LElenova·Oct 20, 2024
https://github.com/localsend/protocol
Defaults:
- Multicast UDP for discovery
- HTTP for file transfer
Will work in an office, but not for a email transfer to a customer
In Send: Open-source fork of Firefox Sendlocalsend
protocol
Mermaid2023–2024
localsend / protocol
protocol
The LocalSend REST API
5Distinct people
5Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
596GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
The LocalSend REST API
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 12:54:37 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by month5 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2023-10-19 09:56:18 UTC to 2024-10-20 16:01:45 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2023 | 2023-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Nov 2023 | 2023-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2023 | 2023-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2024 | 2024-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2024 | 2024-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Apr 2024 | 2024-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2024 | 2024-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2024 | 2024-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2024 | 2024-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2024 | 2024-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | 2024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2024 | 2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
5 sourcesLocalsend supports this
https://github.com/localsend/protocol?tab=readme-ov-file#51-...
Or do you mean uploading with an http frontend?
In LocalSend: Open-source, cross-platform file sharing to nearby devicesNot the fort-knox implementation it claims on the tin.
'LocalSend uses a secure communication protocol that allows devices to communicate with each other using a REST API. All data is sent securely over HTTPS, and the TLS/SSL certificate is generated on the fly on each device, ensuring maximum security.'
How do they achieve maximum security while generating X.509 certs on device?
Let's look; 'https://github.com/localsend/protocol#2-fingerprint'
'When encryption is on (HTTPS), then the fingerprint is the SHA-256 hash of the certificate'
Confusingly there is a HTTP non encrypted mode, and the docs claim the fingerprint only used to avoid discovery collisions.
Out-of-band [visual comparison / QR code scanning step] sharing of fingerprints COULD be acceptable to prevent 'man in the middle' attacks, however the documentation doesn't seem to in
Read the rest
dicate that this detail is surfaced or shared with the user.
The discovery protocols look 'hella sus', but most local media sharing and discovery is.
The discovery looks like it might be another way to track devices (besides all the usual ways). One of the fingerprints is the `fingerprint` attribute. The protocol spec is unclear whether and when that can be recycled:
https://github.com/localsend/protocol#2-fingerprint-%E6%8C%8...
> The fingerprint is used to avoid self-discovery and to remember devices.
https://github.com/localsend/protocol#31-multicast-udp-defau...
> The fingerprint is only used to avoid self-discovering.
In Localsend: Open-Source Airdrop AlternativeNot really, it's fully supported: https://github.com/localsend/protocol#5-reverse-file-transfe...
In Localsend: Open-Source Airdrop Alternative