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CLI Reference

clipboarder ships a single binary that runs in two modes:

  • No args → GUI overlay (the floating window you summon with ⌘⇧V)
  • With a subcommand → CLI

The installer creates two symlinks on your PATH:

  • clipboarder — full command name
  • cb — short alias for one-liners

Both point at the same binary. Use whichever feels right.

Start here

The most powerful workflows are pipe-based. See Pipe one-liners (cb cp / cb p) — that's the page that turns clipboarder into a context database your shell and AI agents can drive.

Overview

clipboarder --help

clipboarder  CLI for the clipboard manager.
Search, ingest, pin, paste-back, and stream your local clipboard history.
Designed for shell pipelines and AI agents.

Usage: clipboarder <COMMAND>

Commands:
  cp      pbcopy++  stdin  history + system pasteboard      (alias: pipe)
  p       pbpaste++ Nth recent item  stdout                 (aliases: paste, last)
  pop     Print + delete most recent item

  list    List most recent items                             (alias: ls)
  search  Full-text search the clipboard history             (alias: find)
  show    Print one item's full content                      (alias: cat, get)
  add     Add a new item from stdin or argument              (alias: ingest)
  pin     Pin an item                                        (alias: star)
  unpin   Unpin an item                                      (alias: unstar)
  delete  Delete an item                                     (alias: rm)
  clear   Clear all non-pinned items
  copy    Copy a history item back to the macOS pasteboard
  stats   Print database statistics
  watch   Stream new items as JSON Lines on stdout

Quick recipes (see pipes.md for the full picture)

Copy the latest captured URL to the pasteboard

clipboarder copy "$(clipboarder list --kind url --limit 1 --json | jq '.[0].id')"

Pin every item that mentions "deploy"

clipboarder search deploy --json | jq -r '.[].id' | xargs -n1 clipboarder pin

Stream new copies into a log file

clipboarder watch >> ~/clipboard-log.jsonl &

Ingest the output of any command

git log --oneline -10 | clipboarder add --source "git"

Show stats in a one-liner

clipboarder stats --json | jq '{total, pinned, by_kind}'

See also