CLI Companion

send, watch, and status — three commands that let you push files, pipe output,
sync your clipboard, and check server health from your terminal. No browser needed.

Install globally once and use from anywhere:

npm install -g instbyte

Or use without installing:
npx instbyte send ./build.zip

How it fits together

npx instbyte stays exactly as it always was — one command, server is running,
team opens the URL in their browser.

The CLI is the layer on top. On the machine running the server, commands
auto-discover the URL and just work. On teammate machines, set INSTBYTE_URL
once in your shell profile and every command works the same way.

Machine A — server:
npx instbyte

Machine A, another terminal:
instbyte send ./build.zip ← no flags needed

Machine B — teammate:
export INSTBYTE_URL=http://192.168.29.64:3000
instbyte send ./build.zip ← same experience

instbyte send

Send a file

instbyte send ./build.zip --channel assets
instbyte send ./error.log --channel projects

Send text or a link

instbyte send "http://staging.myapp.com"

Pipe anything in

git log --oneline -20 | instbyte send
npm run build 2>&1 | instbyte send --channel projects
docker logs my-container | instbyte send

instbyte watch

Watches a channel. New text is silently copied to your clipboard. File items print
the download URL. Reconnects automatically if the server restarts.

instbyte watch # general channel, clipboard mode
instbyte watch --channel projects # specific channel
instbyte watch --output # stdout instead of clipboard
instbyte watch --output | grep error # pipeable

instbyte status

instbyte status

✓ Instbyte v1.12.0 running at http://192.168.29.64:3000
Uptime: 2h 14m
Connected: 3 users
Channels: general, projects, assets, temp

Auto-discovery

The server writes instbyte-data/.runtime.json on startup. The CLI finds it by
walking up from your current directory — the same way git finds .git. On the
happy path you never type a URL.

Priority order for every command:

1. --server / --passphrase flags
2. INSTBYTE_URL / INSTBYTE_PASS environment variables
3. instbyte-data/.runtime.json found by walking up from cwd
4. http://localhost:3000 fallback

CI/CD

Set INSTBYTE_URL and INSTBYTE_PASS once as secrets — then every script just works:

# GitHub Actions
- name: Share build artifact
  run: npx instbyte send ./dist/app.zip --channel assets
  env:
    INSTBYTE_URL: ${{ secrets.INSTBYTE_URL }}
    INSTBYTE_PASS: ${{ secrets.INSTBYTE_PASS }}

// package.json scripts
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "webpack && instbyte send ./dist/build.zip --channel assets",
    "test": "vitest run 2>&1 | instbyte send --channel projects"
  }
}

```bash
---
All flags

┌─────────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐
│        Flag         │  Commands   │     Default     │             Description              │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --server <url>      │ all         │ auto-discovered │ Server URL                           │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --channel <name>    │ send, watch │ general         │ Target channel                       │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --passphrase <pass> │ all         │ auto-discovered │ Passphrase if auth is enabled        │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --uploader <name>   │ send        │ OS username     │ Display name for sent items          │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --output            │ watch       │ —               │ Print to stdout instead of clipboard │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ --quiet             │ send        │ —               │ Suppress confirmation output         │
└─────────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘

---
Also in this release

- /health endpoint now includes live connected user count
- 214 tests (up from 195)