Feature/paste image windows by youaodu · Pull Request #4107 · google-gemini/gemini-cli

youaodu · 2025-07-14T07:21:05Z

TLDR

This submission is to enable Gemini-cli to paste images from the clipboard on Windows.
Due to the characteristics of the Windows system terminal, it will intercept the paste event, so a new shortcut key (Alt+v) is enabled here, and the placeHolder is adapted to display this shortcut only on Windows systems.

Reviewer Test Plan

Testing Matrix

Start Gemini-cli in Windows.
Take a screenshot or paste an image to the clipboard.
Press Alt+V in the inputPrompt window.

PlaceHolder is only displayed under Windows system

The effect after pasting the picture into Input Prompt

	🍏	🪟	🐧
npm run	❓	√	❓
npx	❓	❓	❓
Docker	❓	❓	❓
Podman	❓	-	-
Seatbelt	❓	-	-

…to feature/paste-image-windows

google-cla · 2025-07-14T07:21:11Z

Thanks for your pull request! It looks like this may be your first contribution to a Google open source project. Before we can look at your pull request, you'll need to sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA).

View this failed invocation of the CLA check for more information.

For the most up to date status, view the checks section at the bottom of the pull request.

gemini-code-assist

Summary of Changes

Hello @youaodu, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request introduces the capability for the Gemini-cli to paste images from the system clipboard when running on Windows. It includes the necessary platform-specific logic to detect and save clipboard images, implements a new Alt+V keyboard shortcut to facilitate this action on Windows, and updates the user interface to provide a relevant hint.

Highlights

Windows Clipboard Integration: Enabled the Gemini-cli to paste images directly from the system clipboard on Windows, addressing platform-specific challenges where the Windows terminal intercepts standard paste events.
New Keyboard Shortcut for Windows: Introduced an Alt+V keyboard shortcut specifically for Windows users to trigger the image pasting functionality, providing an alternative to the commonly intercepted Ctrl+V.
Platform-Specific UI Hint: Updated the input prompt's placeholder text to conditionally display the Alt+V shortcut hint only when the application is running on a Windows operating system, improving user guidance.
Cross-Platform Clipboard Utilities: Extended the core clipboardHasImage and saveClipboardImage utility functions to support Windows by leveraging PowerShell commands, while maintaining existing functionality for macOS.

Using Gemini Code Assist

The full guide for Gemini Code Assist can be found on our documentation page, here are some quick tips.

Invoking Gemini

You can request assistance from Gemini at any point in your pull request via creating an issue comment (i.e. comment on the pull request page) using either /gemini <command> or @gemini-code-assist <command>. Below is a summary of the supported commands.

Feature	Command	Description
Code Review	`/gemini review`	Performs a code review for the current pull request in its current state.
Pull Request Summary	`/gemini summary`	Provides a summary of the current pull request in its current state.
Comment	@gemini-code-assist	Responds in comments when explicitly tagged, both in issue comments and review comments.
Help	`/gemini help`	Displays a list of available commands.

Customization

To customize Gemini Code Assist for GitHub experience, repository maintainers can create a configuration file and/or provide a custom code review style guide (such as PEP-8 for Python) by creating and adding files to a .gemini/ folder in the base of the repository. Detailed instructions can be found here.

Limitations & Feedback

Gemini Code Assist is currently in preview and may make mistakes. Please leave feedback on any instances where its feedback is incorrect or counter productive. You can react with 👍 and 👎 on @gemini-code-assist comments to provide feedback.

You can also get AI-powered code generation, chat, as well as code reviews directly in the IDE at no cost with the Gemini Code Assist IDE Extension.

