claude-paste-image

MCP server that captures images from your system clipboard so Claude Code (or any MCP client) can read and analyze them.

Copy a screenshot or image → call the paste_image tool → get a file path → Claude reads the image.

Features

• Cross-platform: macOS, Linux (X11 & Wayland), Windows
• Format detection: PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF (auto-detected from magic bytes)
• Secure: filename sanitization, restrictive file permissions (0o600), no shell interpolation
• Auto-cleanup: temporary files are deleted after 30 minutes
• Zero config: no API keys, no external services, works offline
• Minimal dependencies: only @modelcontextprotocol/sdk

Prerequisites

Platform	Requirement
macOS	pngpaste (brew install pngpaste) — optional, falls back to built-in osascript
Linux (X11)	xclip (apt install xclip)
Linux (Wayland)	wl-clipboard (apt install wl-clipboard)
Windows	PowerShell (pre-installed)

Installation

Option 1: npx (no install)

claude mcp add paste-image -- npx -y claude-paste-image

Option 2: Global install

npm install -g claude-paste-image
claude mcp add paste-image -- claude-paste-image

Option 3: From source

git clone https://github.com/jokai-sor/claude-paste-image.git
cd claude-paste-image
npm install && npm run build
claude mcp add paste-image -- node /absolute/path/to/dist/index.js

Usage

1. Copy an image to your clipboard (screenshot, browser image, etc.)
2. In Claude Code, the paste_image tool will be available
3. Claude captures the image, saves it to a temp file, and reads it for analysis

Tool: paste_image

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
filename	string	No	Custom filename (alphanumeric, dashes, underscores). Random UUID if omitted.

Example output

Image saved from clipboard.
Path: /tmp/claude-paste-images/a1b2c3d4.png
Format: PNG
Size: 142 KB

Use the Read tool to view this image.

How it works

1. MCP client calls the paste_image tool
2. Server runs a platform-specific command to read the clipboard:
   • macOS: pngpaste or osascript (AppleScript)
   • Linux: xclip (X11) or wl-paste (Wayland)
   • Windows: PowerShell with System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard
3. Image format is detected from magic bytes
4. File is saved to a temp directory with restrictive permissions
5. File path is returned for the client to read

Security

• Filenames are sanitized: path separators stripped, only [a-zA-Z0-9_-] allowed
• Files are written with mode 0o600 (owner-only read/write)
• Temp directory has mode 0o700 (owner-only access)
• All external commands use execFileSync (no shell interpretation)
• Stale files are auto-deleted after 30 minutes

License

MIT