dirjet

A Rust static file server for directories and individual files.

Run it with npx or bunx. No configuration file or Rust toolchain required.

Documentation · Contributing

Why use dirjet?

• Runs a native binary, downloaded and cached for your OS and CPU.
• Serves index.html files, directory listings, or a single file with its relative assets.
• Supports file streaming, MIME types, HEAD requests, byte ranges, and conditional caching.
• Blocks dotfiles, parent directory traversal, and symlinks that resolve outside the document root.

Quick start

Requires Node.js 18+ or Bun.

# Serve a specific directory
npx dirjet ./my-website

# Serve a single HTML file
npx dirjet index.html

# Serve the current directory
npx dirjet

The server listens at http://127.0.0.1:3000 by default. Stop it with Ctrl+C.

With Bun, use bunx dirjet ./my-website. If Node.js is not installed, use bunx --bun dirjet ./my-website to run the launcher with Bun.

How it serves files

Directories

Directories serve index.html when present, otherwise they show a directory listing. Directory URLs redirect to a trailing slash so relative assets resolve correctly.

Single files

Passing a file, such as npx dirjet presentation.html, serves it at / and /presentation.html. Its parent directory becomes the document root so relative stylesheets, scripts, and images work, including assets in subdirectories.

Other non-hidden files in that parent directory are also accessible by URL. Directory listings are disabled in single-file mode.

dirjet serves static files. Build TypeScript, JSX, and other frontend source assets before serving them. It does not transpile code, provide live reload, or terminate TLS.

Options

dirjet [OPTIONS] [PATH]

| Option | Default | What it does | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | -p, --port <PORT> | 3000 | Change the server port. Use 0 to automatically pick an available port. | | -l, --listen <PORT> | 3000 | Alias for --port. | | --host <IP> | 127.0.0.1 | Bind to a specific IP address. Use 0.0.0.0 to make the server accessible to other devices on your local network. | | -s, --single | Off | Single-page app mode. Serve the entry file for missing extensionless routes. | | --no-listing | Off | Returns a 404 Not Found for directories that don't have an index.html file, instead of showing a directory list. | | -h, --help | | Show the help menu. | | -V, --version | | Show the current version. |

Serve a single-page app

npx dirjet -s ./dist -p 8080

Missing routes such as /users/42 return index.html so your frontend router can handle them. Missing assets such as /missing.js still return 404. When serving a single file, --single uses that file as the fallback.

Binary downloads and caching

On first run, the JavaScript launcher downloads the native binary for your OS and CPU from the matching GitHub release. It verifies the binary's SHA-256 checksum before running it and saves it in your OS cache directory. The first run needs access to GitHub Releases.

Later runs verify and reuse the cached binary. Each version has a separate cache entry. Interrupted or invalid downloads are discarded. No postinstall scripts run.

Prebuilt binaries support Linux, macOS, and Windows on x64 and ARM64.

Set DIRJET_CACHE_DIR to use a custom, writable cache directory.