> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.crewship.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Copy Prompt

> Recover the first user prompt from a previous run — to stdout or the system clipboard. Edit it, re-issue it.

# Copy Prompt

`cmd/crewship/cmd_copy_prompt.go` recovers the first user prompt from a previous run and writes it to stdout or the system clipboard. The "I want to tweak this and rerun" workflow that doesn't end with a network round-trip.

Why a top-level command rather than a flag on retry: copy-prompt is local; users routinely want to grab a past prompt, edit it in `$EDITOR`, and re-issue. Keeping it separate keeps [`crewship retry`](/cli/retry)'s mental model ("rerun this exactly") clean.

## `crewship copy-prompt <run-id>`

| Flag          | Type | Default | Effect                                                                                                                             |
| ------------- | ---- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `--clipboard` | bool | `false` | Copy via `pbcopy` / `wl-copy` / `xclip` / `xsel` instead of writing to stdout. Falls through to a clear error on headless servers. |

### Examples

```bash theme={null}
crewship copy-prompt r_abc                          # to stdout
crewship copy-prompt r_abc --clipboard              # to system clipboard
crewship copy-prompt r_abc | pbcopy                 # alternate route on macOS
crewship copy-prompt r_abc > prompt.txt             # save to file for editing
```

A trailing newline is added if missing so shells display cleanly. With `--clipboard`, stderr gets `[copied <n> chars to clipboard]`.

### Re-issuing

```bash theme={null}
crewship retry r_abc                                # same agent + same prompt, new chat
crewship retry r_abc --new-prompt "tweaked"         # same agent, edited prompt
```

### Common errors

* **`run <id> has no chat_id`** — the run pre-dates chat threading.
* **`could not recover prompt for run <id>`** — no USER/HUMAN-role message in the chat.
* **`no clipboard helper found (install pbcopy/wl-copy/xclip/xsel)`** — headless box or missing dependency.

## See also

* [`crewship retry <run-id>`](/cli/retry) — uses the same recovery path internally.
* [`crewship history`](/cli/history) — find the run-id.
* [`crewship prompt save <name>`](/cli/prompt) — save the recovered prompt to your local library.