# CrossPaste/crosspaste-desktop [Health: Active]

**Category:** 🏢 Workplace & Productivity  
**Repository:** https://github.com/CrossPaste/crosspaste-desktop  
**GitHub Stars:** 2659  
**Views:** 4  
**Installs:** 0  
**Upvotes:** 0  
**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/crosspaste-crosspaste-desktop

## Description
Open-source cross-device clipboard manager with a built-in MCP server. Search and retrieve clipboard history synced across all your devices, read OCR text extracted from copied images, and add new items to the clipboard. Tools: searchclipboard, getpasteitem, getclipboardstats, listtags, addtoclipboard.

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
No confirmed install details yet, so no config is published. Follow the setup steps in the repository above.

## Documentation

## What CrossPaste/crosspaste-desktop does

CrossPaste/crosspaste-desktop is a desktop clipboard manager for Windows, macOS, and Linux with an MCP server built into the application. It synchronizes pasteboard content across devices and supports text, colors, URLs, HTML, RTF, images, and files. The MCP interface gives AI assistants access to clipboard history and lets them add new entries.

Clipboard data is stored locally in a serverless architecture, with synchronization limited to the local network. CrossPaste also supports end-to-end encryption and automatic storage cleanup. Its OCR feature extracts text from copied images locally, without sending screenshots over the network.

## How it works

The desktop application maintains clipboard history and makes that data available through MCP. An MCP-compatible assistant can call search and retrieval tools to find past content, inspect metadata such as tags and statistics, or write a new item back to the clipboard.

Cross-device sharing is handled by CrossPaste itself. The application runs on supported desktop operating systems and synchronizes pasteboard content over the LAN. The built-in OCR path processes image content on the device.

## Setup and configuration

For development, clone the repository and start the desktop application with Gradle:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/CrossPaste/crosspaste-desktop.git
cd crosspaste-desktop
./gradlew app:run
```

The first run downloads JetBrains Runtime and Gradle dependencies. If dependency downloads fail because of network restrictions, Gradle proxy settings can be placed in `gradle.properties`, including proxy host, port, username, password, and HTTP non-proxy hosts.

The application is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The MCP server is built into the desktop application, so the application must be running for its clipboard data and MCP capabilities to be available.

## Tools and capabilities

The MCP tool set includes:

- `searchclipboard` for finding matching clipboard history entries.
- `getpasteitem` for retrieving a specific paste item.
- `getclipboardstats` for reading clipboard statistics.
- `listtags` for listing available clipboard tags.
- `addtoclipboard` for adding content to the clipboard.

The underlying clipboard manager handles multiple pasteboard formats, including text, URLs, HTML, RTF, colors, images, and files. OCR text from copied images can also be read through the clipboard history exposed to the assistant.

## Limitations and notes

Synchronization uses a LAN-only, serverless design rather than a hosted service. OCR is local and applies to text extracted from copied images. Storage cleanup can be configured through the desktop application.

The repository is licensed under AGPL-3.0. The project also includes a Chrome extension and command-line support, but those are separate CrossPaste interfaces rather than additional MCP tools.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/crosspaste-crosspaste-desktop/readme_