kovidgoyal/kitty · error

cannot use --human-name or --password in filter mode

Error message

cannot use --human-name or --password in filter mode

What it means

In filter mode (kitten clipboard with no file arguments, which pipes stdin through the clipboard via run_plain_text_loop), no authentication context is allowed. If --password or --human-name was supplied anyway, clipboard_main rejects the combination before starting the loop.

Source

Thrown at kittens/clipboard/main.go:67

					opts.Password = strings.TrimRightFunc(string(data), unicode.IsSpace)
				}

			} else {
				return 1, fmt.Errorf("not a valid file descriptor number: %#v", val)
			}
		case "file":
			if data, err := os.ReadFile(val); err == nil {
				opts.Password = strings.TrimRightFunc(string(data), unicode.IsSpace)
			} else {
				return 1, fmt.Errorf("failed to read from file: %#v with error: %w", val, err)
			}
		}
	}
	if len(args) > 0 {
		return 0, run_mime_loop(opts, args)
	}
	if opts.Password != "" || opts.HumanName != "" {
		return 1, fmt.Errorf("cannot use --human-name or --password in filter mode")
	}
	return 0, run_plain_text_loop(opts)
}

func EntryPoint(parent *cli.Command) {
	create_cmd(parent, clipboard_main)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

Solutions

1. For simple piping, drop --password/--human-name: `echo hi | kitten clipboard`
2. To use passwords, run an explicit get/getfile command with file arguments, e.g. `kitten clipboard get --human-name me --password text:pw dest.png`
3. Review kitten clipboard --help to confirm which mode your flags apply to

Example fix

# before
echo hi | kitten clipboard --human-name me --password text:pw
# after
echo hi | kitten clipboard

# filter mode = no positional args; forbid auth flags then
[ $# -eq 0 ] && { [ -n "$PW$HUMAN" ] && { echo 'no --password/--human-name in filter mode'; exit 2; }; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `kitten clipboard --human-name x` or `kitten clipboard --password text:y` (or both) with zero positional file arguments — that is, plain filter mode reading stdin.

Common situations: Users adding password flags to a pipeline like `echo hi | kitten clipboard --password text:pw` expecting password-protected copying; flag-order confusion where get/set subcommands were omitted.

Related errors

• must specify --human-name when using a password
• invalid password: %#v no password type specified
• not a valid file descriptor number: %#v
• %s is not valid MIME alias specification
• Too much piped data

AI-assisted analysis of kovidgoyal/kitty@6d5d0c4406 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c865fefbc98d4ee5. Report an issue: GitHub.