kovidgoyal/kitty · error

Failed to read list of available data types in the clipboard

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).

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 {

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

Solutions

1. Read the inner error message and address that specific status (approve prompt / enable read access / retry / update)
2. Ensure clipboard_control in kitty.conf permits read access, e.g. `clipboard_control write-clipboard read-clipboard`
3. Retry on EBUSY; update kitty on both ends for unknown statuses
4. 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

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

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; }

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

• Failed to read data from the clipboard with error: %w
• line.decode('utf-8', 'replace').rstrip()
• Too much piped data
• Failed to read from STDIN pipe with error: %w
• Failed to create a temporary from STDIN pipe with error: %w

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