kovidgoyal/kitty · error

The MIME type %s for %s not available on the clipboard

Error message

The MIME type %s for %s not available on the clipboard

What it means

assign_mime_type walks the available MIME types on the clipboard (including aliases) looking for the requested type, with a fallback to text/plain when a text type is requested. If nothing matches, it reports that the requested MIME type for the given argument is not available on the clipboard.

Source

Thrown at kittens/clipboard/read.go:185

	}
	if images.EncodableImageTypes[self.mime_type] {
		for _, mt := range available_mimes {
			if images.DecodableImageTypes[mt] {
				self.remote_mime_type = mt
				self.image_needs_conversion = true
				return
			}
		}
	}
	if is_textual_mime(self.mime_type) {
		for _, mt := range available_mimes {
			if mt == "text/plain" {
				self.remote_mime_type = mt
				return
			}
		}
	}
	return fmt.Errorf("The MIME type %s for %s not available on the clipboard", self.mime_type, self.arg)
}

func escape_metadata_value(k, x string) (ans string) {
	if k == "mime" {
		x = base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(utils.UnsafeStringToBytes(x))
	}
	return x
}

func unescape_metadata_value(k, x string) (ans string) {
	if k == "mime" {
		b, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(x)
		if err == nil {
			x = string(b)
		}
	}
	return x
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

Solutions

1. List what is actually available first: `kitten clipboard get` with no --mime prints/uses available types, or inspect the DATA status
2. Add an alias mapping: `--alias image/bmp=image/png` if the source uses a related format
3. Copy the data again on the sender in the format you need (e.g. copy image, not text)
4. Request text/plain, which falls back across text types

Example fix

# before
kitten clipboard get --mime image/png out.bin   # clipboard holds text only
# after
kitten clipboard get --mime text/plain out.txt

kitten clipboard get --mime image/png out 2>/dev/null || kitten clipboard get --mime text/plain out.txt

When it happens

Trigger: `kitten clipboard get --mime image/png` when the clipboard only holds text/plain; requesting a specific type after the sender copied a different format; alias map (from --alias) not covering the format actually present.

Common situations: Copying from apps that register custom MIME types (e.g. text/x-custom) then requesting the standard one without an --alias; racing: reading the clipboard after its owner replaced the content with a different format; assuming image data is present when only text was copied.

Related errors

• Failed to encode image data to %s with error: %w
• Could not detect the MIME type for: %s use --mime to specify
• 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/6dc272eaea61fa63. Report an issue: GitHub.