Install mcp-clip and Configure Claude or VSCode

mcp-clip requires Go 1.24+ if you build from source, or Node.js 14+ for the npm distribution, which ships a prebuilt binary for darwin, linux, and win32 on x64/arm64.

Installation

npm (recommended)

npm install -g @standardbeagle/mcp-clip

go install

go install github.com/standardbeagle/mcp-clip@latest

Manual

git clone https://github.com/standardbeagle/mcp-clip.git
cd mcp-clip
go build -o mcp-clip
sudo cp mcp-clip /usr/local/bin/

Configure your MCP client

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clipboard": {
      "command": "mcp-clip",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

VSCode + Claude Code extension

Add to your VSCode settings or workspace .vscode/settings.json:

{
  "claude-dev.mcpServers": {
    "clipboard": {
      "command": "mcp-clip",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Tip

Running inside WSL2? Install mcp-clip in the WSL2 distro, not Windows — see the WSL2 setup guide for the PowerShell bridge it needs.

Verify the install

mcp-clip test

Configuration

Environment variables

• MCP_DEBUG=1 — enable detailed debug logging (clipboard monitoring status, temp file creation/cleanup, WSL2 PowerShell integration, rare race-condition fallbacks)
• MCP_CLEANUP_TTL=2h — temp file cleanup TTL (default: 1h)

MCP_DEBUG=1 mcp-clip

Next steps

• Tool reference — the read_clipboard tool and its parameters
• WSL2 setup — the PowerShell bridge and its troubleshooting steps