--- name: clean-copy description: >- Cleans terminal-formatted text and copies it to the macOS clipboard via pbcopy, formatted for the target platform (Gmail, Slack, LinkedIn, plain, markdown). Strips uniform leading indentation, trailing whitespace, and soft-wrapped paragraphs that come from copying out of a terminal, then applies platform conventions (Slack `*bold*` vs Gmail plain prose, etc.). Use when the user wants to paste a draft from the chat into Gmail, Slack, LinkedIn, or any other tool without nightmare terminal formatting (extra whitespace, hard wraps, indented blocks) coming along. argument-hint: [--source last|paste|file:] [--no-reflow] [--preview] disable-model-invocation: true allowed-tools: - AskUserQuestion - Bash - Read - Write metadata: trigger: "You want to paste a draft from the chat into Gmail, Slack, LinkedIn, or another tool without nightmare terminal formatting (extra whitespace, hard wraps, indented blocks) coming along." tags: "clipboard, formatting, communication, productivity" --- # Clean Copy Clean a draft from the conversation (or a pasted/file source) and copy it to the clipboard, formatted for a specific platform. The goal: a paste that looks right in Gmail / Slack / LinkedIn on the first try, with zero manual cleanup. ## Preferences Before starting, use the `Read` tool to read `~/.claude/skills/clean-copy/preferences.md`. If the file does not exist, treat as "no preferences set" and use defaults below. **Defaults:** - default-platform: `gmail` - default-source: `last` (most recent assistant draft in the conversation) - reflow-paragraphs: `true` (rewrap soft-wrapped paragraphs into single lines) - bullet-style: `-` (preserve as-is) - preview-after-copy: `true` (show first 12 lines + char count) ## Command routing Check `$ARGUMENTS`: - **`help`** → display help, stop - **`config`** → interactive setup, stop - **`reset`** → delete `~/.claude/skills/clean-copy/preferences.md`, confirm, stop - **anything else** (including empty) → run the skill ### Help ``` Clean Copy — Clean terminal-formatted text and copy to clipboard for a target platform Usage: /clean-copy Clean latest draft, format, pbcopy /clean-copy Use default platform from preferences /clean-copy config Set defaults (default platform, reflow, etc.) /clean-copy reset Clear preferences /clean-copy help This help Platforms: gmail Plain prose, bullets as "- ", no markdown rendering slack Slack mrkdwn: *bold*, _italic_, `code`, > quotes linkedin Plain prose, no markdown (LinkedIn strips it), short paragraphs plain Strip all markdown, just clean prose markdown Preserve markdown, only clean terminal whitespace Options: --source last Latest assistant draft in conversation (default) --source paste Prompt the user to paste the source text --source file: Read source from a file --no-reflow Keep hard line breaks as-is (don't unwrap paragraphs) --preview Show full cleaned text before copying Examples: /clean-copy gmail Clean my last draft for Gmail compose /clean-copy slack Format for Slack mrkdwn /clean-copy linkedin --no-reflow Keep my line breaks (poetry / structured posts) /clean-copy plain --source paste I'll paste the messy text after invocation /clean-copy markdown --source file:/tmp/draft.md Current preferences: (loaded from preferences.md, or defaults shown above) ``` ### Config Use `AskUserQuestion` to collect: - **Q1: Default platform** — `gmail`, `slack`, `linkedin`, `plain`, or `markdown`. The platform used when `/clean-copy` is invoked with no platform arg. - **Q2: Reflow paragraphs by default?** — `Yes` (recommended for prose) or `No` (preserve hard line breaks). Reflow joins soft-wrapped lines into single paragraphs separated by blank lines. - **Q3: Bullet style** — `-` (keep as written), `•` (convert to bullet glyph), or `*` (asterisk). Affects how list items render after cleaning. - **Q4: Preview after copy?