miniserve
CLI tool to serve files and dirs over HTTP.
Activity has dropped noticeably. Check the repository before committing to it.
Commit activity more than 33% of tracked projects; popularity more than 75%. How this is calculated.
Commits, last 11 months
| Stars | 7.9k |
|---|---|
| Latest release | v0.35.0 · 8 Apr 2026 |
| Repo updated | 18 Sept 2026 |
| Licence | MIT |
| Built with | Rust |
Is miniserve actively maintained?
Over the last 11 months the project absorbed 114 commits, of which 6 arrived in the most recent quarter — roughly 2 commits a month.
Activity is cooling: commits are down 78% against the previous quarter. One slow quarter is normal; two in a row is a signal.
The most recent tagged release, v0.35.0, is about 6 months old.
miniserve ranks #10 of 17 in File Transfer - Web-based File Managers, placing it mid-table for maintenance activity.
What miniserve actually does
Miniserve is a command-line utility written in Rust that allows you to quickly expose files and directories over an HTTP network interface. It operates as a web-based file manager, enabling direct browsing and downloading of local content via a web browser. The tool is distributed under the MIT licence and maintains an active codebase.
Best fit: It suits systems administrators or developers who need to temporarily share local directories over a network without configuring a full web server like Nginx or Apache.
Worth knowing: Because it is a minimalist utility designed for quick file sharing, it lacks advanced access control lists, user management, and auditing capabilities found in dedicated enterprise file transfer platforms.
Deployment notes
As a lightweight Rust binary, it typically runs as a standalone process without requiring an external database, though you will usually want to place it behind a reverse proxy to handle TLS termination.
Links
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