AI tools are good at working with context once you give it to them. The slow part is often collecting that context: the error from Xcode, the API response from Postman, the paragraph from a document, and the screenshot from a browser.

You already moved most of that through the clipboard. Pastea's MCP server lets an approved AI tool search that history directly, on your Mac.

This is not “send every copy to AI.” It is an optional local connection with a small set of permissions, one token per tool, and no access to concealed clips.

What MCP changes

MCP, or Model Context Protocol, gives an AI client a standard way to call tools and read approved sources. In Pastea, that source is your clipboard history.

Once connected, a client can:

• search history and lists;
• list recent clips or your saved lists;
• read one selected clip in full, including an image thumbnail;
• copy a clip back to the system clipboard for you.

It cannot delete clips. It cannot paste into another app. It cannot read items Pastea has marked concealed.

That narrow surface is intentional. The agent gets enough access to help retrieve context without becoming an administrator for your history.

A workflow that is actually useful

Suppose a test fails after you changed an API client. During the last hour you copied a server response, two commands, and a screenshot of a browser error.

Instead of reconstructing the trail, ask your connected coding agent:

Find the JSON response I copied from Postman this morning and the screenshot mentioning CORS. Compare them with the current client code and suggest the likely cause.

The agent searches the same history you would open with ⌘ ⇧ V, reads the relevant items, and can use them alongside the repository it already sees.

Other useful prompts:

• “What did I copy from Safari in the last hour?”
• “Find the pricing notes from yesterday and draft a short client email.”
• “Read the screenshot containing the Swift error and explain it.”
• “Put the most recent staging URL back on my clipboard.”

The quality comes from specific constraints—source app, time, type, or remembered phrase—not from asking the agent to inspect everything.

Connect Claude Desktop

Open Pastea and go to Settings → MCP & AI Tools. Turn on Enable MCP, then click Claude Desktop.

Claude Desktop opens and offers to install the Pastea extension. Approve the install there. The first time Claude tries to use Pastea, Pastea asks whether to allow that connection. After approval, the tool appears under Connected AI Tools.

The complete walkthrough, including manual extension installation, is in the Pastea MCP guide.

Connect Cursor or VS Code

In the same Pastea settings page, click Cursor or VS Code. Pastea opens the selected editor's one-click MCP installation flow. Confirm the configuration in the editor.

If the link cannot open, Pastea shows the configuration to paste manually.

Connect Claude Code, Windsurf, or Codex

Choose the client in Pastea's MCP settings. Pastea generates the command or configuration containing your local URL and a newly minted token.

Claude Code uses an http MCP connection. Windsurf stores the server in its MCP configuration, while Codex uses ~/.codex/config.toml. Use the exact snippet shown by Pastea because it contains the token created for that client.

For another client, choose Custom Tool. Any MCP client that supports streamable HTTP and can send an Authorization header can connect.

The privacy boundary

Pastea's MCP endpoint listens on 127.0.0.1, so another machine on your network cannot call it. Every connected client receives a separate access token. Revoke one client without disrupting the others, or switch off MCP to stop the server entirely.

Pastea does not send us the clips a tool reads. However, once Claude, Cursor, Codex, or another client reads a clip, what happens inside that product is governed by its own settings and privacy policy. Local transport does not automatically mean local inference.

Use three guardrails:

1. Connect only clients you trust.
2. Exclude password managers, banking apps, and confidential work apps from capture.
3. Ask for narrow searches instead of handing an agent broad history without a reason.

Concealed items are always omitted from MCP results, but automatic concealment depends on the source app marking the copy correctly. Explicit exclusions are safer for high-risk material.

Revoke access at any time

Go to Settings → MCP & AI Tools, find the client under Connected AI Tools, and click Revoke. Its next request fails. Reconnecting creates a new token.

This also makes experimentation low-risk: connect one tool, try read-only searches, inspect the results, and expand your use only after you understand the boundary.

Start with retrieval, not automation

The best first prompt is boring: “What did I copy in the last hour?” It proves the connection, shows you the shape of the data, and does not change anything.

Then try one retrieval tied to real work. If the tool finds context faster than you could reopen three apps, the value is obvious.

Pastea's MCP access is included with the full app. Start the seven-day trial, then follow the client-specific setup guide to connect the tool you already use.