hotpush

Zero-dependency file watcher that auto-uploads changes to remote servers via SCP.

Watch local directories for file changes and automatically push them to one or more remote servers. No npm dependencies — just Node.js built-ins and standard SSH tools.

Install

npm install -g hotpush

Requires Node.js 18+ and scp/ssh in your PATH. For --sync, rsync is also required.

Linux users: Recursive file watching requires Node.js 19.8+.

Quick Start

# Create a config file
hotpush init

# Edit ~/.hotpush.json with your server details
# Then start watching
hotpush --profile myserver

Config

Config lives at ~/.hotpush.json. Top-level fields are shared defaults; profiles inherit them and can override.

{
  "username": "john",
  "agent": "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK",
  "ignore": [
    "node_modules",
    ".git",
    ".svn",
    ".DS_Store",
    ".vscode"
  ],
  "profiles": {
    "dev": {
      "host": "dev.example.com",
      "remotePath": "/var/www/project"
    },
    "sandbox": {
      "host": "sandbox.example.com",
      "remotePath": "/var/www/project",
      "username": "deploy"
    },
    "redirects": {
      "host": "redirects.example.com",
      "pathMap": {
        "School_Setup/SchoolWebsite": "/mnt/sftp/redirects/focus/School_Setup/SchoolWebsite",
        "classes/SchoolWebsite": "/mnt/sftp/redirects/focus/classes/SchoolWebsite",
        "assets/school-website": "/mnt/sftp/redirects/focus/assets/school-website",
        "AI": "/mnt/sftp/redirects/focus/AI"
      }
    }
  }
}

Top-level fields (shared defaults)

Field	Default	Description
username	OS username	SSH username for all profiles
agent	—	SSH agent socket (e.g. $SSH_AUTH_SOCK)
privateKey	~/.ssh/id_rsa	Path to SSH private key

Note: Use agent OR privateKey for authentication, not both. If you have an SSH agent running, use agent. Otherwise, point privateKey to your key file. | port | 22 | SSH port | | ignore | ["node_modules", ".git", ".svn", ".DS_Store"] | Paths/segments to ignore |

Profile fields

Field	Required	Description
host	Yes	Server hostname or IP
remotePath	No*	Remote base directory, or an array of directories
pathMap	No*	Object mapping local subpaths to remote base directories
username	No	Override top-level username
privateKey	No	Override top-level key
agent	No	Override top-level agent
port	No	Override top-level port

* Each profile must define exactly one of remotePath or pathMap.

Multiple remote directories

remotePath accepts either:

• A string for the existing single-destination behavior
• An array of strings to map watched directories to remote directories by order

When you use a remotePath array, the number of remote paths must match the number of directories passed to --watch. Files from the first watched directory go to the first remote path, files from the second watched directory go to the second remote path, and so on.

Example:

{
  "profiles": {
    "dev": {
      "host": "dev.example.com",
      "remotePath": [
        "/var/www/project/src",
        "/var/www/project/modules"
      ]
    }
  }
}

hotpush --profile dev --watch src/ modules/

Path Map Routing

Use pathMap when you want to watch one project root and route different subtrees to different remote destinations.

Example:

{
  "profiles": {
    "redirects": {
      "host": "redirects.example.com",
      "pathMap": {
        "School_Setup/SchoolWebsite": "/mnt/sftp/redirects/focus/School_Setup/SchoolWebsite",
        "classes/SchoolWebsite": "/mnt/sftp/redirects/focus/classes/SchoolWebsite",
        "assets/school-website": "/mnt/sftp/redirects/focus/assets/school-website",
        "AI": "/mnt/sftp/redirects/focus/AI"
      }
    }
  }
}

hotpush --profile redirects

With pathMap, hotpush watches the current directory once, then picks the matching remote destination based on the changed file's local path prefix.

Ignore patterns

Ignore patterns support two styles:

• Segment match — node_modules matches any path containing a node_modules segment
• Path prefix — tools/node_modules matches only that specific nested path

Usage

# Watch current directory, upload to one profile
hotpush --profile dev

# Upload to multiple servers simultaneously
hotpush --profile dev --profile sandbox

# Watch specific directories only
hotpush --profile dev --watch src/ modules/

# Full rsync sync first, then watch for changes
hotpush --profile dev --sync

# Create starter config file
hotpush init

# Show help
hotpush --help

How it works

1. Watches specified directories (or CWD) using Node.js fs.watch with recursive mode
2. When a file changes, debounces for 300ms to coalesce rapid saves
3. Verifies the file still exists (skips deletions — upload only)
4. Uploads via scp to each active profile's remote server
5. Mirrors the local relative path structure on the remote (e.g. src/foo.js → remotePath/src/foo.js)
6. Creates remote directories as needed via ssh mkdir -p

Each profile has its own serial upload queue with deduplication, so uploads to different servers happen in parallel while individual servers are never overwhelmed.

If a profile uses an array for remotePath, each watched directory is paired with the remote path at the same index instead of broadcasting every file to every destination.

If a profile uses pathMap, files are routed by the longest matching local path prefix, so a change under classes/SchoolWebsite/... only uploads to that mapped remote base.

Publishing to npm

# Login to npm (one-time)
npm login

# Publish
npm publish

# After publishing, anyone can install with:
npm install -g hotpush

License

MIT