Quick start
Create your first encrypted space and sync your first clip.
UniClipboard syncs through a space — a private, end-to-end encrypted group your devices belong to. The first device creates the space; every other device joins it with a short-lived invite code. There is no cloud account and no email — the space is the account.
This page takes you from a fresh install on two machines to your first synced paste.
What you'll need
- UniClipboard installed on at least two devices. See Install for downloads.
- A passphrase you'll remember. It protects every clip in the space and cannot be recovered if you lose it — that is the design, not a bug.
- Both devices online at the same time. Any network works: the same Wi-Fi, different home networks, or a phone hotspot. Devices reach each other directly when they can, and fall back to an encrypted relay when they cannot.
The trust boundary is the space, not the individual device. Adding a third or fourth device later is the same flow as adding the second one — generate an invite, enter it on the new device.
Set up the first device
Launch the app and pick Create a new space
On first launch you'll see two options: Create a new space and Join an existing space. Pick the first.
Set a space passphrase
The passphrase is fed through Argon2id to derive your encryption key, which then encrypts every clip with XChaCha20-Poly1305. Pick something long and memorable — there is no reset flow, by design. Nothing about your space ever leaves the device unencrypted.
Start copying
The dashboard opens. Anything you copy from now on is captured into the space and ready to sync the moment a second device joins.
Add a second device
Have both devices in front of you — one to generate the invite, one to enter it.
On the first device → Devices → Generate invite code
The code is short-lived (valid for a few minutes) and one-time. It does not carry your passphrase.
On the new device → Join an existing space
Enter the invite code together with the same passphrase you set on the first device. The passphrase is verified locally — a wrong passphrase fails fast and is never sent to the other device.
Wait for the first sync
Once the join completes, the new device's history catches up automatically. Both devices now show each other under Devices with an online indicator.
The CLI mirrors the GUI flow and is useful for headless servers, SSH sessions, and tmux-driven workflows.
# On the first device — skip if you already created the space in the GUI
uniclip init
# Generate a short-lived invite code
uniclip invite
# On the new device, paste the code from the previous step
uniclip join <code>
# Confirm both peers see each other
uniclip membersThe daemon starts automatically. Use uniclip status to inspect it, or
uniclip start / uniclip stop to control it explicitly.
Verify it works
- On device A, copy any text — or an image, or a file.
- Switch to device B and paste with
Cmd+V/Ctrl+V, or open the quick panel with its keyboard shortcut and pick the entry.
If the paste shows up immediately, you're done. If it doesn't, Pairing & sync covers the transport (P2P hole-punching, encrypted relay fallback) and how to debug a stuck peer.
What's next
- Add more devices. Repeat the second-device flow on every machine you want in the space. Each invite is one-time.
- Try the quick panel. Invoke it with the configured shortcut for fast keyboard-driven access to recent clips — text, links, images, code, and files.
- Switch spaces. From the Devices page or via
uniclip switch-space, e.g. to keep personal and work machines in separate spaces. Local history is re-encrypted under the new space's key during the switch.
Upgrading from a pre-0.6 release? The underlying network stack was reworked, so old pairing state is no longer valid. Generate a fresh invite once and the devices will resume syncing.