Developer alan890104 released the paste-preview plugin for Claude Code: a screenshot pasted into the terminal is no longer invisible and appears directly in the session as a live thumbnail, after which the image can be annotated before sending. The model receives the edited version of the image, not the original frame. The plugin is free, distributed under the MIT license, and works entirely locally without network calls.

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What happened

The claude-code-paste-preview repository appeared on GitHub on October 6, 2026, with the last commit dated October 18, 2026, and the current release paste-preview 0.2.0 was released under the MIT license. Pasting an image via Ctrl+V, or Alt+V on Windows and WSL, opens a thumbnail above the input line and immediately launches an editor with pen, ellipse, box, arrow, text, crop, and 90-degree rotation tools; seven colors are available. After confirmation, the plugin uses the session.append hook to delete the original image block and insert a note with the path to the edited file into the request. The prompt.submit hook is also involved in the chain, so the model reads the annotated version, not the original. If the paste position and proportions do not match, the replacement is not performed at all, to ensure the model does not receive the wrong image.

Context

By default, after an image is pasted, Claude Code shows only the text marker [Image #1] in the dialog: the frame goes to the model unchanged, and the user cannot see exactly what entered the request until the assistant responds. The plugin became possible thanks to the Claude Code mods system, which has been open in early access mode since version 2.1.291 and gives third-party code access to internal hooks capable of intervening in the context between human input and prompt submission. Thumbnail rendering relies on the kitty graphics protocol, which is implemented in Ghostty and kitty terminals, so image support depends directly on the specific environment. A community is already forming around this system: mods are distributed via a marketplace with a single command, and catalogs like Claude Mods serve as showcases and distribution channels.

Why this matters for the industry

For the industry, the main signal is that third-party wrappers have learned to rewrite the model's input before prompt submission: the agentic pipeline receives prepared context, not a raw frame. This is the first notable sample of an input preparation layer, and if the mods API exits early access, a wave of plugins for annotating, filtering, and deduplicating media is likely around Claude Code. The fault-tolerant behavior during a failed replacement sets a minimum required security level for any context transformations. It is also notable that one-command marketplace distribution turns a third-party mod into an almost free distribution channel, and the ability to change the input means that the input channel of agentic systems cannot be considered fixed when evaluating them.

Why this matters for users

For anyone working with Claude Code in Ghostty or kitty terminals on version 2.1.291 or newer, it is enough to run the command /plugin install paste-preview --marketplace alan890104/claude-code-paste-preview within the session; no restart is required. After this, the screenshot is visible before sending, making it easier to notice if the wrong frame entered the request, and arrows, boxes, and captions around a bug reduce the number of text clarifications in the dialog. On macOS, the editor opens in a native floating panel, which requires Xcode Command Line Tools; on Linux and Windows, a browser window is used. In tmux and Windows Terminal, thumbnails are unavailable, and the previous [Image #N] placeholder with an Edit button will remain.

What is still unknown / limitations

There are no measurements in the open materials: the solution of the same tasks with raw and annotated screenshots has not been compared, so the benefit of annotation remains a hypothesis and may turn out to be negative if the marks cover important parts of the image. The project is led by a single author, and the repository has 39 stars on GitHub, meaning there is no independent testing or reliability confirmation yet. Dependence on early access to the mods system means the risk that Claude Code updates may change or disable the hooks used and break the plugin, and it is unknown how the contract for such input transformations will ultimately be established.

Sources

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