Clipboard MCP Server

clipboard-mcp

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that reads and writes your system clipboard — tables, plain text, code, JSON, URLs, images, and more. Preserves structure when possible (e.g. spreadsheet row/column layout) and returns non-tabular content cleanly.

The Problem

When you copy cells from Google Sheets or Excel and paste into Claude's chat input, the tabular structure (rows and columns) is destroyed — it arrives as a flat string with no delimiters. And for non-tabular content, there's no easy way to say "look at what I copied" without manually pasting.

The Solution

Instead of pasting, tell Claude to "read my clipboard". This MCP server reads the clipboard directly and handles any content type: spreadsheet tables (returned as Markdown, JSON, or CSV), images (returned as image content), code snippets, JSON data, URLs, rich HTML text, and plain text. It can also write to the clipboard, so Claude can copy results back for you to paste elsewhere.

Tools

Setup

Prerequisites

Python 3.11+ and one of: uv (recommended), pipx, or pip.

You also need a platform-specific clipboard tool:

Platform status: Linux with Wayland is tested on real hardware. X11 has unit test coverage but has not been verified on a live X11 session. macOS and Windows implementations are complete but untested on real hardware — they should work but may have edge cases. Bug reports and PRs are very welcome.

Configure Claude Desktop

Add one of the following to your Claude Desktop config file:

• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Option A: uvx — no clone needed (recommended)

Requires uv. Installs and runs directly from PyPI:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clipboard": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from", "clipboard-mcp-server",
        "clipboard-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Option B: pipx — no clone needed

Requires pipx. Same idea, different tool manager:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clipboard": {
      "command": "pipx",
      "args": [
        "run", "--spec", "clipboard-mcp-server",
        "clipboard-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: The PyPI package name is clipboard-mcp-server but the command it installs is clipboard-mcp.

Option C: Local clone with uv

git clone https://github.com/cmeans/clipboard-mcp.git
cd clipboard-mcp
uv sync

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clipboard": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--directory", "/path/to/clipboard-mcp",
        "clipboard-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Option D: Local clone with pip

git clone https://github.com/cmeans/clipboard-mcp.git
cd clipboard-mcp
pip install -e .

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clipboard": {
      "command": "clipboard-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Note: Option D depends on clipboard-mcp being on your PATH. Since Claude Desktop launches outside a shell, this may not work reliably. Prefer options A–C.

Restart Claude Desktop after editing the config.

Environment variables

Environment variables can be passed via the "env" key in the Claude Desktop config.