** — `Yes` (show first 12 lines + char count) or `No` (silent except for "Copied"). Save to `~/.claude/skills/clean-copy/preferences.md` in this format: ```markdown # /clean-copy preferences Updated: ## Defaults - default-platform: gmail - reflow-paragraphs: true - bullet-style: - - preview-after-copy: true ## Learned - (patterns observed silently, e.g., "user always picks slack on weekdays mornings") ``` ### Reset Delete `~/.claude/skills/clean-copy/preferences.md` and confirm: "Preferences cleared. Using defaults." ## First-time detection If no preferences file exists, show: > First time using /clean-copy? Run `/clean-copy config` to set defaults, or > just continue — defaults are gmail / reflow on / dash bullets. Then proceed. ## Workflow ### Step 1 — Resolve platform Parse `$ARGUMENTS`: - If a platform keyword (`gmail`, `slack`, `linkedin`, `plain`, `markdown`) is present, use it. - Otherwise, fall back to `default-platform` from preferences (or `gmail`). - If still unclear AND the source text strongly hints (e.g., starts with "Hi all," → email; starts with "@channel" → slack), pick that and mention it: "Detected gmail-style draft, formatting for Gmail." ### Step 2 — Resolve source Check for `--source` flag in `$ARGUMENTS`: - **`last`** (default) — pick the most recent **assistant** message in the conversation that looks like a finished draft (prose body of >40 words, not a meta reply about the skill itself). Do NOT pick a user message; the user's invocation message is not the source. If no clear draft is found, fall back to `paste` mode. - **`paste`** — ask the user via AskUserQuestion or plain prompt: "Paste the text you want cleaned and copied. Send it as your next message." - **`file:`** — read the file at `` with the Read tool. If it doesn't exist, abort with a clear error. If multiple plausible drafts are in the conversation, pick the most recent one and say "Using your most recent draft (~N words). Run `/clean-copy --source paste` to override." ### Step 3 — Clean (platform-agnostic) Apply these passes in order. Each pass is non-destructive of meaning — only whitespace and terminal artifacts. 1. **Normalize line endings** — convert `\r\n` and `\r` to `\n`. 2. **Strip box-drawing artifacts** — terminal renderers sometimes inject `│`, `─`, `┃`, or trailing block characters at the right edge. Drop them. 3. **Detect and strip uniform leading indent** (the "terminal padding" pass): - Look at substantive lines only — non-blank lines longer than 20 characters that aren't inside a fenced code block. (This excludes short greetings like "Hi all," which often have 0 indent even when the body is indented.) - Find the **mode** (most common count) of leading spaces across those substantive lines. If the mode is >0, that's the terminal-injected padding. - Strip up to that many leading spaces from every line (lines with fewer leading spaces just lose what they have — never go negative). - Inside fenced code blocks, do not touch indentation — code's leading whitespace is meaningful. 4. **Strip trailing whitespace** on every line. 5. **Collapse runs of blank lines** — 3+ blank lines → 2 blank lines (one paragraph break). 6. **Drop terminal padding artifacts** — lines that contain only whitespace + terminal-injected glyphs become empty. ### Step 4 — Reflow (optional, default on) If `--no-reflow` is set OR the source contains fenced code blocks where line breaks matter, **skip this step for those sections**. For prose paragraphs, **rejoin soft-wrapped lines**: - A soft wrap is detected when a line ends without sentence-ending punctuation (`.`, `!`, `?`, `:`, `;`, `…`) AND the next line exists, is non-empty, is not a list item (`-`, `*`, `1.`), is not a heading (`#`), and is not blockquote (`>`). - Join soft-wrapped lines with a single space. - Preserve paragraph breaks (a blank line) verbatim. - Preserve list item structure — each list item stays on its own line; if a list item itself has a soft-wrapped continuation, join those into the same item. This is the most important pass for terminal output: a paragraph wrapped at 80 columns becomes one long line, which Gmail / Slack / LinkedIn will then re-wrap correctly for their own width. ### Step 5 — Format for platform Apply platform-specific transforms after cleaning: **`gmail`** (rich compose, but markdown is NOT rendered): - Strip markdown emphasis: `**bold**` → `bold`, `*italic*` → `italic`, `__bold__` → `bold`, `_italic_` → `italic`. - Headings: `# H1` / `## H2` → drop the `#`s and surrounding hashes; keep the text on its own line. Do NOT bold (Gmail won't render). - Bullets: