PowerToys/doc/devdocs/modules/advancedpaste.md

Advanced Paste

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Overview

Advanced Paste is a PowerToys module that provides enhanced clipboard pasting with formatting options and additional functionality.

Implementation Details

Source code

TODO: Add implementation details

Paste with AI Preview

The "Show preview" setting (ShowCustomPreview) controls whether AI-generated results are displayed in a preview window before pasting. The preview feature does not consume additional AI credits—the preview displays the same AI response that was already generated, cached locally from a single API call.

The implementation flow:

1. User initiates "Paste with AI" action
2. A single AI API call is made via ExecutePasteFormatAsync
3. The result is cached in GeneratedResponses
4. If preview is enabled, the cached result is displayed in the preview UI
5. User can paste the cached result without any additional API calls

See the ExecutePasteFormatAsync(PasteFormat, PasteActionSource) method in OptionsViewModel.cs for the implementation.

Debugging

Advanced Paste is packaged as a self-contained MSIX with its own identity (Microsoft.PowerToys.AdvancedPaste). This gives it native package identity for Windows AI APIs (Phi Silica) and clean ms-appx:/// resource resolution without workarounds.

The MSIX is output to WinUI3Apps/AdvancedPaste/ and registered by the module interface at runtime (or by the installer on release builds).

Running and attaching the debugger

1. Set the Runner project (src/runner) as the startup project in Visual Studio.
2. Launch the Runner (F5). This starts the PowerToys tray icon and loads all module interfaces.
3. Open Settings (right-click tray icon → Settings) and enable the Advanced Paste module if it isn't already. The module launches PowerToys.AdvancedPaste.exe in the background immediately.
4. In Visual Studio, go to Debug → Attach to Process (Ctrl+Alt+P) and attach to PowerToys.AdvancedPaste.exe (select Managed (.NET Core) debugger).

Alternatively, use the VS Code launch configuration "Run AdvancedPaste" from .vscode/launch.json to launch the exe directly — but note that without the Runner, IPC and hotkeys won't work.

MSIX package identity

Advanced Paste uses the Windows AI APIs (Phi Silica / Microsoft.Windows.AI.Text.LanguageModel) which require package identity at runtime. The app is packaged as a self-contained MSIX (following the same pattern as Command Palette).

How it works

• Build: The csproj has EnableMsixTooling=true and GenerateAppxPackageOnBuild=true (CI builds). This produces an MSIX in AppPackages/.
• Local dev: VS registers the package automatically via Add-AppxPackage -Register AppxManifest.xml when you build.
• Installer: The WiX installer deploys the MSIX file and a custom action (InstallAdvancedPastePackageCA) registers it via PackageManager.

Local development setup

For local debug builds, Visual Studio handles MSIX registration automatically. Select the "PowerToys.AdvancedPaste (Package)" launch profile in the debug dropdown.

To manually register:

Add-AppxPackage -Register "ARM64\Debug\WinUI3Apps\AdvancedPaste\AppxManifest.xml"

Verify:

$pkg = Get-AppxPackage -Name "*AdvancedPaste*"
$pkg.Name               # Microsoft.PowerToys.AdvancedPaste.Dev
$pkg.IsDevelopmentMode   # True

How Settings UI checks Phi Silica availability

Settings UI does not have MSIX package identity. To check whether Phi Silica is available, it queries the running Advanced Paste process via a named pipe (powertoys_advancedpaste_phi_status).

Advanced Paste checks LAF + GetReadyState() once on startup (with MSIX identity), caches the result, and serves it to any client that connects. Settings connects with a 5-second timeout and reads one of:

• Available — model is ready
• NotReady — model needs download via Windows Update
• NotSupported — not a Copilot+ PC, API unavailable, or Advanced Paste not running

Settings

Setting	Description
ShowCustomPreview	When enabled, shows AI-generated results in a preview window before pasting. Does not affect AI credit consumption.

Future Improvements

TODO: Add potential future improvements