[Feature Request] Add config option to disable copy-on-select behavior

[cbrunnkvist]

OC implements "XTerm / GPM"-style copy-on-select

Selecting text with the mouse automatically copies it to the clipboard when the mouse button is released. As far as I can find, there is no way to disable this behavior.

I'd like to be able to turn off copy-on-select via opencode.json config because frankly it interferes with the way I read and mark text on screen, in particular when screen sharing or pair coding. And I really don't appreciate accidental clipboard overwrites when scrolling/selecting to read text.

I understand that the TUI is mouse-aware, and I am aware that in e.g. Ghostty's config I can set mouse-shift-capture = never to make shift+click always selects text, without notifying the app, but I'd still like to prevent OC from bungling my current clipboard contents.

Proposed Solution

I guess a tui.copy_on_select config option would suffice. Keep its default as true to avoid surprising existing users.

{
  "tui": {
    "copy_on_select": false
  }
}

Current Behavior

Mouse selection → automatic clipboard copy

Expected Behavior (when disabled)

Allows users to select text visually without side effects

[github-actions]

This issue might be a duplicate of existing issues. Please check:

• feat: Add option to disable mouse capture in TUI for better terminal multiplexer compatibility #7926: feat: Add option to disable mouse capture in TUI for better terminal multiplexer compatibility
• [FEATURE]: add a settings to disable mouse #6824: [FEATURE]: add a settings to disable mouse
• How to disable text selection and clipboard overrides? #2845: How to disable text selection and clipboard overrides?

Feel free to ignore if none of these address your specific case.

[ariane-emory]

Instead of making this a new setting in opencode.json and changing the shape of the config schema, I think that a better implementation would be to control it using a new menu item in the System category of the command_list, appearing as either "Disable copy-on-select" or "Enable-copy-on-select" (dependant upon it's current state) whose current state is persisted to the kv.json file.

[ariane-emory]

Upon review, a OPENCODE_EXPERIMENTAL_DISABLE_COPY_ON_SELECT flag was added in the merged PR #4996. To me, this flag seems entirely adequate to resolve the issue, I'll leave this be.

[cbrunnkvist]

Ah, thanks @ariane-emory, I failed to find that despite fuzzy searching for "copy on select" ...

I can confirm that OPENCODE_EXPERIMENTAL_DISABLE_COPY_ON_SELECT=1 opencode, while still not retaining the text-selection highlight at least prevents it from clobbering the clipboard. I'll be using that for now; thanks again.

(I thought I kind of knew terminal programming, but I realize I actually have no idea about what control codes or -modes are used by mouse extensions)

[tonglil]

@ariane-emory the problem with OPENCODE_EXPERIMENTAL_DISABLE_COPY_ON_SELECT is that it no longer lets me select text in the terminal (and keep it selected). It's acting like "DISABLE_SELECT" all together.

I want to be able to select some text in the terminal, and optionally copy it if I want to with cmd+c.

[ariane-emory]

That's interesting that might have something to do with which terminal you're running it in? I'm afraid I'm not sure if there's another way to disable the copy on select behaviour, sorry.

[tonglil]

I'm using iterm2.
You can see the select behavior works as expected in other apps.

Here's another capture that demonstrates selection working for claude code and not in opencode, this time in the mac's default terminal.

As soon as you release the mouse, the selection disappears.

[cbrunnkvist]

Yeah that’s precisely the behavior I described as “swallows my selection”. I’m using Ghostty. Basically the selection still works identically to the sock OpenCode behavior (when you let go of the button the selection disappear) but with the exception that it leaves the clipboard untouched.

…

On Wed, 28 Jan 2026 at 01:57 Tony Li ***@***.***> wrote: *tonglil* left a comment (anomalyco/opencode#10490) <#10490 (comment)> I'm using iterm2. You can see the select behavior works as expected in other apps. Here's another capture that demonstrates selection working for claude code and not in opencode, this time in the mac's default terminal. gif.gif (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/348b2061-f2cb-4d8e-856d-8848104287b5> As soon as you release the mouse, the selection disappears. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10490 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAIJVTRIP4GSJZIAPXFHCD4I6YHZAVCNFSM6AAAAACSZTMHNWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTQMBWHE2DIMRQGM> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ariane-emory]

@jhrudden I've got a fix that seemingly works correctly for:

• iTerm2, ghostty, Kitty on MacOS.
• The stock terminal on recent versions of Fedora and Ubuntu.

Just waiting to hear back from a Windows user about whether the fix works for them there.

[ErcinDedeoglu]

This feature request is now critical for VS Code Remote SSH users.

With v1.1.49's OSC52 clipboard (which doesn't work in VS Code Remote SSH), copy-on-select:

1. Intercepts mouse selection
2. Clears the selection
3. Shows "copied" (but OSC52 silently fails)
4. Nothing in clipboard, selection gone

There's literally no way to copy text from opencode in VS Code Remote SSH without this config option.

See #11909 for the full context. The tui.copy_on_select: false option would at least let us manually select + Cmd+C as a workaround.