instbyte 1.10.0 → 1.11.0

package/README.md

@@ -21,11 +21,13 @@
 npx instbyte
 ```
 
-**Instbyte** is a high-speed, real-time, short-lived LAN sharing utility built for teams and developers who need to move snippets, links, files, and structured notes across devices instantly — without cloud accounts, logins, or external services.
+You're three feet from your teammate. *A quick share* still leaves your building before it reaches them.
 
-It operates entirely on your local network, acting as a lightweight "digital dead-drop" for frictionless collaboration.
+Your chat app is for conversation. Your cloud storage is for files. Your email is for async.
 
-Instbyte can also be fully white-labelled — the difference between ***a tool you use*** and ***a tool you own***.
+None of them are for *right now, on this network, gone tomorrow.*
+
+That's what **Instbyte** is for.
 
 ---
 
@@ -191,27 +193,11 @@ The difference between *a tool you use* and *a tool you own.*
 
 ## Broadcasting
 
-One person shares their screen — everyone else on the network watches live in their browser. No plugins, no accounts, no external services. Built on WebRTC for smooth, low-latency video.
-
-### How to broadcast
-
-Click **📡 Broadcast** in the composer. Your browser will ask you to choose a screen, window, or tab to share. Once you pick one, a live bar appears at the top for all connected devices — teammates click **Join** to watch.
-
-While broadcasting you can still use Instbyte normally — send text, drop files, switch channels. The broadcast runs in the background.
-
-To stop, click **⏹ Stop** in the composer or use the browser's built-in "Stop sharing" bar.
-
-### As a viewer
-
-When a broadcast is live, a bar appears at the top of the page. Click **Join** to open the viewer panel. The panel is draggable and resizable — move it anywhere on your screen.
+One person shares their screen — everyone else on the network watches live in their browser. No plugins, no accounts, no external services. Built on WebRTC.
 
-- **📸 Capture** — saves the current frame as an image to the active channel
-- **✋ Raise hand** — notifies the broadcaster with a sound and toast
-- **🔇 / 🔊** — mute and unmute audio
-- **─** — minimize the panel without leaving the broadcast
-- **✕** — leave the broadcast entirely
+Viewers can save the current frame to a channel, raise a hand to notify the broadcaster, and toggle audio from the panel.
 
-For HTTPS setup, enabling broadcast for all devices, and advanced network configuration, see the [Deployment Guide](docs/deployment.md#broadcasting).
+For HTTPS setup and advanced network configuration, see the [Deployment Guide](docs/deployment.md#broadcasting).
 
 ---
 

package/bin/instbyte.js

@@ -11,17 +11,25 @@ const fs = require("fs");
 // When run via npx or global install, we want data to live
 // in the user's current working directory, not inside the
 // npm cache or global node_modules.
+//
+// When run via Docker, INSTBYTE_DATA and INSTBYTE_UPLOADS may
+// already be set via environment variables — respect those and
+// don't override them.
 
-const dataDir = path.join(process.cwd(), "instbyte-data");
-const uploadsDir = path.join(dataDir, "uploads");
+if (!process.env.INSTBYTE_DATA) {
+    process.env.INSTBYTE_DATA = path.join(process.cwd(), "instbyte-data");
+}
+
+if (!process.env.INSTBYTE_UPLOADS) {
+    process.env.INSTBYTE_UPLOADS = path.join(process.env.INSTBYTE_DATA, "uploads");
+}
+
+const dataDir = process.env.INSTBYTE_DATA;
+const uploadsDir = process.env.INSTBYTE_UPLOADS;
 
 if (!fs.existsSync(dataDir)) fs.mkdirSync(dataDir, { recursive: true });
 if (!fs.existsSync(uploadsDir)) fs.mkdirSync(uploadsDir, { recursive: true });
 
-// Pass locations to the rest of the app via env vars
-process.env.INSTBYTE_DATA = dataDir;
-process.env.INSTBYTE_UPLOADS = uploadsDir;
-
 // ========================
 // BOOT
 // ========================

package/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "instbyte",
-  "version": "1.10.0",
+  "version": "1.11.0",
   "description": "A self-hosted LAN sharing utility for fast, frictionless file, link, and snippet exchange across devices — no cloud required.",
   "main": "bin/instbyte.js",
   "bin": {
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
     "express-rate-limit": "^7.1.5",
     "helmet": "^8.1.0",
     "multer": "^2.0.2",
+    "multicast-dns": "^7.2.5",
     "sharp": "^0.33.2",
     "socket.io": "^4.6.1",
     "sqlite3": "^5.1.6"

package/server/config.js

@@ -43,12 +43,21 @@ function loadConfig() {
     let userConfig = {};
 
     if (fs.existsSync(configPath)) {
-        try {
-            const raw = fs.readFileSync(configPath, "utf-8");
-            userConfig = JSON.parse(raw);
-            console.log("Config loaded from instbyte.config.json");
-        } catch (e) {
-            console.warn("Warning: instbyte.config.json is invalid JSON, using defaults.");
+        if (fs.statSync(configPath).isDirectory()) {
+            console.error(
+                "Error: instbyte.config.json is a directory, not a file.\n" +
+                "This usually happens in Docker when the config file doesn't exist on the host before the container starts.\n" +
+                "Fix: stop the container, run `rm -rf instbyte.config.json && touch instbyte.config.json`, then start again.\n" +
+                "Using defaults for now."
