sigoden/aichat · warning · anyhow::Error

Failed to send OSC52 sequence

Error message

Failed to send OSC52 sequence

What it means

set_text_osc52 failed while writing the OSC 52 escape sequence (ESC ]52;c;<base64>;BEL) to stdout, so the clipboard could not be set via the terminal. The underlying io::Write error is attached as context.

Solutions

1. Check that stdout is an interactive terminal before attempting OSC 52 (e.g. atty/is-terminal) and skip otherwise.
2. Handle the error gracefully — fall back to another clipboard backend (X11/Wayland/pbcopy) instead of failing.
3. Avoid closing/redirecting stdout when invoking commands that set the clipboard, or fix upstream broken pipes.

Example fix

// before
fn set_text(text: &str) -> Result<()> { set_text_osc52(text) }
// after
fn set_text(text: &str) -> Result<()> {
    if !std::io::stdout().is_terminal() { anyhow::bail!("no terminal for OSC52"); }
    set_text_osc52(text)
}

if !std::io::stdout().is_terminal() { /* skip OSC52, use another backend */ }

match set_text_osc52(text) {
    Ok(()) => (),
    Err(e) => fallback_backend(text).with_context(|| format!("osc52 failed: {e}")),
}

When it happens

Trigger: stdout is closed or unwritable (broken pipe after `cmd | head`), stdout redirected to a file that cannot accept the write, or the process lost its terminal.

Common situations: Piping CLI output where downstream consumers exit early (SIGPIPE/EPIPE); running in environments where stdout is a full disk or closed fd; CI logs capturing stdout while the tool tries to copy to clipboard.

Related errors

• Failed to flush OSC52 sequence
• No chat response to copy
• Failed to write to ' ', No parent path
• Invalid wrap value
• No clipboard available

AI-assisted analysis of sigoden/aichat@82976d349a (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d0f87f06101d6587. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/utils/clipboard.rs:31

        let mut clipboard = CLIPBOARD.lock().unwrap();
        match clipboard.as_mut() {
            Some(clipboard) => {
                clipboard.set_text(text)?;
                #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
                std::thread::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_millis(50));
                Ok(())
            }
            None => set_text_osc52(text),
        }
    }

    /// Attempts to set text to clipboard with OSC52 escape sequence
    /// Works in many modern terminals, including over SSH.
    fn set_text_osc52(text: &str) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
        let encoded = STANDARD.encode(text);
        let seq = format!("\x1b]52;c;{encoded}\x07");
        if let Err(e) = std::io::Write::write_all(&mut std::io::stdout(), seq.as_bytes()) {
            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to send OSC52 sequence").context(e));
        }
        if let Err(e) = std::io::Write::flush(&mut std::io::stdout()) {
            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to flush OSC52 sequence").context(e));
        }
        Ok(())
    }
}

#[cfg(any(target_os = "android", target_os = "emscripten"))]
mod internal {
    pub fn set_text(_text: &str) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
        Err(anyhow::anyhow!("No clipboard available"))
    }
}

pub fn set_text(text: &str) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    internal::set_text(text).context("Failed to copy")
}

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