clipboard

Read and write plain text on the Windows clipboard.

import { clipboard } from "system";

Availability

Available in the Main script only.

Table of Contents

• Methods
• Practical Examples

Methods

clipboard.getText() #

clipboard

Returns the current plain text content of the Windows clipboard using CF_UNICODETEXT. Returns "" rather than null on any failure — there is no separate error indicator.

RETURNS: string The current clipboard text as a Unicode string. Returns an empty string "" if the clipboard contains no text, the clipboard is locked by another application, or any other failure occurs.

import { clipboard } from "system";

const text = clipboard.getText();
if (text) {
  console.log("Clipboard:", text);
} else {
  console.log("Clipboard is empty or contains no text");
}

clipboard.setText(text) #

clipboard

Writes a plain text string to the Windows clipboard using CF_UNICODETEXT. Always replaces any existing clipboard content, including non-text formats. Throws TypeError if called without an argument.

PARAMETERS

text string

Text to write to the clipboard. Replaces any existing clipboard content. Throws TypeError if no argument is provided.

RETURNS: boolean true if the clipboard was updated successfully. false if the clipboard could not be opened (e.g. locked by another application).

import { clipboard } from "system";

const ok = clipboard.setText("Copied from Novadesk");
if (ok) {
  console.log("Copied to clipboard");
}

// Verify
const value = clipboard.getText();
console.log(value); // "Copied from Novadesk"

Practical Examples

Copy a metric value to the clipboard

import { clipboard } from "system";

ipcMain.on("copy-stat", (event, payload) => {
  const text = payload.label + ": " + payload.value + "%";
  clipboard.setText(text);
  console.log("Copied:", text);
});

Paste clipboard content into an input field

import { clipboard } from "system";

// In the main script — read clipboard and send to UI
ipcMain.on("paste-request", () => {
  const text = clipboard.getText();
  ipcMain.send("paste-text", { text });
});

// In the UI script — receive and set the input value
ipcRenderer.on("paste-text", (event, payload) => {
  ui.setElementProperties("search-input", { text: payload.text });
});

Copy current date and time

import { clipboard } from "system";

function copyTimestamp() {
  const now = new Date();
  const stamp = now.toLocaleString();
  clipboard.setText(stamp);
  console.log("Copied:", stamp);
}

// Trigger from a context menu item
win.setContextMenu([
  { text: "Copy Timestamp", action: copyTimestamp }
]);