mobium clipboard

This tool on every surface: CLI · MCP · Python · JavaScript · Go · Java · .NET

Read the device clipboard, or write it

With no argument, prints what the clipboard holds.

The platforms are not symmetric and mobium says so. iOS reads and writes through simctl, so a write is confirmed by reading it back. Android can only write: since Android 10 only an app with focus may read the clipboard, and the UiAutomator2 server has no activity of its own, so it answers with an empty string however full the clipboard is. Reporting that as "empty" would be a different claim and usually a false one, so the read refuses there instead.

To check an Android write, paste into a field and read the field: that is how this was verified in the first place.

Usage

mobium clipboard [text] [flags]

Examples

Put text on the clipboard

mobium clipboard "hello there"

Printed on an Android 15 emulator:

wrote "hello there" to the clipboard — Android cannot read it back, so this is the write reported as sent. Paste into a field to see it

mobium clipboard "hello there" on an Android 15 emulator

Read the clipboard

mobium clipboard

Printed on an Android 15 emulator: It exited 5.

error: the uiautomator2 backend cannot read the clipboard. On Android 10 and later only an app with focus may read it, and the UiAutomator2 server has no activity of its own — it answers with an empty string however full the clipboard is, which would be reported as "empty" rather than as "unknown". Pass text to write one; to check a write, paste into a field and read that

More, from mobium clipboard --help

mobium clipboard                     # what is on it? (iOS)
mobium clipboard "hello there"       # put text on it
mobium clipboard "$(cat note.txt)"   # quotes and newlines survive

The tool

clipboard calls app_clipboard; its arguments and what every client calls it are there.