hostthis - pipe a rendered file in, get a public URL out

cat file      | ssh -T hostthis.dev
cat file      | ssh -T hostthis.dev slug
tar czf - dir | ssh -T hostthis.dev [slug]
ssh hostthis.dev command [args]

-T on piped uploads disables the ssh client’s pseudo-terminal request, silencing the “Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated” warning. It is a client flag only and changes nothing on the server; verb commands don’t need it.

Publishes HTML, Markdown, or a unified diff with no expiry at a random subdomain. One ssh pipe, no signup, no install. Identity is your ssh public key: anyone with a different key can read the URL but cannot update, rename, pin, or delete the paste.

A Markdown paste renders in the browser; so does a diff (line-by-line or side-by-side, syntax-highlighted). Append ?raw to any rendered paste's URL for the raw source.

cat file | ssh -T hostthis.dev

upload a paste. The URL prints on stdout and a QR code of it on stderr (2>/dev/null drops the QR). To set a label or force the content type, pass --name "label" or --type html|markdown|diff after a literal --. ssh otherwise parses a leading --name as one of its own options.

cat file | ssh -T hostthis.dev slug

replace slug’s content; resets the retention clock

ssh hostthis.dev list

active pastes, soonest to expire first

ssh hostthis.dev get slug

print content to stdout

ssh hostthis.dev url slug

re-show just the URL for any existing paste or site

ssh hostthis.dev qr slug

re-show the URL (stdout) and a QR code (stderr) for any existing paste or site

ssh hostthis.dev rename slug [label]

set the owner label from the remaining words; omit them to clear it

ssh hostthis.dev versions slug

list versions

ssh hostthis.dev pin slug ver

stick the URL to ver; survives future updates

ssh hostthis.dev unpin slug

clear the pin; URL serves the latest version

ssh hostthis.dev delete slug

wipe the entire paste; permanent

ssh hostthis.dev delete slug ver

free one version’s bytes; keeps the history row as a tombstone

ssh hostthis.dev whoami

identity, active count, and quota usage

Pipe a gzip-tar instead of a single file to deploy a multi-file static site.

tar czf - site/ | ssh -T hostthis.dev            # deploy, get a URL
tar czf - site/ | ssh -T hostthis.dev abc12345   # re-deploy in place

Served at slug.hostthis.dev/path, with content type by file extension. A request that matches no file serves index.html, so single-page apps route client-side. A single leading directory is flattened (so tar czf - site/ serves at the root), and macOS sidecar files (._*, .DS_Store, __MACOSX/) are skipped. Delete a site with delete slug, the same as a paste.

A deployed site or paste can store and sync state in a room, with no backend of your own. The room’s UUID is the only key. The API is served on the app’s own origin.

Durable key-value over HTTP:

POST   /api/rooms                -> {"id":"<uuid>"}    mint a room
GET    /api/rooms/<uuid>         -> {key: value, ...}  read the whole room
GET    /api/rooms/<uuid>/<key>   -> value              read one key
PUT    /api/rooms/<uuid>/<key>     write one key, body is the value
DELETE /api/rooms/<uuid>/<key>     delete one key

Realtime over WebSocket, on the same origin:

GET /api/rooms/<uuid>/ws

On connect you receive a snapshot of the room, then a live stream: every durable PUT/DELETE is mirrored to all clients as {"type":"put"|"delete", ...}. Frames you send are broadcast verbatim to other clients and never stored, for ephemeral motion.

A value is opaque bytes. The whole-room read and the snapshot/put frames embed each value as JSON when it parses as JSON - a value you PUT as a JSON object comes back as a nested object, not a quoted string - and as a JSON string otherwise. Reading a single key returns the raw bytes.

Limits: 256 KiB and 256 keys per room; 64 MiB per app; a room expires 30 days after its last write. Deployments without a room store return 404.

10 MiB per identity, counting post-compression bytes across every active version of every active paste. Text compresses 5-10x under zstd, so the real raw-payload ceiling is typically 50-100 MiB.

Pastes are HTML, Markdown, or a unified diff; sites are a gzip-tar archive. Kept with no expiry after the last update.

0   success
1   generic failure
2   usage error: bad arguments or unknown verb
3   identity required: no ssh key presented
4   not found, or not yours
6   refused by the per-subnet rate limit

NO_COLOR    set to any value to disable color output
TERM=dumb   also disables color output

Read from the environment your ssh client forwards.

# upload, get a URL on stdout (and a QR code on stderr)
cat index.html | ssh -T hostthis.dev

# capture just the URL; 2>/dev/null drops the QR + narration
url=$(cat index.html | ssh -T hostthis.dev 2>/dev/null)

# upload with a label (--name and --type follow a literal --)
cat notes.md | ssh -T hostthis.dev -- --name "alpha notes"

# update an existing paste; same URL, bumps to v2, v3, ...
cat v2.html | ssh -T hostthis.dev abc12345

# force content type when sniffing gets it wrong
cat tricky.html | ssh -T hostthis.dev -- --type html

# render a unified diff (auto-detected, or force with --type diff)
git diff | ssh -T hostthis.dev

# read your content back
ssh hostthis.dev get abc12345

# re-show the link for an existing paste (URL only, or URL + QR)
ssh hostthis.dev url abc12345
ssh hostthis.dev qr abc12345

# set the owner label from the words, or omit it to clear
ssh hostthis.dev rename abc12345 design notes v2
ssh hostthis.dev rename abc12345

# stick the URL on v1 even though v3 is the latest
ssh hostthis.dev pin abc12345 1
ssh hostthis.dev unpin abc12345

# free one version's bytes; leaves a tombstone row
ssh hostthis.dev delete abc12345 2

# deploy a static site
tar czf - site/ | ssh -T hostthis.dev

Source: github.com/Zamua/hostthis