Using Hoard on Other Devices

Hoard only serves the computer it runs on, unless you ask it to share. Shared, your phone, tablet or another computer can browse your library and downloads. Signing in, refreshing, downloading, signing out, changing tags or settings and opening folders still only work on the computer running Hoard.

What it needs

Your library and Hoard's access key would cross your network, so sharing needs one of:

• HTTPS, with a certificate for the computer running Hoard. The free tool mkcert makes one your devices will trust.
• An encrypted network your devices already use to reach that computer, such as Tailscale or WireGuard.

Starting Hoard for other devices

With HTTPS:

hoard-cli --host 0.0.0.0 --tls-cert cert.pem --tls-key key.pem

Over Tailscale or another encrypted network:

hoard-cli --host 0.0.0.0 --plain-http

(From source, Hoard.bat or ./run.sh in place of hoard-cli; see Command line.) Add --port 8765 (or any free port) to keep the same port every time, and --no-open to not open a page on this computer too. Windows may ask whether to let Hoard through the firewall: allow it on private networks.

Hoard then prints two addresses:

• Other devices on your network: https://<this computer's address>:<port>/#key=... (http:// with --plain-http). Put the computer's name or network address in place of <this computer's address>, and open that on the other device.
• Open Hoard at the same address on 127.0.0.1, for this computer.

The access key

Every request for your library, downloads, pictures or an action needs the key in that address, even from the computer running Hoard. It's new every time Hoard starts, so after a restart, open the new address. A device keeps the key for that address until then, so bookmarking the page without the key works for the rest of that run.

The key stops anyone who doesn't have it, but it isn't encryption: that's why HTTPS or an encrypted network is required. Share the address only with devices you trust.

Making a certificate with mkcert

1. Install mkcert on the computer running Hoard, and run mkcert -install.
2. Make a certificate for the names your devices will use, for example: mkcert my-pc my-pc.local 192.168.1.20. It writes a certificate and a key file.
3. Start Hoard with --tls-cert and --tls-key pointing at those two files.
4. On each other device, install and trust mkcert's root certificate (mkcert -CAROOT shows where it is), so it trusts the certificate.

The command-line reference covers these options too: docs/COMMAND-LINE.md.