# mptre/yank

Yank terminal output to clipboard

Repository: https://github.com/mptre/yank
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/yank
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-07-16T18:26:13+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 83/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 92, release rhythm 61, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4027, "days_push": 48, "days_rel": 48, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1707, forks 48 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:25.058674+00:00)

## What it is
yank is a small C command-line utility that reads stdin, displays an interactive selection interface of fields (matched by regex or delimiters), and pipes the chosen field to a clipboard command like xsel or pbcopy. It provides a terminal-agnostic, mouse-free way to copy terminal output.

## Use cases
- copy terminal output to clipboard without the mouse
- select a field from a csv file and copy it
- yank an environment variable key or value
- kill a process by selecting its pid from ps output
- copy build errors from make output
- use clipboard over ssh in headless environments

## When to choose
- you want a terminal-agnostic clipboard helper that works without tmux or screen
- you frequently copy fields from command output and hate reaching for the mouse
- you need a tiny, fast unix-style tool that pipes into xsel, pbcopy, or any stdin command

## When to avoid
- you want a full clipboard manager with history
- you need a graphical selection UI or mouse interaction
- you only work inside a terminal multiplexer that already provides copy mode

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: cli, developer-tools, terminal-ui
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: bsd, cli, cross-platform
- tags: clipboard, terminal-output, selection-interface, c, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- mptre/yank (main) score 83

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:25.058674+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:37:27.426937+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mptre/yank (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:25.058674+00:00, sha a2e384288066)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.