keep as `- item` (Gmail compose recognizes and renders these as proper bullets when you press Enter inside the editor on the next line; pasting `- ` lines is fine). - Code blocks: drop the fence markers ` ``` `, keep content as-is (monospace is lost, that's expected). - Inline code: `` `code` `` → `code` (drop backticks). - Links: `[text](url)` → `text (url)` so the URL is visible. **`slack`** (mrkdwn — different from CommonMark): - `**bold**` → `*bold*` (single asterisk). - `*italic*` or `_italic_` → `_italic_`. - `~~strike~~` → `~strike~`. - Headings `# H1` → `*H1*` on its own line (slack has no real headings; bold is the convention). - Bullets: keep as `- item` or convert to `• item` per `bullet-style` preference. Slack renders both. - `> quote` lines kept as-is (slack renders them). - Inline code and code blocks (` ``` `) kept as-is — Slack supports them. - Links: `[text](url)` → `` (slack format). **`linkedin`** (no markdown rendering, anywhere): - Strip all markdown: emphasis, headings, code fences, inline code backticks. - Bullets: keep as `- item` lines (LinkedIn doesn't auto-format but plain dashes are conventional). - Links: `[text](url)` → `text: url` (or just `url` on its own line if `text` is the same). - Keep paragraphs short — if reflow joined a paragraph into >400 chars, split at the nearest sentence boundary near 250 chars. (LinkedIn has its own truncation.) **`plain`**: - Strip ALL markdown completely (emphasis, headings, code fences/inline backticks, links → just `text`). - Bullets: keep as `- item`. - Output is pure text — pastes the same way into anything. **`markdown`**: - No platform transforms. Markdown is preserved exactly. Only the cleaning passes (Step 3) and optional reflow (Step 4) are applied. ### Step 6 — Write and copy 1. Write the cleaned, formatted text to `/tmp/clean-copy-output.txt` using the `Write` tool. Use the `Write` tool, not `echo`, to avoid quoting issues with special characters in the draft. 2. Pipe through pbcopy via Bash: `pbcopy < /tmp/clean-copy-output.txt` 3. Verify by running `pbpaste | wc -c` and confirm the byte count is non-zero and roughly matches the source. ### Step 7 — Report If `preview-after-copy` is true (default) OR `--preview` flag is set: > ✓ Copied to clipboard — formatted for **{platform}** ({char_count} chars, {line_count} lines) > > ``` > {first 12 lines of cleaned output} > ... > ``` > > Source: {last assistant draft / pasted / file:path} > Cleaning: stripped {N}-space indent, reflowed {M} soft wraps, dropped {K} trailing-whitespace lines If preview is off, just: > ✓ Copied for {platform} ({char_count} chars). ### Step 8 — Learn Watch for silent corrections: - User invokes `/clean-copy` (no platform), then immediately reruns with a specific platform → save that as the new `default-platform`. - User adds `--no-reflow` two times in a row → flip `reflow-paragraphs` to `false`. - User runs `/clean-copy plain` repeatedly when their default is `gmail` → consider suggesting a default change after 3 occurrences. When something is learned, mention it once: "Noted: you've picked slack three times in a row — want me to make that the default? (`/clean-copy config` to change.)" ## Principles - **Clipboard-first** — the whole point is `pbcopy`. Always end with a fresh clipboard the user can paste immediately. Never just print. - **Don't change meaning, only formatting** — never rephrase, summarize, or "improve" the draft. Cleaning is whitespace + platform syntax conversion only. - **Reflow is the killer feature** — terminal output's biggest sin is hard wraps at 80 columns. Reflowing soft-wrapped paragraphs into single lines is what makes Gmail and Slack render the draft correctly. - **Preserve code and lists faithfully** — fenced code blocks and list structure must survive untouched. Reflow stops at code fences and list items. - **One clean source of truth** — write cleaned text to `/tmp/clean-copy-output.txt` first, then pbcopy from the file. Avoids quoting hell from inline shell strings with quotes / backticks / unicode. - **No surprises** — if the source is ambiguous (multiple drafts in conversation, or "is this a draft?") say which one you picked and how to override. Never silently pick wrong.