Clipboard Integration
Seamless clipboard management and history tracking.
What is Clipboard Integration?
Astronox can read, write, and track your system clipboard, making it easy to work with copied data across conversations and applications.
Features
Read Clipboard
Get current contents:
"What's on my clipboard?"
"Show me what I just copied"
"Read clipboard contents"
AI response:
Your clipboard contains:
───────────────────────────
This is the text you copied
from another application.
───────────────────────────
Type: Plain text
Size: 45 characters
Write to Clipboard
Copy AI output:
You: "Generate a random password"
AI: Generated: xK9#mP2$vL4@wQ8
You: "Copy that to my clipboard"
AI: ✓ Copied to clipboard
Copy from data:
"List files in Downloads and copy the list to clipboard"
AI copies the file list so you can paste elsewhere
Clipboard History
Track recent items:
You: "Show my clipboard history"
AI: Recent clipboard items:
1. (2 min ago) - Text (45 chars)
"This is the text you copied..."
2. (5 min ago) - URL
"https://example.com/page"
3. (10 min ago) - Image
screenshot.png (800 KB)
4. (15 min ago) - Text (200 chars)
"def calculate_fibonacci(n):..."
Use Cases
Quick Data Transfer
From browser to terminal:
[Copy command in browser]
"Run what I just copied"
AI: [Executes: npm install react]
Code Snippets
Save for later:
You: "Copy this function to clipboard"
AI: [Shows function]
You: "Copy it"
AI: ✓ Copied
[Later, in your code editor: Cmd+V to paste]
Search Clipboard History
Find what you copied earlier:
"What did I copy 10 minutes ago?"
"Find the URL I copied this morning"
"Show clipboard items containing 'password'"
Multi-Step Workflows
You: "Find all email addresses in this file"
AI: Found 23 email addresses
You: "Copy them to clipboard"
AI: ✓ Copied (one per line)
[Paste into email client]
Clipboard Commands
Reading
"What's on my clipboard?"
"Show clipboard contents"
"Read clipboard"
"What did I just copy?"
Writing
"Copy this to clipboard: [text]"
"Put [data] on my clipboard"
"Copy the output to clipboard"
"Save this in clipboard"
History
"Show clipboard history"
"What did I copy [time] ago?"
"List recent clipboard items"
"Show my last 10 copies"
Search History
"Find clipboard items with 'invoice'"
"Show URLs in clipboard history"
"Find the code I copied yesterday"
Clear
"Clear clipboard"
"Clear clipboard history"
"Delete clipboard history"
Clipboard Types
Text
Plain text:
Clipboard: "Hello, world!"
Type: text/plain
Rich text (converted to plain):
Copied from Word: Formatted text
Astronox sees: Plain text version
URLs
Auto-detected:
Clipboard: "https://example.com"
Type: URL
Can: Open in browser, fetch content
Images
Supported formats:
- Screenshots
- Photos (JPG, PNG, GIF)
- Clipboard images from other apps
What Astronox can do:
"What's on my clipboard?"
AI: You have an image (screenshot.png, 800 KB)
"What's in this image?"
AI: [Analyzes using vision model]
Code
Auto-detects programming languages:
Clipboard: def hello(): print("Hi")
Type: Python code
"Format the code on my clipboard"
AI: [Returns formatted version]
File Paths
Recognized as paths:
Clipboard: "/Users/me/Documents/file.pdf"
Type: File path
"Show info about the file on my clipboard"
AI: [Stats about file.pdf]
Clipboard History Details
What's Tracked
Stored:
- Text content (up to 10,000 chars per item)
- Timestamp
- Source application (future)
- Content type
Limits:
- Last 50 items (configurable: 10-200)
- Images: Only reference (not full data, to save memory)
- Retention: Until app restart (not persisted)
What's NOT Tracked
Privacy protection:
- Passwords (if detected by pattern)
- Credit card numbers
- Social security numbers
- Content from password managers
Detection:
[Copy password from 1Password]
Astronox: Skipped password manager content (privacy)
Settings
Enable/Disable Tracking
Settings → Advanced → Clipboard:
- Track clipboard history (default: enabled)
When disabled:
- Can still read/write current clipboard
- No history tracking
- More privacy
History Size
Configurable limit:
- Default: 50 items
- Range: 10-200 items
- Oldest items auto-deleted when limit reached
Privacy Mode
Settings → Clipboard → Privacy:
- Skip password manager content
- Exclude sensitive patterns (SSN, credit cards)
- Don't track from specific apps (future)
Advanced Uses
Data Processing Pipeline
1. Copy data from spreadsheet
2. "Process clipboard: remove duplicates and sort"
3. AI processes and updates clipboard
4. Paste back into spreadsheet
Format Conversion
"Convert clipboard from JSON to YAML"
"Format clipboard as markdown table"
"Transform clipboard text to title case"
Template Generation
"Using my clipboard data, generate an email template"
"Create a SQL INSERT statement from clipboard CSV"
Platform Differences
macOS
Full integration:
- Read/write system clipboard
- Track all applications
- Image clipboard support
Windows
Full integration:
- Read/write system clipboard
- Track all applications
- Image clipboard support
Security & Privacy
What Gets Sent to AI
Only when you ask:
"What's on my clipboard?" → AI sees clipboard
"Process my clipboard data" → AI sees clipboard
Never automatically:
- Clipboard changes don't auto-send to AI
- History not included in every message
- Only when explicitly requested
Sensitive Data Protection
Auto-detection:
Patterns blocked:
• ^[A-Z]{2}\d{6,9}$ (SSN-like)
• \d{4}-\d{4}-\d{4}-\d{4} (credit card)
• Password: .* (password labels)
• API keys (sk_, api_, etc.)
User override (if needed):
"I know it's sensitive, but process my clipboard anyway"
Local Storage Only
Clipboard history:
- Stored in RAM only (not on disk)
- Lost on app restart
- Never synced to cloud
- Never leaves your computer (except when sent to AI explicitly)
Troubleshooting
Clipboard Not Reading
Check:
- Permissions (macOS: Accessibility)
- Something is actually on clipboard
- Clipboard not locked by another app
Try:
"Test clipboard access"
Clipboard Not Writing
Solutions:
- Close apps that lock clipboard
- Grant permissions if prompted
- Restart Astronox
History Not Working
Verify:
- Settings → Clipboard → Tracking enabled
- Not in privacy mode for that app
- Item wasn't filtered (password, etc.)
Image Clipboard Issues
Limitations:
- Very large images (>10MB) may fail
- Some formats not supported
- Screenshot tools vary by platform
Workaround:
- Save image to file
- Attach file instead
Best Practices
✅ Use for Temporary Data
Clipboard history is volatile (lost on restart)
Good: Quick data transfers
Avoid: Long-term storage
✅ Clear History Periodically
Weekly: "Clear clipboard history"
Reduces clutter and improves privacy
✅ Review Before Processing
You: "What's on my clipboard?"
[Verify it's what you expect]
You: "Process it..."
Especially for sensitive operations
❌ Don't Rely on History Persistence
Not persisted:
- App restart clears history
- Crash clears history
- System restart clears history
For important data:
- Save to file
- Use memory system
- Create automation
Future Features
- Persistent history (opt-in, encrypted)
- Cloud sync across devices
- Smart categorization (URLs, code, text, etc.)
- Clipboard templates (frequently used)
- Multi-clipboard (multiple clipboards)
- Clipboard manager UI (dedicated panel)
Next: Learn about File Attachments.