OSC52 if working remotely.