RealtimeClipboard — realtime clipboard sync for VS Code
A shared clipboard between your machines. Copy on one, paste on another. Text is encrypted in the
editor before it leaves, routed by a hash of your key through a relay that stores nothing and can
read nothing.
It keeps syncing while VS Code is in the background, which a web page cannot do.
Works with the web app, the desktop app and the CLI — they all
speak the same protocol, so one session can have any mix of them in it. Copy in a terminal on a
server, paste in your editor at home.
Also on Open VSX, so it installs in
Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, Gitpod and code-server too.
Use it
- RealtimeClipboard: New Session from the command palette. A key appears in the status bar.
- Copy Share Link, and open it on your other machine — or run
npx realtimeclipboard <KEY>
there, or paste the key into this extension's Join Session….
- Copy something. It lands on the other machine's clipboard.
| Command |
|
| New Session · Join Session… |
start or enter a room |
| Copy Share Link |
a link that opens the same room in a browser |
| Send Selection |
Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+C — share what is selected without touching your clipboard |
| Insert Latest Clip at Cursor |
Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+V |
| History… |
this window's clips, kept in memory only |
| Lock Session… |
add a PIN, so the link alone is not enough |
The status bar shows the key, the connection and how many other devices are in the room. Click it
for the same menu.
What it is good for
- Sync your clipboard between two computers: a laptop and a desktop, a host and a VM, a Mac and a
Windows box. Any pair, any direction.
- Move text off a remote machine without scp or a paste bin:
npx realtimeclipboard send KEY
over SSH, and it arrives in your editor.
- A clipboard history for this session: the last 20 clips, in a QuickPick, held in memory and
never written to disk.
- Hand something to a phone with the QR code, without typing a key.
It is not a local clipboard manager. It does one thing local managers do not: cross the gap between
machines, encrypted, without an account.
Sync modes
One setting, three rungs, each adding one thing to the one below:
- off — nothing leaves and nothing arrives.
- manual — the session syncs, but your system clipboard is never read or written.
- live — your system clipboard is wired to the room, both directions. The default.
VS Code keeps watching the clipboard while it is in the background, which a web page fundamentally
cannot do. realtimeclipboard.pollWhenUnfocused turns that off if you would rather it only looked
while you are in the editor.
What is protected, and what is not
- The relay sees a room hash and ciphertext. Not your key, not your PIN, not your text — those never
leave the machine, and are never logged.
- Keys are stored in your OS keychain, not in a settings file. Turning off
realtimeclipboard.rememberKey erases what is already stored.
- Clip history lives in memory and dies with the window. It is never written to disk.
- Anyone holding the key can join the room, so an arriving clip is not trusted. Trailing
newlines and invisible characters are stripped from every one, and a clip that reads like a shell
command is held until you click — the integrated terminal is one keystroke away from your
clipboard, and that is the whole reason for the rule.
- A locked session opens no connection at all until the PIN is given.
Limits
No file transfer here — that needs WebRTC, which the extension host does not have. Use the
web app or the desktop app in the same room for files.
Needs VS Code 1.100 or newer, where the extension host is on Node 22+ and has the WebSocket and
crypto.subtle globals this shares with the browser.
Source
github.com/akshaynikhare/RealtimeClipboard ·
MIT licensed · report an issue
