send-secret-clipboard

Send Secret from Clipboard (macOS)

Share clipboard contents as an encrypted secret without the agent ever seeing what was copied. The clipboard is piped directly to send-secret, bypassing the agent's context entirely.

Security Model

This is one of the safest agentic patterns for secret sharing:

Action	Safe	Reason
pbpaste | send-secret	Yes	Clipboard bypasses agent context
User tells agent the secret	NO	Secret enters conversation context
Agent reads from file then pipes	NO	File content enters context

Why this works: The user copies the secret to clipboard manually. The agent runs pbpaste | send-secret without ever seeing what's in the clipboard. The piped data goes directly from clipboard to the encryption process.

Platform Support

Platform	Command	Available
macOS	pbpaste	Yes
Linux (X11)	xclip -selection clipboard -o	Varies
Linux (Wayland)	wl-paste	Varies
Windows	powershell Get-Clipboard	Varies

This skill focuses on macOS. For other platforms, verify the clipboard command exists first.

Command Reference

# Basic clipboard send
pbpaste | npx send-secret

# Multiple recipients
pbpaste | npx send-secret -n 3

# With timeout
pbpaste | npx send-secret -t 300

# Combined
pbpaste | npx send-secret -n 5 -t 600

Workflow

1. Instruct user to copy their secret to clipboard (Cmd+C)
2. Confirm they have copied the secret
3. Ask about view count and timeout preferences
4. Run pbpaste | npx send-secret with options
5. Provide URL to user
6. Inform to keep terminal open until delivered

Use Cases

API key sharing

User: "I need to share an API key with my teammate"

Response:

1. "Copy the API key to your clipboard (Cmd+C)"
2. Wait for confirmation
3. Run: pbpaste | npx send-secret
4. Share the URL

Password sharing

User: "Send my copied password securely"

pbpaste | npx send-secret -t 120  # 2 minute timeout for passwords

Quick credential sharing

User: "Share what I just copied"

pbpaste | npx send-secret

Important Notes

• User must copy first: The agent cannot access clipboard contents, so user must manually copy
• Clipboard is transient: If user copies something else, original secret is lost
• No file metadata: Unlike file sends, clipboard sends have no filename - they appear as text secrets
• Empty clipboard fails: If clipboard is empty, send-secret will error with "No data to send"

Verification

To verify clipboard has content (without seeing it):

pbpaste | wc -c  # Shows byte count, not content

If this returns 0, clipboard is empty.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Resolution
"No data to send"	Clipboard empty	Ask user to copy secret first
"pbpaste: command not found"	Not macOS or pbpaste missing	Use file-based send instead
Process exits immediately	Clipboard may be binary/incompatible	Use file-based send instead

What NOT To Do

# NEVER ask user to paste in chat
"Paste your secret here"  # WRONG: enters agent context

# NEVER try to read clipboard for verification
pbpaste  # WRONG: would display clipboard to agent

# NEVER echo clipboard
echo $(pbpaste) | send-secret  # WRONG: subshell exposes content

Example Interaction

User: "I need to send my database password to the ops team"

Agent response:

1. "Copy the database password to your clipboard using Cmd+C"
2. "Let me know when you've copied it"

User: "Done"

Agent:

pbpaste | npx send-secret -n 3 -t 300

"Here's your secure link: [URL]. It can be viewed 3 times and expires in 5 minutes. Keep this terminal open until the ops team has retrieved it."

Related Skills

• send-secret-file - For sharing files by path (when secret is in a file)
• receive-secret - For receiving secrets from send-secret URLs