Basic clipboard support by ickshonpe · Pull Request #19106 · bevyengine/bevy

ickshonpe · 2025-05-06T23:35:41Z

Objective

Add a platform-agnostic interface for interacting with the clipboard.

Solution

New crate bevy_clipboard with a ClipboardPlugin that adds a Clipboard resource. The clipboard is accessed using the methods fetch_text, fetch_image, set_text and set_image on the Clipboard resource. fetch_text returns a ClipboardRead with a poll_result method that's used to get the actual value once it's ready.

The windows and unix implementations both use the arboard crate. On windows the Clipboard resource is a unit struct and a new arboard clipboard instance is created and dropped for each clipboard access. On unix targets the Clipboard resource holds a clipboard instance it reuses each time. On both targets the fetch_* and set_* methods work instantly.

On wasm32 Clipboard is a unit struct. The fetch_text and set_text functions spawn async tasks. The task spawned by fetch_text updates the shared arc mutex option once the future is evaluated to get the clipboard text. There is no image support on wasm32.

Everything seems to work but it feels like the design is a bit clumsy and not very idiomatic. I don't tend to do much asynchronous programming, maybe a reviewer can suggest an improved construction.

I also added an alternative fetch_text_async function for async access that returns a Result<String, ClipboardError> future.

Notes

Doesn't support android targets yet.
The wasm32 implementation doesn't support images. It's much more complicated and probably best to left to a follow up.

Testing

The PR includes a basic example clipboard that can be used for testing.
The image display will only work if the image is already in the clipboard before the example starts.

Enabled with the `bevy_clipboard` feature. Supports setting and getting text to and from the clipboard. Only supports desktop targets.

…ipboard

alice-i-cecile · 2025-05-06T23:41:19Z

Marked as X-Controversial due to a new crate, but I strongly think we need this as part of the engine in some form. Both for games and the editor!

…ipboard

mockersf · 2025-05-06T23:51:47Z

I don't like the crate for that which is pretty much just a resource wrapping arboard...

And not sure I like the fake resource that can't work on not supported platforms

Henauxg · 2025-05-07T09:03:19Z

+        &mut self,
+        text: T,
+    ) -> Result<(), arboard::Error> {
+        arboard::Clipboard::new().and_then(|mut clipboard| clipboard.set_text(text))


I think dropping the Clipboard may not work on Linux ?
See arboard's documentation about platform-specific behaviors (and also issue #88 and PR #89 for more info)

Yeah seems like drop-after-use is only needed on windows.

ickshonpe · 2025-05-07T11:04:40Z

I don't like the crate for that which is pretty much just a resource wrapping arboard...

This PR is really trivial, but image and android and wasm support will add a lot more complexity. I'm being lazy here, I've got way too many things I working on atm so I was thinking if I just get desktop text clipboard support going someone else will pick this up and fill out the rest of the implementation.

I'm not sure it's an important enough feature to deserve its own crate, but I'm not sure if it belongs in any of the exis
ting crates either. Maybe bevy_window but using the clipboard doesn't require a window.

And not sure I like the fake resource that can't work on not supported platforms

The intent is that you can only use the clipboard with a ResMut<Clipboard> to ensure that access is exclusive. Maybe there's a better way to implement it, I'm not sure.

Co-authored-by: Gilles Henaux <ghx_github_priv@fastmail.com>

* On unix targets an instance of `arboard::Clipboard` is stored in the `Clipboard` resource. * Removed the desktop and dummy modules. * Made `arboard` dependency conditional.

…ipboard

Henauxg · 2025-05-07T16:44:33Z

For crates candidates, I've had a look and did not find much either. Doesn't fit in bevy_text, nor bevy_input. Could always force it in bevy_utils but that's no great either. There's maybe bevy_app which already has a TerminalCtrlCHandlerPlugin plugin using the ctrlc dependency, but I'm not sure that tying clipboard to App is a good choice.

There's a potential savior in bevy_winit. I've seen that clipboard handling might be on the roadmap for 0.31 or later ? See #162 and #2156
So it may make sense to snuck it into bevy_winit, while waiting for it to be available directly from winit ?

ickshonpe · 2025-05-09T09:49:54Z

For crates candidates, I've had a look and did not find much either. Doesn't fit in bevy_text, nor bevy_input. Could always force it in bevy_utils but that's no great either. There's maybe bevy_app which already has a TerminalCtrlCHandlerPlugin plugin using the ctrlc dependency, but I'm not sure that tying clipboard to App is a good choice.

There's a potential savior in bevy_winit. I've seen that clipboard handling might be on the roadmap for 0.31 or later ? See #162 and #2156 So it may make sense to snuck it into bevy_winit, while waiting for it to be available directly from winit ?

It'd be ideal if winit just supported it and we didn't have to do anything but I don't like the idea of adding it to the winit crate before they have some built in support, it seems like a lie. And it might still need a separate solution when targeting wasm32?

…checks)

alice-i-cecile · 2026-04-23T18:22:20Z

Okay, I think this is finally ready!

The image support functions in general, but for some reason does not like my screenshot snip tool on PopOS.
System clipboard support is now fully operational, including on web. It needed some fanciness to support polling properly, but I'm really quite pleased with the final architecture.

@ickshonpe, this is ready to merge once my changes have your approval.

ickshonpe · 2026-04-22T22:42:52Z

@@ -0,0 +1,227 @@
+//! This example demonstrates accessing the clipboard to retrieve and display text.


