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# Paste clipboard contents in places where you can’t paste
- URL: https://www.autodidacts.io/insert-clipboard-content-in-places-that-do-not-allow-pasting-with-send-keys/
- Published: 2026-02-25T06:08:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-02-25T06:11:34.000Z
- Description: Use AutoKey send_keys() to put clipboard content places where it can't normally be put
- Author: Curiositry
- Tags: 100DaysToOffload, Python, Workarounds

****Note:** this post is part of [#100DaysToOffload](https://www.autodidacts.io/100daystooffload/), a challenge to publish 100 posts in 365 days. These posts are generally shorter and less polished than our normal posts; expect typos and unfiltered thoughts! [View more posts in this series.](https://www.autodidacts.io/tag/100daystooffload/)

  
Today I was trying to run an AppImage in a firejail sandbox, to debug the issue that is currently blocking [my KOReader Wallabag plugin patch](https://github.com/koreader/koreader/pull/14793?ref=autodidacts.io).

In the process, I had to paste API keys that were too long to reliably type, and I couldn’t paste into the AppImage with the normal methods.

It turns out you *can* (duh) paste with a long press, just like on an e-reader. But this is so wildly unintuitive on desktop that I didn’t think of it at the time.

Instead, I wrote a two-line Python [AutoKey](https://github.com/autokey/autokey?ref=autodidacts.io) script, bound to a keybinding (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Super+k, because all the good keybindings are already taken).

```python
cb = clipboard.get_clipboard()
keyboard.send_keys(cb)

```

This gets the current clipboard content, and emits it as if it was being typed. Simple, and effective.

I’ve run into places where I can type but can’t paste before, so although there was a simpler solution in this particular case, the snippet might be useful in other circumstances.