Clipboard, keys and browser

The capsule's desktop runs inside a browser tab on 127.0.0.1 so your host display session stays outside the container. That isolation changes three everyday habits: copying text across the boundary, entering fullscreen, and opening external links.

Clipboard

The capsule cannot read your computer's clipboard automatically; text crosses only when you move it:

1. Open the control bar along the left edge of the desktop tab and select the Clipboard icon.
2. From capsule to host: copy text inside the IDE (Ctrl+C), then copy it out of the sidebar's clipboard box into your host clipboard.
3. From host to capsule: paste text into the sidebar's clipboard box, then paste inside the IDE (Ctrl+V or Ctrl+Shift+V in terminals).

Keeping clipboard transfer explicit prevents background processes inside the capsule from reading secrets you copied on your host.

Keys, Escape and fullscreen

In a normal browser tab, every shortcut the browser itself does not reserve reaches the IDE—including Escape.

• Use your browser's fullscreen (F11), not the sidebar's fullscreen button. Browsers exit HTML5 element fullscreen whenever you press Escape, which intercepts Escape before Vim modes, dialogs, or code completion see it. Instead, press Ctrl+L to focus the address bar, press F11 (or View → Enter Full Screen on macOS), and click back into the desktop.
• Browser-reserved shortcuts such as Ctrl+W, Ctrl+T, and Alt+Tab stay with your browser and OS. If you close the tab with Ctrl+W by mistake, the capsule keeps running—reopen the desktop URL printed in your launcher terminal (Stop and come back).

Managing windows on the capsule desktop

The capsule runs a single virtual desktop with a taskbar along the bottom showing a button for every open window and a clock. The IDE starts maximized and resizes automatically when you resize the browser window. If a modal dialog or secondary window opens behind the main editor, click its button on the bottom panel—or right-click empty desktop background—to bring it forward.

Opening links on your host browser

The default base image has no standalone web browser. The optional browser-automation component supplies Chromium for Playwright. When an IDE or CLI agent prints or opens an http:// or https:// link (such as OAuth sign-in or API documentation), you have two choices:

• Copy the URL out through the left sidebar's clipboard box and open it in your host browser, or

• Grant the URL-only browser broker from a host terminal for this checkout or a single run:

  devcapsule project config authorize host-browser true
  # or for one session without saving:
  devcapsule project run --authorize host-browser true
  

With host-browser enabled, http:// and https:// URLs opened through BROWSER / xdg-open inside the capsule ask the launcher on your host to open them in your default browser, without exposing your browser profile or display session to the container. A printed URL still needs you to open it. host-browser does not publish application or OAuth callback ports; see Previews and ports.

Run devcapsule project config deny host-browser on the host to withdraw access for the next launch. Stop the current capsule to end its existing access (Granting and withdrawing access).