CopyQ Documentation

CopyQ

CopyQ is an advanced clipboard manager with powerful editing and scripting features.

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• Scripting API

Overview Copy Chapter

• CopyQ monitors the system clipboard and saves its content in customized tabs.
• Saved clipboard entries can later be copied and pasted directly into any application.

Features Copy Chapter

• Support for Linux, Windows, and macOS 13+
• Store text, HTML, images, and any other custom formats
• Quickly browse and filter items in clipboard history
• Sort, create, edit, remove, copy/paste, drag'n'drop items in tabs
• Add notes and tags to items
• System-wide keyboard shortcuts with customizable commands
• Paste items with keyboard shortcuts, from tray, or from main window
• Fully customizable appearance
• Advanced command-line interface and scripting
• Ignore clipboard copied from specified windows or containing specified text
• Support for simple Vim-like editor with keyboard shortcuts
• Many more features

Install Copy Chapter

To install CopyQ, use the binary package or the installer provided for your operating system.

For unlisted operating systems, please follow the instructions in
Build from Source Code.

Windows Copy Section

On Windows you can use any of the following options to install CopyQ:

• Installer (setup.exe)
• Portable zip package
• Scoop package from the extras bucket.
• Chocolatey package

Using Scoop:

scoop install copyq

Using Chocolatey:

choco install copyq

macOS Copy Section

macOS 13 and above are supported (this mainly depends on the Qt version).

On macOS you can use Homebrew to install CopyQ:

brew install --cask copyq

If you encounter an issue where the app crashes with a dialog saying "CopyQ is
damaged" or "CopyQ cannot be opened", you may need to run the following
commands (for details, see #2652):

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/CopyQ.app
codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/CopyQ.app

Debian 11+, Ubuntu 22.04+, and their derivatives Copy Section

Install copyq and copyq-plugins packages.

Ubuntu PPA

Install and keep CopyQ always up to date by running the following commands from
the terminal (the package from PPA contains all plugins and documentation):

sudo apt install software-properties-common python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hluk/copyq
sudo apt update
sudo apt install copyq
# this package contains all plugins and documentation

Fedora Copy Section

Install copyq package.

Arch Linux Copy Section

Install copyq package.

Other Linux Distributions Copy Section

Download the latest AppImage from
GitHub Releases:

chmod +x CopyQ-*.AppImage
./CopyQ-*.AppImage

Alternatively, install Flatpak and com.github.hluk.copyq from
Flathub.
See Flathub Setup for initial Flatpak/Flathub configuration.

Start CopyQ from the menu or with the following command:

flatpak run com.github.hluk.copyq

Using the App Copy Chapter

To start CopyQ, double-click the program icon or run copyq (on Windows, run CopyQ.exe, or launch it from the Start menu; no desktop icon is created by default).

The list with the clipboard history is accessible by clicking on the system tray icon
or by running copyq toggle.

Copying text or image to the clipboard will create a new item in the list.

Selected items can be:

• edited (F2)
• removed (Delete)
• sorted (Ctrl+Shift+S, Ctrl+Shift+R)
• repositioned (with mouse or Ctrl+Up/Down)
• copied back to the clipboard (Ctrl+C)
• pasted to the previously active window (Enter)

All items will be restored when CopyQ is next started.

To exit CopyQ, select Exit from the tray menu or press Ctrl-Q in the
CopyQ window.

Read more:

• Basic Usage
• Keyboard

Adding Functionality Copy Section

To create custom actions that can be executed
from the menu, with keyboard shortcuts, or when the clipboard changes:

• go to the Command dialog (F6 shortcut)
• click the Add button, then select a predefined command, or create a new one
• optionally change the command details (shortcut, name)
• click OK to save the command

One of the very useful predefined commands is "Show/hide main window".

Read more:

• Writing Commands
• CopyQ Commands Repository

Command Line Copy Section

CopyQ has a powerful command line and scripting interface.

Note: The main application must be running to be able to issue commands using the
command line.

Print help for some useful command line arguments:

copyq --help
copyq --help add

Insert some text in the history:

copyq add -- 'first item' 'second item' 'third item'

Omitting the double-dash (--) in the command above would mean that slashes
(\) in arguments will be treated as special characters. For example, \n will be treated as
the new line character, \t as tab, \\ as slash, \x as x, etc.

Create a single item containing two lines:

copyq add 'first line\nsecond line'

Print the content of the first three items:

copyq read 0 1 2
copyq separator "," read 0 1 2

Show the current clipboard content:

copyq clipboard
copyq clipboard text/html
copyq clipboard \?    # lists formats in clipboard

Copy text to the clipboard:

copyq copy "Some Text"

Load file content into the clipboard:

copyq copy - < file.txt
copyq copy text/html < index.html
copyq copy image/jpeg - < image.jpg

Create image items:

copyq write image/gif - < image.gif
copyq write image/svg - < image.svg

Read more:

• Scripting
• Scripting API

Build from Source Code Copy Chapter

See the documentation section Build from Source
Code.

Contributions Copy Chapter

You can help translate CopyQ (click the banner below)
or help fix issues and implement new features.

Read more:

• Build from Source Code
• Fixing Bugs and Adding Features
• Translations