What causes "another terminal clipboard write is still queued" in Hmbown/CodeWhale?

Retry the enqueue after a short delay (rate-limit clipboard writes)

another terminal clipboard write is still queued

Error message

another terminal clipboard write is still queued

What it means

Terminal clipboard writes are serialized through a channel to a dedicated writer thread that owns the terminal. `enqueue` uses `try_send` (non-blocking); when the single-slot queue is already full — a previous write has not been drained yet — the new request is refused with this error rather than blocking the caller.

Solutions

Retry the enqueue after a short delay (rate-limit clipboard writes)
Wait for or track completion of the previous clipboard write before enqueueing
Coalesce/dedupe clipboard writes so only the latest text is sent

Example fix

// before
clipboard.enqueue(text1);
clipboard.enqueue(text2); // may fail: queue full
// after
if clipboard.enqueue(text2).is_err() {
    // drop or retry later; only the latest text matters
    std::thread::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_millis(50));
    let _ = clipboard.enqueue(text2);
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

match clipboard.enqueue(text) {
    Ok(()) => {}
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("still queued") => {
        // drop or retry after a short delay; the queued write still lands
    }
    Err(e) => return Err(e),
}

Prevention

Throttle clipboard writes; coalesce rapid copies to the latest text
Check channel capacity before high-frequency enqueue loops
Handle queue-full as an expected, non-fatal condition

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `enqueue` twice in quick succession before the writer thread consumed the first `TerminalClipboardWriteRequest`, so `try_send` returns `TrySendError::Full`.

Common situations: Copying multiple selections rapidly in the TUI; a slow or paused terminal (tmux, flow control) delays the writer; bulk copy operations issuing many clipboard writes back-to-back.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/22f65da55f6aac11. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/tui/clipboard.rs:288

                        break;
                    }
                }
            })
            .context("spawn terminal clipboard writer")?;
        Ok(Self {
            request_tx,
            completion_rx,
        })
    }

    fn enqueue(&self, text: &str, in_tmux: bool) -> Result<()> {
        let request = TerminalClipboardWriteRequest {
            text: text.to_string(),
            in_tmux,
        };
        self.request_tx.try_send(request).map_err(|err| match err {
            std::sync::mpsc::TrySendError::Full(_) => {
                anyhow::anyhow!("another terminal clipboard write is still queued")
            }
            std::sync::mpsc::TrySendError::Disconnected(_) => {
                anyhow::anyhow!("terminal clipboard writer stopped")
            }
        })
    }

    fn poll_completion(&self) -> Option<TerminalClipboardWriteCompletion> {
        self.completion_rx.try_recv().ok()
    }
}

/// Clipboard reader/writer helper.
pub struct ClipboardHandler {
    terminal_context: TerminalClipboardContext,
    terminal_writer: Option<TerminalClipboardWriter>,
    #[cfg(all(target_os = "linux", not(target_env = "ohos"), not(test)))]
    primary: Option<primary::PrimarySelection>,

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