Crosspaste Desktop

What CrossPaste/crosspaste-desktop MCP server does

CrossPaste/crosspaste-desktop MCP server makes a CrossPaste desktop clipboard available to MCP-compatible AI assistants. CrossPaste is an open-source clipboard manager for Windows, macOS, and Linux that keeps pasteboard content available across devices. The application supports text, colors, URLs, HTML, RTF, images, and files, while its local OCR feature extracts text from images without sending them over the network.

The MCP interface is suited to agents that need to locate something copied earlier, inspect a specific clipboard record, summarize clipboard usage, or place new content on the clipboard. It operates on the history maintained by the CrossPaste application rather than acting as a general-purpose remote storage service.

How it works

The MCP server is built into the CrossPaste desktop application. An assistant sends tool calls through MCP, and CrossPaste handles those calls against its clipboard data.

Clipboard history can be synchronized among devices running CrossPaste. This means an agent connected to one desktop may work with content that CrossPaste has made available there, subject to the application's synchronization and storage state.

Setup and configuration

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

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 with a connection reset, the project documents configuring HTTP and HTTPS proxy properties in gradle.properties; the proxy values must be adjusted for the local environment.

Start with the desktop application setup and consult the repository for client-specific connection instructions.

Tools and capabilities

CrossPaste/crosspaste-desktop MCP server provides these named tools:

• searchclipboard searches clipboard history.
• getpasteitem retrieves a particular clipboard item.
• getclipboardstats returns clipboard statistics.
• listtags lists available clipboard tags.
• addtoclipboard adds a new item to the clipboard.

Together, these tools support history search, item retrieval, basic metadata inspection, and clipboard writes. OCR text from copied images is available through the clipboard content that CrossPaste extracts locally. The repository also documents a command-line mode for copying, pasting, and searching, but that is separate from the MCP tool list above.

Limitations and notes

The server depends on the CrossPaste desktop application's clipboard history and therefore is not described as an independent cloud clipboard API. CrossPaste supports automatic cleanup options, so older items may not remain available if storage-management settings remove them. Cross-device availability likewise depends on CrossPaste being configured and running on the relevant devices.

Clipboard contents can include sensitive text, images, files, and other pasteboard types. Although the project describes local storage, local OCR, and encrypted device sharing, agents should still be granted access with awareness of the data in the clipboard.