ClipboardItem

A single clipboard entry that pairs one or more MIME-typed payloads.

Process: Main

ClipboardItem is modeled after the W3C ClipboardItem class. Each ClipboardItem carries one or more MIME-typed payloads that represent the same conceptual clipboard entry — for example, a single copy operation that exposes both a plain-text and an HTML representation of a selection.

Class: ClipboardItem

Construct a clipboard entry for clipboard.write() or inspect an entry returned from clipboard.read().

Process: Main

[!WARNING] Electron's built-in classes cannot be subclassed in user code. For more information, see the FAQ.

new ClipboardItem(items)

• items Record<string, string | ClipboardBookmark | Blob | Promise<Blob | string>> - An object whose keys are MIME types and whose values are the payload for that type. Mirrors the W3C ClipboardItem(items) constructor's items parameter. Every MIME type accepts either a string or a Blob: a string is UTF-8 encoded into the payload bytes (as the W3C spec requires), and a Blob supplies the raw payload bytes. The electron application/bookmark custom format is the one exception — it accepts a ClipboardBookmark object. Any non-bookmark value may also be a Promise that resolves to a Blob or string; it is awaited when clipboard.write() is called.

Creates a new ClipboardItem describing one clipboard entry with one or more MIME-typed representations. The constructed item can be passed to clipboard.write(). Each Blob or Promise payload is resolved asynchronously when clipboard.write() is called.

[!WARNING] Do not construct a ClipboardItem directly from an untrusted object (for example, a payload received from a renderer over IPC). The MIME keys are a capability surface: text/uri-list places real file references on the OS clipboard (letting a file be pasted into another application), and the electron application/osclipboard;format=... and web-prefixed (e.g. web application/x.my-format) formats write raw platform data. Validate and allowlist the MIME types — and the shape of each payload — before building a ClipboardItem from data you did not author.

// Each `ClipboardItem` describes one clipboard entry with one or more
// MIME-typed representations. The bookmark custom format takes a structured
// `{ title, url }` object instead of a Blob.
const { clipboard, ClipboardItem, nativeImage } = require('electron')

const png = nativeImage.createFromPath('/path/to/icon.png').toPNG()

clipboard.write([
  new ClipboardItem({
    'text/plain': 'hello',
    'text/html': '<b>hello</b>',
    'image/png': new Blob([png], { type: 'image/png' }),
    'electron application/bookmark': {
      title: 'Electron',
      url: 'https://electronjs.org'
    }
  })
])

Files: the text/uri-list MIME type

The text/uri-list MIME type is mapped to the operating system's native "copied files" clipboard format (CF_HDROP on Windows, NSFilenamesPboardType on macOS, and text/uri-list on Linux) rather than being stored as a generic text payload. This lets clipboard entries written by Electron be pasted as files into native applications such as Finder, Explorer, or a file manager, and lets Electron read files that were copied from those applications.

The payload is an RFC 2483 URI list: one file:// URI per line, separated by CRLF. Use url.pathToFileURL to convert an absolute path into a file:// URI. Although RFC 2483 permits any URI scheme, this format is files-only — non-file:// URIs are ignored.

When reading, getType('text/uri-list') resolves to a Blob whose text is the file:// URI list. Because this is a privileged main-process API, the resolved URIs contain the real absolute paths of the files — unlike the renderer's navigator.clipboard, which sanitizes file paths for privacy.

const { clipboard, ClipboardItem } = require('electron')
const { pathToFileURL } = require('node:url')

// Write two files to the clipboard so they can be pasted into the OS file
// manager.
clipboard.write([
  new ClipboardItem({
    'text/uri-list': [
      pathToFileURL('/path/to/first.txt').href,
      pathToFileURL('/path/to/second.txt').href
    ].join('\r\n')
  })
])

// Read the files currently on the clipboard.
async function readFiles () {
  const [item] = await clipboard.read()
  if (item.types.includes('text/uri-list')) {
    const blob = await item.getType('text/uri-list')
    if (blob instanceof Blob) {
      const uriList = await blob.text()
      return uriList.split(/\r?\n/).filter(Boolean)
    }
  }
  return []
}

Instance Properties

clipboardItem.types Readonly

A string[] property — the MIME types of the data carried by this entry. For a constructed ClipboardItem these are the keys passed to the constructor; for an item returned by clipboard.read() these are the MIME types the platform clipboard currently makes available.

Instance Methods

clipboardItem.getType(type)

• type string - mime type to retrieve.

Returns Promise<Blob> | Promise<ClipboardBookmark> - Resolves with the payload for the given MIME type. Modeled after the W3C ClipboardItem.getType method. The promise resolves to a Blob for most MIME types; the one exception is getType('electron application/bookmark'), which resolves to a ClipboardBookmark object instead. Rejects when type is not present in clipboardItem.types.

const { clipboard } = require('electron')

async function dumpClipboard () {
  const items = await clipboard.read()
  for (const item of items) {
    for (const type of item.types) {
      const payload = await item.getType(type)
      console.log(type, payload)
    }
  }
}

clipboardItem.getType(bookmark)

• bookmark 'electron application/bookmark'

Returns Promise<ClipboardBookmark> - Resolves with a ClipboardBookmark when a bookmark is available in the clipboard. Rejects when a bookmark is not available in the clipboard.

const { clipboard } = require('electron')

async function dumpClipboard () {
  const bookmarkType = 'electron application/bookmark'
  const items = await clipboard.read()
  for (const item of items) {
    if (item.types.includes(bookmarkType)) {
      const bookmark = await item.getType(bookmarkType)
      console.log('Bookmark found: ', bookmark)
    } else {
      console.log('There is no bookmark present')
    }
  }
}