bigboss2063-pi-clip

pi-clip

A pi extension for copying assistant output to your clipboard — granularly.
Code blocks, tables (cell / row / column / whole), lists, blockquotes, and arbitrary line ranges — without fighting terminal selection.

Why

pi already ships /copy and Ctrl+X to copy the whole last assistant message. pi-clip complements that: pick a single code block, navigate a table and copy just a cell, a row, a column, or the whole table, grab a list or blockquote, select any line range, or fall back to the full raw markdown.

Clipboard writes go through pi's built-in copyToClipboard, so it works across the native OS clipboard, OSC 52 (SSH/mosh), Wayland, Termux, and WSL — no pbcopy/xclip/clip plumbing required.

Install

# From npm
pi install npm:@bigboss2063/pi-clip

# From git
pi install git:github.com/bigboss2063/pi-clip

Or try without installing:

pi -e npm:@bigboss2063/pi-clip

Usage

All commands are accessed via /clip:

Command	Description
/clip	Searchable picker — lists every copyable block from the last response
/clip code	Pick a code block (copies directly if there's only one)
/clip list	Pick a list (copies directly if there's only one)
/clip table	Pick a table, then open the cell grid
/clip lines	Visual line-range selector over the last response
/clip lines N-M	Copy lines N through M directly (also N, N,M)
/clip all	Copy the full conversation (user + assistant) as markdown
Ctrl+Shift+C	Same as /clip

How /clip works

The picker lists, in order, each tagged with its type:

• [code] Code blocks — each fenced block, without the fences
• [table] Tables — opens a grid (see below)
• [list] Lists — ordered, unordered, and nested lists (raw markdown)
• [quote] Blockquotes — > blocks (raw markdown)
• [full] Full response — the raw markdown, as a fallback entry

Prose, headings, and horizontal rules are intentionally not split into blocks — their boundaries are too ambiguous to guess. For those, use /clip lines to select an exact range yourself.

Type to filter. As you type, the list narrows by inclusive match across the type badge, label, and first-line description — e.g. type list to see only lists, or install to see only blocks mentioning install. ⌫ clears one char, Ctrl+U clears the filter, Home/End jump to the first/last match.

Live preview. Below the list, the picker shows the first few lines of the currently-highlighted block's actual content, updating as you move with ↑/↓ — so a one-line badge like Code block [ts] won't get confused for another, since you can read the real code/rows/listing underneath before pressing enter.

If the last response has no structural blocks (no code, tables, lists, or quotes), /clip copies the whole response immediately without opening a picker. To copy part of a prose response, use /clip lines.

Copied text is raw markdown (so **bold**, - list markers, > quote markers are preserved). Table cells copied from the grid are cleaned — no pipes, padding, or inline formatting.

Table grid

Selecting a table opens an interactive grid. Arrow through cells, then:

Key	Action
enter	Copy the highlighted cell value
r	Copy the entire row (tab-separated)
c	Copy the entire column (newline-separated)
a	Copy the full table (raw markdown)
esc	Go back to the picker

Cell values are cleaned — no pipes, no padding, no inline markdown formatting. Column widths are display-width aware, so CJK/wide characters align correctly.

Picker keys

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move selection (wraps around)
Type text	Filter blocks by type badge, label, or content
⌫ (Backspace)	Delete one filter character
Ctrl+U	Clear the whole filter
Home / End	Jump to first / last match
enter	Copy the selected block (tables open the grid)
esc	Cancel

/clip lines — visual line selection

For prose that doesn't split into neat blocks (headings, paragraphs, mixed content), /clip lines opens a window showing every line of the last response with line numbers. Mark a range and copy exactly that:

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move the cursor (wraps around)
space	Set the anchor; as you move, the highlight extends from anchor to cursor in real time. Press on the anchor line again to cancel, or on another line to move the anchor there
Home / End	Jump to first / last line
enter	Copy the highlighted lines (anchor..cursor), or just the cursor line if no anchor is set
esc	Cancel

Skip the window with a direct range: /clip lines 3-5, /clip lines 3,5, or /clip lines 3 (1-based, inclusive).

Shortcut

The default shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+C. Override it without any extra dependencies:

# e.g. use Alt+C instead
export PI_CLIP_SHORTCUT=alt+c

Note: pi's keybindings.json remaps built-in action ids (like app.message.copy for Ctrl+X), not shortcuts registered by extensions. PI_CLIP_SHORTCUT is the zero-dependency way to rebind pi-clip's shortcut. The /clip command itself is always available regardless of the shortcut.

Requirements

• pi coding agent (uses @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent copyToClipboard)

Development

No build step — pi loads TypeScript directly via jiti. Edit extensions/index.ts and test with:

pi -e ./extensions/index.ts

Optional typechecking:

npm install
npm run typecheck

License

MIT