miniserve

What is miniserve?

miniserve is a small, self-contained, cross-platform command-line tool that lets you serve files and directories over HTTP with a single command. It is written in Rust and built on Actix, so it is fast, highly parallel, and ships as a single binary with no extra dependencies.

Why use it?

Sometimes you just want to share a file or a folder right now. miniserve is a practical, quick alternative to setting up a full web server. Point it at a path and it starts serving immediately.

Key capabilities

• Serve directories or single files with correct MIME type handling out of the box.
• Authentication with plain, SHA-256, or SHA-512 passwords, or an auth file for multiple logins.
• File uploads and directory creation, including uploads from smartphones via media-type hints.
• Folder download compressed on the fly as .tar.gz or .zip.
• TLS support for encrypted connections, plus custom headers such as HSTS.
• SPA and pretty URL modes for single-page applications and clean routes.
• Search and filtering by file or directory name.
• QR code display for quick access from mobile devices.
• Themes with light and dark color schemes.
• WebDAV support, range requests, and a healthcheck route.
• README rendering similar to GitHub.

Typical usage

Serve a directory:

miniserve linux-distro-collection/

Serve a single file:

miniserve linux-distro.iso

Require a username and password:

miniserve --auth joe:123 unreleased-linux-distros/

Enable uploads and directory creation:

miniserve -u --mkdir .

Start with TLS:

miniserve --tls-cert my.cert --tls-key my.key /tmp/myshare

Who is it for?

Developers, sysadmins, and anyone who needs a fast, no-fuss way to share files over HTTP on a local network or the internet. It is open source and distributed as a single binary for easy drop-in use.