Yeah I made this example quickly without any thought just as proof it works. It's not necessary
once the clipboard is hooked up to widgets that can use it.

ickshonpe · 2026-04-23T20:16:07Z

            // Defaults selected to match `Text::default()`
            editor: PlainEditor::new(100.),
            pending_edits: Vec::new(),
+            pending_paste: None,


In bevy_ui_text_input it queues a PasteDeferred(ClipboardRead) in the editor actions buffer so there isn't a need to store it on a field. Then if the result is still pending it doesn't process any more actions and leaves the PasteDeferred on top of the queue to be processed again the next frame. The pending field approach seems a bit simpler, but we might want to switch to the other approach later as it seems unpleasant having bevy_text depend on bevy_clipboard and there might be other reasons we'd want to handle cut and paste at the widget level (pasting images inline into a text input maybe?).

I can't remember what they were right now, but I'm certain there were other advantages to managing the TextEdit queue at the widget level, not at a lower level from bevy_text. It's out of scope for this PR though, the pending_paste design is fine for now.

Yeah, happy to explore that in follow-up. I agree that bevy_text -> bevy_clipboard is a bit unpleasant as a dependency.

ickshonpe · 2026-04-23T20:55:01Z

can't approve my own pull request, but 👍

viridia

Re-approving

ickshonpe added 4 commits May 6, 2025 23:58

Added new very basic clipboard crate.

f16a1b9

Enabled with the `bevy_clipboard` feature. Supports setting and getting text to and from the clipboard. Only supports desktop targets.

Added new very basic clipboard crate.

92b74cd

Enabled with the `bevy_clipboard` feature. Supports setting and getting text to and from the clipboard. Only supports desktop targets.

Merge branch 'clipboard' of https://github.com/ickshonpe/bevy into cl…

c6dae8e

…ipboard

Revert changes to example

5e78819

ickshonpe added C-Feature A new feature, making something new possible A-Utils Utility functions and types labels May 6, 2025

Merge branch 'main' into clipboard

991d46c

alice-i-cecile added A-UI Graphical user interfaces, styles, layouts, and widgets A-Editor Graphical tools to make Bevy games X-Needs-SME This type of work requires an SME to approve it. S-Needs-Review Needs reviewer attention (from anyone!) to move forward labels May 6, 2025

ickshonpe added 2 commits May 7, 2025 00:49

ci fixes

a9c7938

Merge branch 'clipboard' of https://github.com/ickshonpe/bevy into cl…

abdbd01

…ipboard

removed new method

586ee40

MrGVSV reviewed May 7, 2025

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Comment thread crates/bevy_clipboard/src/dummy.rs Outdated

Henauxg reviewed May 7, 2025

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ickshonpe and others added 7 commits May 7, 2025 12:06

Update crates/bevy_clipboard/Cargo.toml

0ed01c9

Co-authored-by: Gilles Henaux <ghx_github_priv@fastmail.com>

* Added ClipboardError enum.

9617802

* On unix targets an instance of `arboard::Clipboard` is stored in the `Clipboard` resource. * Removed the desktop and dummy modules. * Made `arboard` dependency conditional.

Fixed incorrect error type.

cb5fc37

Merge branch 'main' into clipboard

d8da6bf

Cleanup

ef2f971

Merge branch 'clipboard' of https://github.com/ickshonpe/bevy into cl…

9683214

…ipboard

Removed unused variable

bfce9ee

ickshonpe added 2 commits May 9, 2025 13:57

added wasm32 support

3237ed4

Replaced ClipboardText with ClipboardContents enum.

242368c

viridia reviewed Apr 23, 2026

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Comment thread crates/bevy_text/src/text_edit.rs Outdated

viridia approved these changes Apr 23, 2026

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alice-i-cecile added 8 commits April 23, 2026 10:09

Improve wording on clipboard operation features

3f4d226

Still delete text when cutting on wasm

7e3659d

Missed doc link

c39aca9

Remove wasm branching on paste for now

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Leave TODO with thoughts

095472d

Handle async nature of pasting properly (and deduplicate text filter …

dcb48a1

…checks)

Typo

2af36fe

Make pending_paste pub to preserve ..default initialization

4c7e230

alice-i-cecile added this to the 0.19 milestone Apr 23, 2026

alice-i-cecile added 2 commits April 23, 2026 12:14

Fix missed import on wasm

f5c053f

Merge branch 'main' into clipboard

e33d246

ickshonpe commented Apr 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

alice-i-cecile added 2 commits April 23, 2026 13:07

Remove clipboard example used for testing

4050387

Split apart image clipboard support b/c broken on WASM

fb16daf

ickshonpe commented Apr 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

alice-i-cecile added 2 commits April 23, 2026 13:27

CI formatting

ceb1cb6

cargo run -p build-templated-pages -- update features

5a2143c

viridia approved these changes Apr 23, 2026

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alice-i-cecile added this pull request to the merge queue Apr 23, 2026

alice-i-cecile added S-Ready-For-Final-Review This PR has been approved by the community. It's ready for a maintainer to consider merging it and removed S-Needs-Review Needs reviewer attention (from anyone!) to move forward labels Apr 23, 2026

github-project-automation Bot added this to UI Apr 23, 2026

github-project-automation Bot moved this to Needs SME Triage in UI Apr 23, 2026

Merged via the queue into bevyengine:main with commit 41f170c Apr 23, 2026
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github-project-automation Bot moved this from Needs SME Triage to Done in UI Apr 23, 2026

		@@ -0,0 +1,227 @@
		//! This example demonstrates accessing the clipboard to retrieve and display text.

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Testing

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