Read clipboard text natively in standalone to skip the WKWebView paste prompt

navigator.clipboard.readText() pops a "Paste from <App>" confirmation menu
at the cursor on macOS WKWebView every time it's invoked from JS, which
defeats the point of a paste shortcut. Route text reads through the sidecar
(pbpaste / Get-Clipboard / xclip / wl-paste) the same way files and images
already work, and accept either Ctrl+V or Cmd+V so the shortcut matches
user muscle memory on every platform.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: nedtwigg

lib/src/components/wall/keyboard/handle-mouse-selection-keys.ts

@@ -66,7 +66,11 @@ export function handleMouseSelectionKeys(e: KeyboardEvent, ctx: WallKeyboardCtx)
     });
     return true;
   }
-  if (mod && keyLower === 'v') {
+  // Accept either Ctrl+V or Cmd+V for paste on all platforms — matches VSCode's
+  // terminal paste behavior and the muscle memory of users coming from Linux/Windows.
+  // Trade-off: shadows readline's ^V verbatim-insert; not worth surfacing as a
+  // setting until someone asks for it.
+  if ((e.metaKey || e.ctrlKey) && keyLower === 'v') {
     e.preventDefault();
     e.stopImmediatePropagation();
     void doPaste(sid);

lib/src/lib/clipboard.ts

@@ -63,6 +63,17 @@ export function pasteFilePaths(terminalId: string, paths: string[]): void {
 }
 
 async function readTextFromClipboard(): Promise<string> {
+  // Prefer the platform's native text read when available — navigator.clipboard.readText()
+  // on macOS WKWebView pops a "Paste from <App>" confirmation menu at the cursor every
+  // time it's invoked from JS, which defeats the point of a paste shortcut.
+  const platform = getPlatform();
+  if (platform.readClipboardText) {
+    try {
+      return (await platform.readClipboardText()) ?? '';
+    } catch {
+      return '';
+    }
+  }
   try {
     if (typeof navigator === 'undefined' || !navigator.clipboard?.readText) return '';
     return await navigator.clipboard.readText();

lib/src/lib/platform/types.ts

@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ export interface PlatformAdapter {
   // Clipboard support for file references and raw images.
   readClipboardFilePaths(): Promise<string[] | null>;
   readClipboardImageAsFilePath(): Promise<string | null>;
+  // Optional native clipboard text read. When present, doPaste uses this
+  // instead of navigator.clipboard.readText() so adapters whose webview pops
+  // a "Paste from <App>" confirmation (notably Tauri's WKWebView) can bypass it.
+  readClipboardText?(): Promise<string | null>;
   // Only present on adapters with a native (non-DOM) drag-drop source. Currently inert in Tauri; see diffplug/mouseterm#38 and tauri-apps/tauri#14373.
   onFilesDropped?(handler: (paths: string[]) => void): () => void;
 

standalone/sidecar/clipboard-ops.js

@@ -92,6 +92,58 @@ async function readClipboardFilePaths(runtime = {}) {
   return readFilePathsLinux(runtime);
 }
 
+async function readTextMac(runtime) {
+  const exec = runtime.exec || execFileP;
+  try {
+    const { stdout } = await exec('pbpaste', [], { maxBuffer: MAX_BUFFER });
+    return stdout;
+  } catch {
+    return '';
+  }
+}
+
+async function readTextWindows(runtime) {
+  const exec = runtime.exec || execFileP;
+  try {
+    const { stdout } = await exec(
+      'powershell',
+      ['-NoProfile', '-NonInteractive', '-Command', 'Get-Clipboard -Raw'],
+      { maxBuffer: MAX_BUFFER },
+    );
+    // Get-Clipboard -Raw appends a trailing newline that wasn't on the clipboard.
+    return stdout.replace(/\r?\n$/, '');
+  } catch {
+    return '';
+  }
+}
+
+async function readTextLinux(runtime) {
+  const env = runtime.env || process.env;
+  const exec = runtime.exec || execFileP;
+  const wayland = Boolean(env.WAYLAND_DISPLAY);
+  const attempts = wayland
+    ? [['wl-paste', ['--no-newline']], ['xclip', ['-selection', 'clipboard', '-o']]]
+    : [['xclip', ['-selection', 'clipboard', '-o']], ['wl-paste', ['--no-newline']]];
+
+  for (const [cmd, args] of attempts) {
+    try {
+      const { stdout } = await exec(cmd, args, { maxBuffer: MAX_BUFFER });
+      if (stdout) return stdout;
+    } catch {}
+  }
+  return '';
+}
+
+// Native clipboard text read — bypasses navigator.clipboard.readText(), whose
+// WKWebView implementation pops a "Paste from <App>" confirmation menu at the
+// cursor every time it's called from JS.
+async function readClipboardText(runtime = {}) {
+  const platform = runtime.platform || process.platform;
+  if (platform === 'darwin') return readTextMac(runtime);
+  if (platform === 'win32') return readTextWindows(runtime);
+  return readTextLinux(runtime);
+}
+
 async function readImageMac(out, runtime) {
   const exec = runtime.exec || execFileP;
   const script = [
@@ -211,6 +263,7 @@ async function readClipboardImageAsFilePath(runtime = {}) {
 module.exports = {
   readClipboardFilePaths,
   readClipboardImageAsFilePath,
+  readClipboardText,
   parseUriList,
   splitNonEmptyLines,
 };

standalone/sidecar/clipboard-ops.test.js

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ const path = require('node:path');
 const {
   readClipboardFilePaths,
   readClipboardImageAsFilePath,
+  readClipboardText,
   parseUriList,
   splitNonEmptyLines,
 } = require('./clipboard-ops');
@@ -190,6 +191,81 @@ test('readClipboardImageAsFilePath returns null when osascript returns empty', a
   assert.deepEqual(fs.rmdirs, [path.join('/t', 'mouseterm-drops-dir-0')]);
 });
 
