Failed to read list of available data types in the…

Error message

Failed to read list of available data types in the clipboard with error: %w

What it means

During the initial handshake, when the peer responds to the available-MIME-types request with a status other than OK/DATA/DONE, the wrapped error_from_status result is reported as a failure to read the list of available data types. The inner message identifies the underlying status (ENOSYS, EPERM, EBUSY, or an unknown string).

Solutions

Read the inner error message and address that specific status (approve prompt / enable read access / retry / update)
Ensure clipboard_control in kitty.conf permits read access, e.g. `clipboard_control write-clipboard read-clipboard`
Retry on EBUSY; update kitty on both ends for unknown statuses
Confirm the terminal actually supports the kitty clipboard protocol

Example fix

# before
# clipboard_control = write-clipboard deny read-clipboard  (EPERM inner)
# after
clipboard_control = write-clipboard read-clipboard

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

grep -q '^clipboard_control' ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf && grep 'read-clipboard\|read-primary' ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

Try / catch

out=$(kitten clipboard get f 2>&1) || { echo "$out"; case "$out" in *denied*) exit 3;; *try again*) sleep 1; exec kitten clipboard get f;; esac; exit 1; }

Prevention

Ensure clipboard_control permits reads
Retry on 'try again later' (EBUSY)
Match kitty versions across ssh hops

When it happens

Trigger: `kitten clipboard get ...` where the answering terminal/client replies with an error status to the capability/list query — permission denied (EPERM), unsupported selection (ENOSYS), busy (EBUSY), or an unrecognized status via the default branch.

Common situations: kitty.conf clipboard_control forbidding read-clipboard (yields EPERM); terminals not implementing the kitty clipboard protocol; concurrent access returning EBUSY; version-mismatched peers sending unknown statuses.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of kovidgoyal/kitty@6d5d0c4406 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/94af3a9b716f50dc. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kittens/clipboard/read.go:381

					err = o.assign_mime_type(available_mimes, aliases)
					if err != nil {
						return err
					}
					if o.remote_mime_type == "." {
						o.started = true
						o.add_data(utils.UnsafeStringToBytes(strings.Join(available_mimes, "\n")))
						o.all_data_received = true
					} else {
						requested_mimes[o.remote_mime_type] = o
					}
				}
				if len(requested_mimes) > 0 {
					lp.QueueWriteString(encode(basic_metadata, strings.Join(utils.Keys(requested_mimes), " ")))
				} else {
					lp.Quit(0)
				}
			default:
				return fmt.Errorf("Failed to read list of available data types in the clipboard with error: %w", error_from_status(metadata["status"]))
			}
		} else {
			switch metadata["status"] {
			case "DATA":
				current_mime := metadata["mime"]
				o := requested_mimes[current_mime]
				if o != nil {
					if getting_data_for != current_mime {
						if prev := requested_mimes[getting_data_for]; prev != nil && !prev.all_data_received {
							prev.all_data_received = true
							wg.Go(func() {
								prev.commit()
							})

						}
						getting_data_for = current_mime
					}
					if !o.all_data_received {

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