---
id: clipboard
version: "0.0.4"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# clipboard — A cross platform clipboard operation library of Python. Works for Windows, Mac and Linux.

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 513.2K/mo

## What it is and what it does

clipboard is a minimal wrapper around system clipboard operations for Python. It exposes two functions—copy() to write text to the clipboard and paste() to read it back—and claims to work across Windows, macOS, and Linux. The package has no runtime dependencies and is intentionally simple.

The author acknowledged in the original description that pyperclip already provided similar functionality but chose to publish clipboard anyway as a simpler alternative. However, the package has been abandoned since its single release in May 2014, with no updates to support modern Python versions or address any issues that may have arisen in the intervening years.

Use it for:

- Automating copy-paste workflows in command-line tools or scripts that need to interact with the system clipboard.
- Building desktop automation or testing utilities that verify or manipulate clipboard contents.
- Integrating clipboard operations into cross-platform Python applications with minimal dependencies.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides a simple interface to copy text to and paste text from the system clipboard on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

No. The package is abandoned (last release 2014, no maintenance since), supports only obsolete Python versions (2.7, 3.2, 3.3), and offers no advantages over actively maintained alternatives like pyperclip. High install friction and lack of any security or compatibility updates make it unsuitable for new projects.

## Install

pip install clipboard
uv add clipboard
poetry add clipboard

## Installing clipboard

Before you install: High install friction from a source distribution with no compiled dependencies listed. The package is abandoned—last release was 2014-05-22 and last commit 2023-08-15—so no maintenance or security updates should be expected.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive, allowing commercial and private use with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

import clipboard
clipboard.copy("abc")
text = clipboard.paste()

Requires system clipboard support; behavior on headless or restricted environments is unverified.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works reliably on modern Python versions (classifiers list only 2.7, 3.2, 3.3).
- Whether clipboard operations work in headless or sandboxed environments.
- Compatibility with current versions of Windows, macOS, and Linux desktop environments.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 513.2K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

clipboard copy paste, system clipboard access, cross-platform clipboard, clipboard operations python, read write clipboard, abandoned, clipboard-access

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/clipboard) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/clipboard/)