@devorama/clip2devbox

Send a clipboard file or screenshot from Windows to a remote devbox over Tailscale + scp, then swap your clipboard for the remote path prefixed with @ — ready to paste straight into Claude Code / ttyd.

Flow: copy (Ctrl+C a file · Win+Shift+S a screenshot · "copy link") → press Ctrl+Alt+V → in Claude on the devbox run /clip (or paste the @/home/you/clips/... path with Ctrl+V and hit Enter).

It handles three clipboard sources, in priority order:

1. Bitmap on the clipboard (screenshot, "copy image" from a browser, Paint/Photoshop) → uploaded as a .png
2. File(s) copied in Explorer — any type (PDF, .csv, source code, .zip, …), uploaded as-is, multiple supported
3. URL ("copy link/address") — downloaded and re-uploaded (filename inferred from Content-Disposition/URL)

Files larger than --max-file-mb (default 100 MB) are skipped with a warning.

Requirements

• Windows (native clipboard + global hotkey)
• Tailscale running, with the devbox reachable and Tailscale SSH enabled (passwordless auth)
• ssh/scp on PATH (OpenSSH ships with Windows 10/11)
• On the devbox: Linux with crontab (for cleanup) and Claude Code (for /clip)

Install

npm install -g @devorama/clip2devbox   # or: pnpm add -g @devorama/clip2devbox
clip2devbox install

install detects the devbox host via Tailscale (peer devbox), writes your ~/.ssh/config, validates the connection, provisions the remote side (~/clips, the /clip slash command, and a cron cleanup job), and registers the global hotkey.

Options

clip2devbox install \
  --host devbox.tailXXXX.ts.net \   # default: auto-detected via Tailscale
  --peer devbox \                   # Tailscale peer name to look for
  --alias devbox \                  # Host alias written to ~/.ssh/config
  --remote-user rafito \            # default: your local Windows username
  --remote-dir /home/rafito/clips \ # default: /home/<user>/clips
  --hotkey CTRL+ALT+V \             # global hotkey combination
  --retention-hours 24 \            # delete clips older than this
  --max-file-mb 100 \               # max size per file (0 = no limit)
  --progress-min-mb 5 \             # show a progress bar above this (0 = never)
  --no-auto-update                  # disable background auto-update

Commands

| Command | What it does | |---------|--------------| | clip2devbox install | Set everything up (idempotent) | | clip2devbox run | Run the action now (same as the hotkey) — handy for testing | | clip2devbox uninstall | Remove the hotkey and local script | | clip2devbox uninstall --remote | The above + remove /clip and the cron job on the devbox |

On the devbox, after any upload:

• /clip → load the most recent file from ~/clips into context (image, PDF, text, …)
• /clip 3 → load the 3 most recent files

Feedback

• High beep + toast → uploaded
• Low beep + toast → error (empty clipboard, invalid URL, file over the limit, devbox unreachable, …)
• Large file (above --progress-min-mb, default 5 MB) → a progress bar during upload

Auto-update

After a successful upload the script checks once a day (in the background, without delaying anything) whether a newer version is on npm. If there is, it runs npm i -g (or pnpm add -g) followed by clip2devbox install on its own. Disable it with --no-auto-update at install time. Auto-update only kicks in after you've updated once to a version that ships it (≥ 0.3.0).

How it works

install renders a PowerShell script to %LOCALAPPDATA%\clip2devbox\clip2devbox.ps1 with the host, directory, size limits, and version baked in, then creates a .lnk shortcut in the Start Menu bound to the global hotkey. Authentication is inherited from Tailscale SSH, so scp never prompts for a password. Cleanup is a single crontab line on the devbox (tagged # clip2devbox-cleanup).

License

MIT © Rafael D'Arrigo