+            );
+        } else {
+            try {
+                const raw = fs.readFileSync(configPath, "utf-8");
+                userConfig = JSON.parse(raw);
+                console.log("Config loaded from instbyte.config.json");
+            } catch (e) {
+                console.warn("Warning: instbyte.config.json is invalid JSON, using defaults.");
+            }
         }
     }
 

package/server/server.js

@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ const db = require("./db");
 
 const config = require("./config");
 
+let mdns = null;
+try { mdns = require('multicast-dns'); } catch (e) { }
+
 const UPLOADS_DIR = process.env.INSTBYTE_UPLOADS
   || path.join(__dirname, "../uploads");
 
@@ -63,8 +66,16 @@ app.use(helmet({
 
 app.use((req, res, next) => {
   if (req.path === '/upload') return next();
+
+  const ct = req.headers['content-type'] || '';
+
+  if (ct.startsWith('text/plain')) {
+    return express.text({ limit: '10mb' })(req, res, next);
+  }
+
   express.json()(req, res, next);
 });
+
 app.use(cookieParser());
 app.use(requireAuth);
 app.use("/uploads", (req, res, next) => {
@@ -225,19 +236,28 @@ const COOKIE_MAX_AGE = 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000; // 7 days
 const sessions = new Map();
 
 function requireAuth(req, res, next) {
-  if (!config.auth.passphrase) return next(); // no passphrase set, skip
+  if (!config.auth.passphrase) return next();
 
-  // Allow the login route itself through
   if (req.path === "/login" || req.path === "/info" || req.path === "/health") return next();
 
+  // Terminal / API clients — accept passphrase via header
+  const headerPass = req.headers["x-passphrase"];
+  if (headerPass && headerPass === config.auth.passphrase) return next();
 
-  // Check cookie holds a valid session token
+  // Browser clients — check session cookie
   const cookie = req.cookies[COOKIE_NAME];
   if (cookie && sessions.has(cookie)) return next();
 
-  // Not authenticated
   if (req.path.startsWith("/socket.io")) return next();
-  if (req.headers["content-type"] === "application/json" || req.xhr) {
+
+  // Return JSON 401 for any non-browser request
+  const ct = req.headers["content-type"] || "";
+  const isApiRequest = ct.startsWith("application/json") ||
+    ct.startsWith("text/plain") ||
+    req.xhr ||
+    req.headers["x-passphrase"] !== undefined;
+
+  if (isApiRequest) {
     return res.status(401).json({ error: "Unauthorized" });
   }
 
@@ -453,9 +473,27 @@ app.use((err, req, res, next) => {
   next(err);
 });
 
-/* TEXT/LINK */
-app.post("/text", dropLimiter, (req, res) => {
-  const { content, channel, uploader } = req.body;
+/* TEXT/LINK — accepts application/json and text/plain */
+function handleTextPost(req, res) {
+  let content, channel, uploader;
+
+  if (req.is("text/plain")) {
+    // Terminal path — body is raw string, metadata comes from headers
+    content = typeof req.body === "string" ? req.body : String(req.body);
+    channel = (req.headers["x-channel"] || "general").trim();
+    uploader = (req.headers["x-uploader"] || "terminal").trim();
+  } else {
+    // Browser / JSON path — existing behaviour unchanged
+    ({ content, channel, uploader } = req.body || {});
+  }
+
+  if (!content || !content.trim()) {
+    return res.status(400).json({ error: "Content is required" });
+  }
+
+  if (!channel) {
+    return res.status(400).json({ error: "Channel is required" });
+  }
 
   const item = {
     type: "text",
@@ -476,7 +514,11 @@ app.post("/text", dropLimiter, (req, res) => {
       res.json(item);
     }
   );
-});
+}
+
+app.post("/text", dropLimiter, handleTextPost);
+app.post("/push", dropLimiter, handleTextPost); // terminal-friendly alias
+
 
 /* DELETE ITEM */
 app.delete("/item/:id", (req, res) => {
@@ -1037,14 +1079,74 @@ function getLocalIP() {
   return preferred ? preferred.address : "localhost";
 }
 
-function findFreePort(start) {
+
+function getMdnsName() {
+  const appName = config.branding && config.branding.appName;
+  if (appName && appName.toLowerCase() !== 'instbyte') {
+    return appName.toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, '-') + '.local';
