paste-sloth: Ctrl+Space+V pastes your clipboard back tidied, by a 1-bit Gemma

Description and use

paste‑sloth offers a single‑chord workflow to clean and reformat clipboard text using a local 1‑bit Gemma model, then automatically paste the result, preserving privacy and zero cost.

Problem

Users often copy messy text (CSV, JSON, logs) and need a quick way to reformat it before pasting.

Outcome

paste‑sloth provides a single‑chord workflow that cleans clipboard text using a local 1‑bit LLM, ensuring privacy and zero cost while improving paste quality.

Workflow

• 1. Copy text as usual.
• 2. Press Ctrl+Space+V to trigger paste‑sloth.
• 3. The background process sends the clipboard text to the local LLM for restructuring.
• 4. The output is validated (strip code fences, check for invented numbers).
• 5. If valid, the restructured text replaces the clipboard and is pasted into the active window.
• 6. If invalid, the original text remains on the clipboard and nothing is pasted.

Evidence

paste‑sloth is a background process. you copy the way you already do, and when the text is a mess you hold ctrl, press space, press V, and let go. the clipboard goes to a model, comes back restructured, and gets pasted into whichever window has focus.

Source

the request is a chat completion at temperature 0. the system prompt is short: reply with only the restructured text, keep every value, pick the structure that fits.

Source

the chord was the fiddly part, because space is also a spacebar. ctrl is forwarded as it happens. space is held back, and if you press another key or release space before V, the held space gets replayed, so autocomplete and input‑method switching still work.

Source

on linux this is evdev with an exclusive grab plus a uinput virtual keyboard - wayland won’t let an ordinary app watch every key or type into other windows, and a desktop shortcut can’t express ctrl+space+V because space is not a modifier.

Source