miniserve

miniserve is a lightweight CLI for exposing a local file or directory over HTTP with an optional directory UI. It covers quick artifact sharing, temporary static hosting, and small dropbox-style file exchange without standing up a fuller web server.

• Serve a local file or directory over HTTP for ad hoc sharing, downloads, or lightweight static-site hosting.
• Turn on auth, TLS, random routes, custom headers, and route prefixes when a quick file share needs a bit more control.
• Accept uploads, create or delete directories, offer on-the-fly tar or zip downloads, and expose read-only WebDAV for remote access to the served tree.

• Startup is simple and non-interactive, so agents can reliably bring up a local file server with the needed flags and environment variables.
• There is no general --json or structured CLI output mode; after launch, most follow-up work happens through HTTP endpoints or WebDAV rather than machine-readable command output.
• Best fit is artifact handoff and temporary exposure of local files to browsers, curl, or other tools, not rich state inspection through the CLI itself.

• Uploads, deletes, archive downloads, and WebDAV are opt-in features, so unattended workflows need the right flags and path restrictions up front.
• --enable-zip can exhaust memory on large directories because zip archives are generated in memory.