+  }
+  return 'instbyte.local';
+}
+
+function getHostnameFallback() {
+  return os.hostname().toLowerCase() + '.local';
+}
+
+function probeMdns(name) {
   return new Promise((resolve) => {
-    const srv = net.createServer();
-    srv.listen(start, () => {
-      const port = srv.address().port;
-      srv.close(() => resolve(port));
+    if (!mdns) return resolve(false);
+    const m = mdns();
+    const timer = setTimeout(() => {
+      m.destroy();
+      resolve(false); // no response = name is free
+    }, 2000);
+
+    m.on('response', (response) => {
+      const taken = response.answers.some(a =>
+        a.name === name && a.type === 'A'
+      );
+      if (taken) {
+        clearTimeout(timer);
+        m.destroy();
+        resolve(true); // name is taken
+      }
+    });
+
+    m.query({ questions: [{ name, type: 'A' }] });
+  });
+}
+
+function startMdnsAdvertise(name, ip) {
+  if (!mdns) return null;
+  try {
+    const m = mdns();
+    m.on('query', (query) => {
+      query.questions.forEach(q => {
+        if (q.name === name && q.type === 'A') {
+          m.respond({
+            answers: [{ name, type: 'A', ttl: 300, data: ip }]
+          });
+        }
+      });
+    });
+    return m;
+  } catch (e) {
+    return null;
+  }
+}
+
+
+function listenOnFreePort(server, preferredPort) {
+  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+    server.listen(preferredPort, () => resolve(server.address().port));
+    server.on('error', (err) => {
+      if (err.code === 'EADDRINUSE') {
+        server.removeAllListeners('error');
+        listenOnFreePort(server, preferredPort + 1).then(resolve).catch(reject);
+      } else {
+        reject(err);
+      }
     });
-    srv.on("error", () => resolve(findFreePort(start + 1)));
   });
 }
 
@@ -1053,19 +1155,50 @@ const PREFERRED = parseInt(process.env.PORT) || config.server.port;
 const localIP = getLocalIP();
 
 let PORT;
+let mdnsAdvertiser = null;
+
 if (process.env.INSTBYTE_BOOT === '1') {
-  findFreePort(PREFERRED).then(p => {
+  listenOnFreePort(server, PREFERRED).then(async p => {
     PORT = p;
-    server.listen(PORT, () => {
-      console.log("\nInstbyte running");
-      console.log("Local:   http://localhost:" + PORT);
-      console.log("Network: http://" + localIP + ":" + PORT);
-      if (PORT !== PREFERRED) {
-        console.log(`(port ${PREFERRED} was busy, switched to ${PORT})`);
+    console.log("\nInstbyte running");
+    console.log("Local:   http://localhost:" + PORT);
+    console.log("Network: http://" + localIP + ":" + PORT);
+    if (PORT !== PREFERRED) {
+      console.log(`(port ${PREFERRED} was busy, switched to ${PORT})`);
+    }
+
+    // mDNS
+    if (mdns) {
+      try {
+        const preferredName = getMdnsName();
+        const isTaken = await probeMdns(preferredName);
+
+        let mdnsName;
+        if (isTaken) {
+          mdnsName = getHostnameFallback();
+          if (os.platform() !== 'win32') {
+            console.log(`mDNS:    http://${preferredName} already in use on this network`);
+            console.log(`mDNS:    http://${mdnsName}`);
+          }
+        } else {
+          mdnsName = preferredName;
+          if (os.platform() !== 'win32') {
+            console.log(`mDNS:    http://${mdnsName}`);
+          }
+        }
+
+        mdnsAdvertiser = startMdnsAdvertise(mdnsName, localIP);
+
+      } catch (e) {
+        console.log("mDNS:    unavailable on this network — use IP or QR code to join");
       }
-      console.log("");
-      scanOrphans();
-    });
+    }
+
+    console.log("");
+    scanOrphans();
+  }).catch(err => {
+    console.error("Failed to start server:", err.message);
+    process.exit(1);
   });
 }
 
@@ -1078,6 +1211,11 @@ module.exports = { app, server, sessions };
 function shutdown(signal) {
   console.log(`\n${signal} received — shutting down gracefully...`);
 
+  // destroy mDNS advertiser if running
+  if (typeof mdnsAdvertiser !== 'undefined' && mdnsAdvertiser) {
+    try { mdnsAdvertiser.destroy(); } catch (e) { }
+  }
+
   // stop accepting new connections
   server.close(() => {
     console.log("HTTP server closed");