Review the Privacy Notices, Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy, Terms of Service, and learn how to configure Gemini Code Assist in GitHub here. Gemini can make mistakes, so double check it and use code with caution. ↩

gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request adds a great new feature for Windows users, allowing them to paste images from the clipboard. The implementation looks solid, using PowerShell for Windows-specific clipboard operations. My review focuses on a couple of high-severity issues: removing leftover debugging logs that would clutter the user's terminal, and ensuring the new Alt+V shortcut is correctly scoped to Windows to avoid unintended behavior on other platforms. Addressing these will improve the robustness and user experience of the new feature.

gemini-code-assist · 2025-07-14T07:24:54Z

+      if (key.meta && key.name === 'v') {
+        console.error('=== Detected Alt+V key press ===');
+        handleClipboardImage();
+        return;
+      }


The new Alt+V key handler is intended for Windows only, as indicated by the comment. However, the current implementation is not platform-specific. This could lead to unintended behavior on other operating systems like macOS, where Alt+V is a standard key combination to type the √ character. This handler would incorrectly intercept that input.

Additionally, the console.error call appears to be a leftover from debugging and should be removed to avoid cluttering the user's terminal.

Please scope this handler to Windows and remove the debugging log.

// Alt+V for clipboard image paste (Windows) if (process.platform === 'win32' && key.meta && key.name === 'v') { handleClipboardImage(); return; }

gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request adds support for pasting images from the clipboard on Windows, introducing a new Alt+V shortcut and the necessary platform-specific logic using PowerShell. Error handling for clipboard operations has been made silent, which can lead to a poor user experience and difficult debugging. The path escaping for the PowerShell command on Windows is incomplete and will fail for paths containing single quotes. Addressing these points will improve the feature's robustness and usability.

gemini-code-assist · 2025-07-15T00:46:42Z

    } catch (error) {
-      console.error('Error handling clipboard image:', error);
+      // Ignore clipboard image errors
    }


Silently swallowing errors from clipboard operations can lead to a confusing user experience and make debugging difficult. If saveClipboardImage fails (e.g., due to file permissions or an issue with the PowerShell script), the user will receive no feedback, and it will appear as though the paste feature is broken. Re-introduce error logging here to aid in debugging.

} catch (error) { console.error('Error handling clipboard image:', error); }

jacob314 · 2025-07-16T02:00:22Z

+      // Windows: Use PowerShell to save clipboard image
+      const tempFilePath = path.join(tempDir, `clipboard-${timestamp}.png`);
+
+      // Use a different approach to avoid quote escaping issues


remove this comment as it indicates how the code was changed not what it does.

jacob314 · 2025-07-16T02:03:23Z

+        `powershell -command "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms; Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing; if ([System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::ContainsImage()) { $image = [System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetImage(); $image.Save('${escapedPath}', [System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat]::Png); Write-Output 'success' } else { Write-Output 'error' }"`,
+      );
+
      if (stdout.trim() === 'success') {


the logic from line 125 on seems duplicated with the mac case. please merge the two.

jacob314 · 2025-07-16T20:00:36Z

+      const tempFilePath = path.join(tempDir, `clipboard-${timestamp}.png`);
+
+      // Use a different approach to avoid quote escaping issues
+      const escapedPath = tempFilePath.replace(/\\/g, '\\\\').replace(/"/g, '`"');


rather than rolling our own shell escaping, it might make sense to use an existing npm package for this.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/shescape?activeTab=code
this package isn't that popular so I am also open to just rolling our own or trying to find a popular package.

jacob314 · 2025-07-28T15:49:35Z

This would be a great feature to land. Just saw some users on twitter asking about this. When do you think you will have a chance to resolve these minor comments so we can land it?

Key changes: 1. Refactored `clipboardUtils.ts` by extracting platform-specific logic into separate functions (`saveMacOSClipboardImage`, `saveWindowsClipboardImage`). 2. Introduced `shell-quote` to handle file paths with special characters. 3. Added helper functions for command execution and file cleanup to reduce duplication and improve error handling.

…to feature/paste-image-windows # Conflicts: # .gitignore # packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx

abhipatel12 · 2025-09-12T04:42:47Z

Hey sorry for the delay here! We still don't have support for this, so we can try to land this if you're willing to address jacob's comments. Thanks

youaodu · 2025-09-15T08:03:18Z

Hey sorry for the delay here! We still don't have support for this, so we can try to land this if you're willing to address jacob's comments. Thanks

-  placeholder = '  Type your message or @path/to/file',
+  placeholder = process.platform === 'win32' 
+    ? '  Type your message or @path/to/file (Alt+V to paste image)'
+   : '  Type your message or @path/to/file',

Are you saying we should roll back this part of the code to the previous version?

