The clipboard sync Apple should have built — faster, smoother, and it works with Linux.
Copy on your Mac, paste on Linux. Copy on Linux, paste on your Mac. Pastebridge syncs text and photos directly between your machines over your LAN or Tailscale — no iCloud relay, no Handoff dance, no waiting. It uses the same shortcuts you already know, runs silently in the background, and often feels noticeably snappier than macOS's built-in Universal Clipboard.
No account. No cloud upload. No extra window.
| Faster than Apple's | Direct peer-to-peer over your network — no iCloud round-trip, no Handoff lag. Copy and paste feel instant |
| Actually cross-platform | Mac ↔ Linux, both directions. Apple's Universal Clipboard doesn't speak Linux |
| Text and photos | Plain text, screenshots, “Copy Image” in a browser, or a photo file from Finder / Nautilus |
| Feels native | Same shortcuts you're used to — ⌘C / ⌘V on macOS, Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V on Linux |
| Stays local | Traffic never leaves your LAN or VPN. No server to run, no account to create |
| Pair once, forget it | Confirm an 8-digit code on both machines. Sync runs in the background from then on |
| Private by design | TLS 1.3 with pinned certificates, password-manager clipboards blocked, no history on disk |
| Zero friction | One-line install, background login service, automatic discovery over mDNS and Tailscale |
| Pastebridge | Apple Universal Clipboard | |
|---|---|---|
| Mac ↔ Linux | Yes | No |
| Speed | Direct LAN / VPN — typically sub-second | Routes through iCloud; can feel sluggish or inconsistent |
| Reliability | Dedicated daemon, always watching | Depends on Handoff, Bluetooth, and iCloud being happy |
| Setup | pastebridge pair once |
Same Apple ID, Handoff enabled, devices nearby |
| Privacy | End-to-end on your network, nothing stored in the cloud | Clipboard content passes through Apple's infrastructure |
| Works headless / over VPN | Yes — Tailscale and static peers supported | Often breaks across networks |
1. Install on macOS or Linux:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hapwi/pastebridge/main/install.sh | bashDownloads a prebuilt binary for Apple Silicon macOS, or ARM64 or x86-64 Linux. Intel Macs are not supported. The installer verifies its checksum and version, then enables the user-level login service and waits for the daemon to become ready. Rust, Bun, and Git are not required.
Pastebridge starts automatically when you log in to your desktop. It does not run before login. If a paired computer is off, Pastebridge keeps running and retries when that computer returns. Tailscale must also be connected when the computers are on different networks.
On a first installation in an interactive terminal, setup starts pairing. Run the command on the other computer too. If pairing has already finished, skip step 2. Existing pairings survive reinstallation.
If the installer adds Pastebridge to your PATH, open a new terminal before using the short pastebridge command. Setup uses the full executable path and continues in the current terminal.
2. Pair both computers if setup did not already pair them:
pastebridge pairBoth screens show an 8-digit code derived from the TLS certificates. If the codes match, type y on both. A machine in the middle would show a different code — do not confirm if they disagree.
3. Use it. Copy text, a screenshot, or a photo on one machine. Paste on the other with your usual shortcut.
Linux: The installer tries to add
wl-clipboardon Wayland orxclipon X11. Run setup from a terminal in your desktop session.macOS: Allow clipboard and local network access if the OS prompts you.
| Copies | Pastes as |
|---|---|
| Text, including URLs | Text |
| Screenshot | Image |
| “Copy Image” in a browser | The actual photo — not the page URL or HTML |
A photo file (.png, .jpg, .webp, …) from Finder or Nautilus |
Image |
PDFs, zips, folders, and other documents stay on the machine you copied them from. Pastebridge syncs the clipboard — text and pictures — not file attachments.
Images are sent as pixels. If a browser also puts HTML or a link on the clipboard, Pastebridge ignores that companion metadata and syncs the picture.
Pastebridge runs as a lightweight background daemon on each machine, polling the clipboard every ~400ms. When you copy, it pushes the payload straight to paired peers over encrypted QUIC (UDP) — a direct path with no cloud middleman. That's why it tends to feel quicker and more responsive than Apple's version, which has to route through iCloud and coordinate Handoff across devices.
Discovery uses mDNS on the LAN. If Tailscale is installed, running, and logged into the same tailnet on both computers, Pastebridge also discovers desktop peers via tailscale status and keeps LAN mDNS as a fallback. Phones and other mobile Tailscale nodes are skipped.
After pairing, the daemon automatically retries saved LAN addresses and current Tailscale addresses. Both computers must be online, Pastebridge and Tailscale (if used) must be running, and UDP 27419 (sync) and UDP 27420 (pairing) must be allowed by host firewalls and tailnet ACLs.
