> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tyba.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Safe paste > Why it sometimes asks before pasting and sometimes doesn't. It isn't random. Pasting into a terminal is the most dangerous thing you do without thinking. Text copied from a web page can end with a line break — and a line break, in a shell, is **Enter**. The command runs before you read it. TYBA doesn't solve this by asking for confirmation every time (you'd learn to click "Paste" without reading in two days). It asks **when the text can run on its own**, and shuts up when it can't. | Action | macOS | Windows / Linux | | ------ | ----- | --------------- | | Paste | `⌘V` | `Ctrl+Shift+V` | Also via **right-click** → *Paste*. Both paths go through the same check — no shortcut jumps the queue. ## The rule Every pasted text goes through three questions, in this order: The `ESC[201~` sequence is torn out of the text before anything else, on **every** paste, risky or not. It's what marks "the paste is over" in the terminal protocol: text carrying it convinces the shell that the paste ended there, and that the rest — whatever comes after — is you typing. That's how you paste one innocent-looking line that executes a command you never saw. TYBA doesn't let that byte reach the shell. Ever. TYBA reads the terminal's **actual** state at that moment — not a guess, not a preference of yours. Either the program on the other side turned the mode on, or it didn't. It's risky if **any** of these is true: * The text **has** unsafe **control characters**; **or** * The text is **multiline** *and* bracketed paste is **off**. Risky opens the dialog. Everything else pastes straight through. ## What bracketed paste is It's a mode the terminal program turns on by itself to say: *"I know how to tell pasted text from typed text"*. With it on, pasted text reaches the program wrapped in markers. Line breaks arrive as **text**, not as Enter. A modern shell (zsh, bash with a recent readline), Claude Code, `vim` — they all turn it on. A raw `bash` without readline, a script's `read`, a simple program asking for input — they don't. **The same paste behaves differently in different places — and that's the thing working.** Pasting 20 lines inside **Claude Code**: nothing happens, the text goes into the prompt. It turns bracketed paste on, so the 20 lines can't run on their own. Pasting **the same 20 lines** into a raw `bash` that didn't turn the mode on: **the dialog opens**. There, every line break is an Enter — that's 20 commands, and TYBA isn't going to let that happen silently. It isn't random. It isn't TYBA "being annoying sometimes". It's the right answer to two different contexts. A control character **always** opens the dialog, even with bracketed paste on and even on a single line. Bracketed paste protects against the accidental Enter; it doesn't protect against an `ESC` in the middle of the text. ## The dialog Title: **Paste multiple lines?** It gives you exactly what you need to decide: | | | | ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **The line count** | How many lines the content has — and the warning that it may run as soon as it's pasted. | | **The text** | All of it, scrollable. Control characters show up as **`␣`** — what was invisible becomes visible. | | **Amber banner** | Only when there are control characters. Warns that they'll be removed if you paste as a single line. | You read what you're about to paste. That's the point. ### The three ways out | Button | What happens | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Cancel** | Nothing is pasted. `Esc` does the same. | | **Paste as a single line** | Line breaks become **spaces**, control characters are **removed**, the trailing break is dropped. Twenty commands become one long command — which waits for you to press Enter. | | **Paste** | Pastes as-is (already without the terminator from step 1). It's what you want when you *know* it's 20 commands and that's exactly right. | **Paste as a single line** is the way out for the most common case: you copied a command that wrapped across three lines on a documentation site and you want it back in one piece. It isn't a generic "safe mode" — it's a flattening, and the result is still a command you're going to run. Once you choose, focus goes back to the terminal. ## What this isn't The paste check looks at the **shape** of the text: can it run on its own? It **does not judge what the command does**. `rm -rf /` pasted on a single line, with no control characters, pastes straight through and in silence — to the check, it's a command waiting for your Enter, and you're the one pressing it. What judges what a command does is [risk classification](/en/security/risk-classification), and that applies to what **agents** ask to run. Pasting is you. The responsibility stays yours. ## What doesn't exist | | | | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **A "don't ask again" toggle** | Doesn't exist. If it did, someone would tick it on day one and the protection would die right there. | | **A configurable line limit** | Doesn't exist. The trigger is the rule above, not a number. | | **A per-app exception list** | Doesn't exist. TYBA reads the terminal's state, not a list of names. | ## See also Green, yellow, red — what agents are allowed to run. The other side: selecting and copying.