# Conflicts: # packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx # packages/cli/src/ui/utils/clipboardUtils.ts

youaodu · 2025-09-17T06:18:09Z

@abhipatel12 @jacob314
reviews please. thank u.

parthasaradhie · 2025-11-10T14:24:07Z

Closing this PR as it is no longer applicable. Please re-open if needed.

youaodu added 4 commits July 14, 2025 10:52

feat: Add Alt+V keyboard shortcut for clipboard image paste on Windows

ca5a2a4

feat: Add Windows-specific placeholder hint for Alt+V image paste

8d2bd1f

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli in…

3b2ad5c

…to feature/paste-image-windows

feat: Add Windows-specific placeholder hint for Alt+V image paste

fed4481

youaodu requested a review from a team as a code owner July 14, 2025 07:21

gemini-code-assist Bot reviewed Jul 14, 2025

View reviewed changes

gemini-cli Bot added the status/need-issue label Jul 14, 2025

gemini-code-assist Bot reviewed Jul 14, 2025

View reviewed changes

youaodu mentioned this pull request Jul 14, 2025

feat: Add clipboard image paste support for macOS #1580

Merged

youaodu and others added 2 commits July 15, 2025 08:39

fix: Resolve potential bugs and code style issues per bot suggestions

85fb028

Merge branch 'main' into feature/paste-image-windows

9e3e973

gemini-code-assist Bot reviewed Jul 15, 2025

View reviewed changes

jacob314 self-requested a review July 16, 2025 01:50

jacob314 reviewed Jul 16, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx Outdated

jacob314 reviewed Jul 16, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx Outdated

jacob314 reviewed Jul 16, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx

jacob314 reviewed Jul 16, 2025

View reviewed changes

youaodu added 2 commits July 30, 2025 21:14

Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli in…

0c97072

…to feature/paste-image-windows # Conflicts: # .gitignore # packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx

fix. restore placeholder

1d4b8df

youaodu requested a review from a team as a code owner September 17, 2025 00:50

youaodu and others added 2 commits September 17, 2025 09:05

Merge branch 'main' into feature/paste-image-windows

ec51a5e

# Conflicts: # packages/cli/src/ui/components/InputPrompt.tsx # packages/cli/src/ui/utils/clipboardUtils.ts

Merge branch 'main' into feature/paste-image-windows

df756fa

jacob314 and others added 2 commits October 16, 2025 08:42

Merge branch 'main' into feature/paste-image-windows

b676682

Merge upstream/main into feature/paste-image-windows

4e99955

kklashtorny1 removed the status/need-issue label Oct 30, 2025

parthasaradhie closed this Nov 10, 2025

parthasaradhie self-assigned this Nov 10, 2025

Conversation

youaodu commented Jul 14, 2025

TLDR

Reviewer Test Plan

Testing Matrix

PlaceHolder is only displayed under Windows system

The effect after pasting the picture into Input Prompt

Uh oh!

google-cla Bot commented Jul 14, 2025

Uh oh!

gemini-code-assist Bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Summary of Changes

Highlights

Footnotes

Uh oh!

gemini-code-assist Bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Code Review

Uh oh!

gemini-code-assist Bot Jul 14, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

gemini-code-assist Bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Code Review

Uh oh!

gemini-code-assist Bot Jul 15, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

jacob314 Jul 16, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jacob314 Jul 16, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jacob314 Jul 16, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jacob314 commented Jul 28, 2025

Uh oh!

abhipatel12 commented Sep 12, 2025

Uh oh!

youaodu commented Sep 15, 2025

Uh oh!

youaodu commented Sep 17, 2025

Uh oh!

parthasaradhie commented Nov 10, 2025

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

6 participants