Copy Text Protocol

Copy Text Protocol

What is this for?

Have you ever wanted to create a note that, when you click a link, automatically copies a snippet of text to your clipboard? This plugin makes that possible.

Some use cases:

• A "cheat sheet" note with commands, passwords, or templates — click the link, paste anywhere.
• A collection of code snippets ready to paste into a terminal.
• Frequently used texts (email signatures, boilerplate, addresses) accessible from any note.
• Query strings to paste into other apps (e.g. to search specific emails in Outlook, my primary use case)

How it works

The plugin registers a custom obsidian://copy protocol. When you click a link using this protocol, the text embedded in the URL is silently copied to your clipboard and a small confirmation notice appears — no popups, no external apps.

Creating links manually

[Click to copy](obsidian://copy?text=Your-text-here)

When clicked, "Your-text-here" is copied to your clipboard.

For text containing spaces, wrap the URL in angle brackets:

[Click to copy](<obsidian://copy?text=Hello world>)

Other special characters need to be encoded, and as you can see it can be tedious to do manually, so a command for that is included.

Creating links with a keyboard shortcut

The plugin includes a command called Copy Protocol: Paste clipboard as copy-protocol link that automates the process. It reads your current clipboard content and inserts a ready-to-use markdown link at the cursor. If you have text selected in the editor, that selection becomes the link label; otherwise, the clipboard text itself is used as a label.

To assign a keyboard shortcut

1. Open Settings → Hotkeys.
2. Search for "Paste clipboard as copy-protocol link".
3. Click the + button and press your preferred key combination.

Example workflow

1. Copy a command or text you want to reuse (e.g. git log --oneline).
2. In your note, type a label like Show git log and select it.
3. Press your hotkey.
4. The selection is replaced with:

   [Show git log](<obsidian://copy?text=git%20log%20--oneline>)
   

5. Clicking that link copies git log --oneline to your clipboard instantly.

Installation

You can install this plugin from the Community Plugins settings of Obsidian, or via BRAT:

1. Open the BRAT settings in Obsidian.
2. Click Add Beta plugin.
3. Paste the repository URL: jldiaz/copy-protocol-plugin.
4. Enable the plugin in your Community Plugins list.