osc52 0.1.0

Copy stdin or arguments to the system clipboard via the OSC 52 terminal escape sequence — works over SSH + tmux.

osc52

Copy stdin (or arguments) to the system clipboard via the OSC 52 terminal escape sequence. Designed to work over SSH + tmux: the escape is written to stderr, streamed back to your local terminal, and routed to your local clipboard — so ssh server "nvidia-smi | osc52" copies the remote output to your local machine, no remote clipboard tool required.

This is the Python port of the Go tool of the same name, distributed on PyPI so pip install osc52 gives you the osc52 command directly.

Install

pip install osc52

This installs an osc52 executable onto your PATH (an osc52.exe shim on Windows).

Usage

# Default: echo input to stdout AND copy to clipboard.
nvidia-smi | osc52

# Copy only, no echo.
nvidia-smi | osc52 -q

# Copy a file.
osc52 < config.yaml

# Copy a literal string.
osc52 "https://example.com/token"

How it works

stdin/argv ──▶ echo to stdout (visible) ─────────────────▶ terminal / pipe
          └─▶ base64 ─▶ ESC ] 52 ; c ; <b64> BEL ─▶ stderr ─▶ terminal
                                                              (parses OSC 52
                                                               → local clipboard)

• Echo goes to stdout so downstream pipes stay clean of escape sequences.
• OSC 52 goes to stderr so the terminal still parses it, but it never pollutes piped output.
• Large payloads are split into ≤32KB base64 chunks; terminals accumulate same-selection sequences into the clipboard.

Options

Flag	Meaning
-q, --quiet	Do not echo input to stdout
--version	Print version
-h, --help	Help

Terminal support

OSC 52 is supported by Windows Terminal, iTerm2, kitty, Alacritty, WezTerm, foot, and recent GNOME Terminal. In tmux, ensure set -g set-clipboard on.

License

MIT