Clipboard History MCP — Claude Code MCP server: setup guide
Indexes your clipboard history, sorts snippets by content type, and secures detected credentials. Lets your coding agent retrieve copied URLs, code blocks, or payload data.
Open on GitHubWhat Clipboard History MCP does
The tool runs as a background Rust daemon on macOS and Linux. It saves copied items into an SQLite database with FTS5 search support, classifying each entry into categories like code snippets, JSON objects, URLs, or database queries. Because it records active window titles alongside the text, searches can target specific source applications.
An integrated scanner tests clipboard text against 252 gitleaks patterns. When it spots an API token or private credential, it seals the record with AES-256-GCM encryption. Claude must request biometric verification via Touch ID on macOS or prompt for a master password on Linux before showing the plaintext. Non-sensitive items can sync into an Obsidian directory with daily note links.
Window title indexing remains unavailable on Wayland. Password tools such as Bitwarden or 1Password should be excluded manually by configuring CLIPBOARD_IGNORE_APPS. Linux installations will fail without an active Secret Service provider like GNOME Keyring.
What it helps with
- retrieve previously copied API keys securely behind Touch ID
- restore JSON payloads or SQL queries into the active clipboard
- filter clipboard history by the title of the source application
- append non-sensitive clipboard snippets to daily Obsidian notes
Example prompts for the agent
- "Find the OpenAI credential I copied from my browser yesterday"
- "Show me all GitHub repository URLs copied during this session"
- "Restore the Stripe configuration JSON back to my clipboard"
How to install Clipboard History MCP
Install
The MCP registry has no launch command for it: see the repository README
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to add an MCP server to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI and more
Questions about Clipboard History MCP
How do you install Clipboard History MCP in Claude Code?
Build the binary via cargo install clipboard-history-mcp, configure the background service with clipboard-history-mcp install, then register the tool by running claude mcp add -s user clipboard-history -- clipboard-history-mcp serve.
What does Clipboard History MCP do?
It monitors the system clipboard via a lightweight Rust daemon, tags items by data kind, and enables full-text search over past clips. Secret values are identified on capture and protected with hardware-gated encryption.
How does it protect sensitive tokens?
The daemon scans text against 252 gitleaks definitions and stores matches with AES-256-GCM encryption. Claude cannot read the secret until you authorize the prompt through Touch ID on macOS or a master passphrase on Linux.
