dropserve

A zero-config, single-binary static file server for local development.
Drop it in a folder, run it, done.

  dropserve

  URL   → http://localhost:8000
  Port  → 8000
  Root  → /home/you/project/dist

  Press Ctrl+C to stop.

---

Install

Pre-built binary

Download the binary for your platform from the releases page, make it executable, and place it on your PATH.

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/kurtmitchell/dropserve/releases/latest/download/dropserve-darwin-arm64 \
  -o /usr/local/bin/dropserve && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/dropserve

# Linux (amd64)
curl -L https://github.com/kurtmitchell/dropserve/releases/latest/download/dropserve-linux-amd64 \
  -o /usr/local/bin/dropserve && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/dropserve

Build from source

Requires Go 1.21+.

git clone https://github.com/kurtmitchell/dropserve
cd dropserve
make build          # produces ./dropserve
# or
go install github.com/kurtmitchell/dropserve/cmd/dropserve@latest

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Usage

dropserve [flags]

Flags:
  -p, -port   int     Port to serve on (default: 8000)
  -d, -dir    string  Directory to serve (default: current directory)
  -o, -open           Open the default browser on start
  -v, -version        Print version and exit
  -h, -help           Print usage and exit

Examples

# Serve the current directory on :8000
dropserve

# Serve a specific directory
dropserve -d ./dist

# Choose a different port
dropserve -p 3000

# Serve ./docs on :9000 and open in browser
dropserve -d ./docs -p 9000 -o

# Serve a Swagger UI build
cd swagger-ui/dist && dropserve

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Config file

Create dropserve.toml in the directory where you run dropserve.
All keys are optional. CLI flags override config file values.

# dropserve.toml
port         = 3000
root         = "./dist"
open_browser = true

Key	Type	Default	Description
port	int	8000	TCP port to listen on
root	string	current directory	Directory to serve
open_browser	bool	false	Open browser on start

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Features

• Zero config — dropserve just works
• Directory listing — clean HTML listing when no index.html is present
• index.html auto-serve — any directory with an index.html serves it directly
• Correct MIME types — covers HTML, CSS, JS, JSON, SVG, PNG/JPG/WEBP, WOFF/WOFF2, fonts, video, and more — consistent across all platforms
• Graceful shutdown — Ctrl+C drains in-flight requests cleanly
• Helpful errors — port conflicts, missing directories, and bad configs produce readable messages, not Go stack traces

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Cross-compilation

Build all platforms at once (requires Docker/Go cross-compile support):

make dist
# or
./build.sh dist

Output in dist/:

File	Platform
dropserve-linux-amd64	Linux x86-64
dropserve-linux-arm64	Linux ARM64
dropserve-darwin-amd64	macOS Intel
dropserve-darwin-arm64	macOS Apple Silicon
dropserve-windows-amd64.exe	Windows x86-64

Manual cross-compile for a single target:

GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64 go build \
  -ldflags "-s -w -X 'main.version=0.1.0'" \
  -o dist/dropserve-windows-amd64.exe \
  ./cmd/dropserve

Common GOOS/GOARCH pairs:

GOOS	GOARCH	Target
linux	amd64	Linux 64-bit (most servers)
linux	arm64	Raspberry Pi 4, AWS Graviton
darwin	amd64	macOS Intel
darwin	arm64	macOS Apple Silicon (M1+)
windows	amd64	Windows 64-bit

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Development

# Run tests
make test

# Build for current platform
make build

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.
Author: Kurt Mitchell