+test('readClipboardText on mac shells out to pbpaste', async () => {
+  const calls = [];
+  const text = await readClipboardText({
+    platform: 'darwin',
+    exec: async (cmd, args) => {
+      calls.push([cmd, args]);
+      return { stdout: 'hello clipboard' };
+    },
+  });
+  assert.equal(text, 'hello clipboard');
+  assert.deepEqual(calls, [['pbpaste', []]]);
+});
+
+test('readClipboardText on mac returns empty string when pbpaste fails', async () => {
+  const text = await readClipboardText({
+    platform: 'darwin',
+    exec: async () => { throw new Error('no pbpaste'); },
+  });
+  assert.equal(text, '');
+});
+
+test('readClipboardText on windows strips Get-Clipboard trailing newline', async () => {
+  const text = await readClipboardText({
+    platform: 'win32',
+    exec: async (cmd, args) => {
+      assert.equal(cmd, 'powershell');
+      assert.ok(args.includes('Get-Clipboard -Raw'));
+      return { stdout: 'line1\r\nline2\r\n' };
+    },
+  });
+  assert.equal(text, 'line1\r\nline2');
+});
+
+test('readClipboardText on linux prefers xclip in X11', async () => {
+  const calls = [];
+  const text = await readClipboardText({
+    platform: 'linux',
+    env: {},
+    exec: async (cmd, args) => {
+      calls.push([cmd, args]);
+      if (cmd === 'xclip') return { stdout: 'x11 text' };
+      throw new Error('should not reach');
+    },
+  });
+  assert.equal(text, 'x11 text');
+  assert.equal(calls[0][0], 'xclip');
+});
+
+test('readClipboardText on linux prefers wl-paste under Wayland', async () => {
+  const calls = [];
+  const text = await readClipboardText({
+    platform: 'linux',
+    env: { WAYLAND_DISPLAY: 'wayland-0' },
+    exec: async (cmd, args) => {
+      calls.push([cmd, args]);
+      if (cmd === 'wl-paste') return { stdout: 'wayland text' };
+      throw new Error('should not reach');
+    },
+  });
+  assert.equal(text, 'wayland text');
+  assert.equal(calls[0][0], 'wl-paste');
+});
+
+test('readClipboardText on linux falls back when first tool fails', async () => {
+  const text = await readClipboardText({
+    platform: 'linux',
+    env: {},
+    exec: async (cmd) => {
+      if (cmd === 'xclip') throw new Error('no xclip');
+      return { stdout: 'fallback text' };
+    },
+  });
+  assert.equal(text, 'fallback text');
+});
+
 test('readClipboardImageAsFilePath on linux writes buffer from exec stdout', async () => {
   const fs = fakeFs();
   const result = await readClipboardImageAsFilePath({

standalone/sidecar/main.js

@@ -53,6 +53,11 @@ rl.on('line', (line) => {
           path: await clipboard.readClipboardImageAsFilePath(),
         }));
         break;
+      case 'clipboard:readText':
+        respondAsync('clipboard:text', data.requestId, async () => ({
+          text: await clipboard.readClipboardText(),
+        }));
+        break;
       default: console.error(`[sidecar] Unknown event: ${event}`);
     }
   } catch (err) {

standalone/src-tauri/src/lib.rs

@@ -289,6 +289,18 @@ fn read_clipboard_image_as_file_path(
         .and_then(|path| path.as_str().map(String::from)))
 }
 
+#[tauri::command]
+fn read_clipboard_text(
+    state: tauri::State<'_, SidecarState>,
+) -> Result<String, String> {
+    let response =
+        request_from_sidecar_timeout(&state, "clipboard:readText", serde_json::json!({}), Duration::from_secs(5))?;
+    Ok(response
+        .get("text")
+        .and_then(|v| v.as_str().map(String::from))
+        .unwrap_or_default())
+}
+
 #[tauri::command]
 fn read_update_log() -> Result<String, String> {
     read_log_tail(10_000)
@@ -632,6 +644,7 @@ pub fn run() {
             get_available_shells,
             read_clipboard_file_paths,
             read_clipboard_image_as_file_path,
+            read_clipboard_text,
             read_update_log,
         ])
         .build(tauri::generate_context!())

standalone/src/tauri-adapter.ts

@@ -171,6 +171,12 @@ export class TauriAdapter implements PlatformAdapter {
     } catch { return null; }
   }
 
+  async readClipboardText(): Promise<string | null> {
+    try {
+      return await rawInvoke<string>("read_clipboard_text");
+    } catch { return null; }
+  }
+
   onFilesDropped(handler: (paths: string[]) => void): () => void {
     this.filesDroppedHandlers.add(handler);
     return () => { this.filesDroppedHandlers.delete(handler); };