Remotely received text and images expire after 3 minutes by default, but only if the clipboard still contains that exact item. Copying or editing anything newer leaves the clipboard untouched.
pastebridge # dashboard with an interactive action menu
pastebridge status # is it running? who is connected?
pastebridge doctor # clipboard, ports, pairing diagnostics
pastebridge update # check for a newer release and install
pastebridge devices # saved devices, connection state, and short IDs
pastebridge unpair # choose a device and confirm removal
pastebridge unpair "My Mac" # find a device by name (or use its short ID)pastebridge list is an alias for pastebridge devices. Use list --json for device details without certificates, or list --quiet for device IDs only. The dashboard menu appears in interactive terminals; redirected output stays plain and never waits for input. Set NO_COLOR=1 to turn off terminal colors.
pastebridge unpair only removes the pairing on the current computer and stops its sharing with that device. Run it on the other computer too if you want to remove both saved entries. Names must match a single saved device; device IDs can be shortened to a unique prefix of at least four characters. Scripts must use unpair <name-or-id> --yes. Cancelling leaves the pairings unchanged.
pastebridge update checks GitHub for a newer version, shows the version change, and asks for confirmation before replacing the binary. Pass -y to skip the prompt. The update requires a matching checksum and verifies that the downloaded executable reports the requested version. If the daemon is running, the update restarts the login service and waits for that version to become ready. If activation fails, it restores the previous executable and attempts to restart the previous version.
pastebridge status distinguishes a ready daemon from a process that is starting or unhealthy. A peer is connected only after its application handshake completes. pastebridge doctor reports Tailscale login, permission, and timeout failures, and returns a nonzero exit status when a diagnostic check fails. An offline peer is normal and does not make the daemon unhealthy.
Set PASTEBRIDGE_RELEASE=v0.1.10 to select an exact release. The default resolves GitHub's latest release once and downloads all assets from that version. The old stable setting also resolves to the latest versioned release. Downloads never fall back to a source build automatically.
Set PASTEBRIDGE_NO_PAIR=1 to defer pairing. Set PASTEBRIDGE_INSTALL_DIR to choose a different binary directory. To build from source, use PASTEBRIDGE_FROM_SOURCE=1 and install Rust and the platform build tools first.
Release builds validate the project on Linux and Apple Silicon macOS before packaging all three supported targets. A v* tag must match Cargo.toml. Publishing creates a draft, uploads the complete binary set and checksums, then makes the release public. A failed draft publication can be retried. Published versioned assets are not overwritten. Pushes to main validate and build artifacts without changing the public release.
Run python3 scripts/test_install.py to exercise the piped installer against local HTTP fixtures. These checks use disposable homes and fake executables. They do not install a real login service or verify macOS permissions.
- Encrypted & authenticated — Every connection uses QUIC with TLS 1.3 and pinned certificates. An unknown machine on the LAN cannot join.
- Sensitive clipboards blocked — Password-manager clipboards marked concealed (macOS
org.nspasteboard.ConcealedType, KDE password hints) are never sent. - Safe backends only — On Linux, Pastebridge refuses to sync when the active clipboard backend cannot expose concealment metadata. Use
wl-clipboardon Wayland orxclipon X11. - Nothing on disk — Clipboard history is not written to disk.
- Auto-expiry — Unchanged remotely received clipboards are cleared after 180 seconds by default. Local clipboard items are not expired.
- Your network, your rules — No central server. Traffic stays on your LAN or a VPN you already trust.
Clipboard history managers can retain or restore an item after Pastebridge clears the system clipboard. Pastebridge cannot delete entries from a separate manager's history. Clipboard APIs also do not provide a portable atomic compare-and-clear operation, so Pastebridge compares the exact type and bytes immediately before clearing.
Default ports: UDP 27419 (sync), UDP 27420 (pairing), UDP 5353 (mDNS).
~/.config/pastebridge/config.toml on Linux
~/Library/Application Support/pastebridge/config.toml on macOS
bind_address = "0.0.0.0"
port = 27419
pair_port = 27420
max_payload_bytes = 8388608
poll_interval_ms = 400
sync_images = true
# Remote clipboard lifetime in seconds; 0 disables automatic expiry
clipboard_ttl_seconds = 180
# Optional extra addresses (Tailscale, etc.)
static_peers = ["100.64.0.2:27419"]bind_address = "0.0.0.0" is required for automatic LAN and Tailscale connectivity. Set a specific address only when you intentionally want to limit Pastebridge to one interface.
Set sync_images = false to block both outgoing and incoming images. Set clipboard_ttl_seconds = 0 to keep remote clipboard items indefinitely, or another value up to one year. Restart the Pastebridge service after changing configuration.
Payloads are capped at 8 MB (max_payload_bytes). That covers everyday screenshots and photos; oversized clipboard items are skipped.
pastebridge uninstall-service
rm -f ~/.local/bin/pastebridge
rm -rf ~/.config/pastebridge
# macOS:
# rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/pastebridgeMIT