rclippy (remote clippy)

Simple encrypted clipboard sharing for two computers on the same LAN or VPN.

An experimental native tray app for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It syncs clipboard contents directly between two paired peers.

Features

• Text clipboard sync only.
• Manual ip:port configuration for LAN, WireGuard, Tailscale, or similar VPNs.
• Direct TCP transport.
• TLS 1.3 transport encryption with pinned self-signed device certificates.
• One-time pairing code to authenticate first connection.
• Secrets stored in the OS keychain.

Install

Download the latest release from the GitHub Releases page.

Windows

Download and run:

rclippy-windows-x64-installer.exe

The installer is unattended. It installs for the current user by default, or system-wide when run as administrator.

macOS

Download:

rclippy-macos-universal.dmg

Open the DMG and drag rclippy.app into Applications.

Current builds are unsigned. On macOS this may require opening the system settings to explicitly allow the app.

Linux

Download and extract:

rclippy-linux-x64.zip

Install:

chmod +x rclippy-linux-install.sh
./rclippy-linux-install.sh

The script installs the AppImage and desktop entry for the current user. When run as root, it installs system-wide. It also installs common runtime dependencies based on /etc/os-release and extracts the desktop icon from the AppImage.

You can also run the AppImage directly:

chmod +x rclippy-linux-x64.AppImage
./rclippy-linux-x64.AppImage

Linux notes:

• Secret storage depends on Secret Service / a compatible keychain provider.
• The app defaults to X11/XWayland when available for tray-window behavior. To force native Wayland:

WINIT_UNIX_BACKEND=wayland ./rclippy-linux-x64.AppImage

Usage

1. Install and open rclippy on both devices.
2. Put both devices on the same reachable network, LAN, or VPN.
3. On the host device, choose Host and click Show pairing code.
4. On the client device, choose Client, enter the host ip:port, enter the pairing code, and click Pair.
5. After pairing, changing the text clipboard on either side syncs it to the other side.

Default listen address:

listen_addr = "0.0.0.0:38765"

If using a firewall, allow inbound TCP on the configured port.

Development

Install Rust stable, then run:

cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test

Run locally:

cargo run

Linux development dependencies

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
  build-essential \
  pkg-config \
  libasound2-dev \
  libatk1.0-dev \
  libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
  libcairo2-dev \
  libfuse2 \
  libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-dev \
  libgtk-3-dev \
  libpango1.0-dev \
  librsvg2-dev \
  libsecret-1-dev \
  libx11-dev \
  libxdo-dev \
  libxi-dev \
  libxkbcommon-dev \
  libxrandr-dev \
  patchelf

Packaging

Install cargo-packager for macOS/Linux packaging:

cargo install cargo-packager --locked

Linux AppImage:

cargo build --release
cargo packager --release --formats appimage --out-dir dist/linux-x64

macOS DMG:

rustup target add x86_64-apple-darwin aarch64-apple-darwin
cargo build --release --target x86_64-apple-darwin
cargo build --release --target aarch64-apple-darwin

Windows installer:

cargo build --release --bin rclippy-uninstaller
$env:RCLIPPY_INSTALLER_PAYLOAD = (Resolve-Path target/release/rclippy.exe).Path
$env:RCLIPPY_UNINSTALLER_PAYLOAD = (Resolve-Path target/release/rclippy-uninstaller.exe).Path
cargo build --release --bin rclippy-installer

Configuration

Config is stored in the platform config directory:

# config.toml
listen_addr = "0.0.0.0:38765"
peer_addr = "100.64.0.2:38765"
start_on_login = false
poll_ms = 500
max_text_bytes = 1048576

These secrets are stored in the OS keychain:

• local TLS private key
• local device id
• pinned peer certificate/fingerprint

Roadmap

• Base app scaffolding
• LAN discovery
• Image clipboard sync
• File clipboard sync
• Document distro-specific Linux requirements more precisely
• Sign and notarize macOS releases
• Sign Windows releases

License

rclippy is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.