Repository navigation
Desktop Copy Image does nothing for images inside HTML previews #17549
Description
What happened
In the desktop app, right-clicking an image inside an HTML preview (an HTML file opened in the side panel, or an agent's inline HTML render in a thread) shows "Copy Image", but choosing it copies nothing. The clipboard stays empty. Copy Image works on images that are part of the app itself.
Diagnosis
The desktop context menu in apps/desktop/src/window/DesktopWindow.ts (installContextMenu) adds "Copy Image" whenever params.mediaType === "image", and its click handler calls contents.copyImageAt(params.x, params.y).
webContents.copyImageAt hit-tests the top frame. HTML previews and HTML renders are sandboxed iframes (BrowserDocumentFrame / HtmlRenderDocument in apps/web), and Chromium runs sandboxed frames out of process even on the same origin. The top frame's hit test lands on the <iframe> element, not the image, so nothing is copied. The context-menu event itself does see the image: params.frame is the iframe's frame and params.srcURL is the image URL.
Steps to reproduce
- Open the desktop app.
- Ask an agent to show an HTML page containing an image (
html_render), or open an.htmlattachment or file with an<img>in the side panel. - Right-click the image and choose Copy Image.
- Paste into any app.
Expected: the image is pasted. Actual: nothing is pasted.
Standalone repro with Electron 44.4.5, the version apps/desktop ships. It right-clicks through CDP so the click routes into the iframe like a real mouse click, then calls copyImageAt with the event's coordinates and reads the clipboard:
main frame image
mediaType=image src=http://127.0.0.1:4801/img.png
copyImageAt -> clipboard 3138x2084
sandboxed cross-origin iframe, http image
mediaType=image src=http://127.0.0.1:4802/img.png
copyImageAt -> clipboard EMPTY (no image)
sandboxed cross-origin iframe, data: image (html_render style)
mediaType=image src=data:image/png;base64,...
copyImageAt -> clipboard EMPTY (no image)
sandboxed same-origin iframe
mediaType=image src=http://127.0.0.1:4801/img.png
copyImageAt -> clipboard EMPTY (no image)
Version
Server t3 0.0.41-nightly.20260915; source checked against main at f853d51.
Environment
Reported on the macOS desktop app connected to a Linux server. Reproduced on Linux with Electron 44.4.5 under Xvfb.
Related issues
None found. Searched for "copy image".
Fix applied or workaround
No workaround in the app. A possible fix: for images in a subframe, load params.srcURL (http(s) without cookies and capped in size, or data:) and write it to the clipboard. Top-frame images keep copyImageAt.
Filed by
Claude Opus 5.5 via t3 triage
Activity
ViperJuice commentedon Oct 15, 2026
Adding a user-reported chat workflow and the desired copy/export behavior to this related report, rather than opening a duplicate. This issue is marked completed; I have not independently reproduced the current behavior, and this comment does not establish a regression, a technical cause, or failure on every platform.
User-reported use case
An assistant generates an engineering diagram that is visible inline in the T3 Code chat window, including a visualization rendered from SVG or HTML. The user wants to choose Copy Image and paste the diagram directly into WhatsApp. They report that they cannot simply do this from the chat window. They also want to save the visible image or the generated file directly from the same place.
Requested behavior
Provide a compact context menu or visible actions on chat images, rendered visualizations, and image/file attachments:
engineering-diagram.png.Copying a filesystem path, URL, file mention, or HTML/SVG markup does not satisfy Copy Image. Likewise, downloading should deliver the file's content to the user, including when the environment is remote; a path on the environment host alone does not satisfy the workflow. The image export and original-file download should be distinguishable actions when both apply.
A useful acceptance check would be: generate a generic diagram, copy its rendered image from chat, paste it into WhatsApp as an image, then download both a PNG rendering and an available original SVG/PDF file from chat and open the saved files successfully.
This request includes rendered visualizations as well as conventional image/file attachments. Existing image copy/save actions may already cover some surfaces; the request is for a discoverable, consistent way to complete this workflow on the relevant chat surface. Related download context: #14362 and #5532.