Publishing Your Catalog

Publishing your catalog

Your catalog is a static website (mysite/ — index.html + assets/ + data/ + posters), so you can host it anywhere. Your source photos and config never need to leave your computer.

🌐 One-click Publish (Netlify)

In the admin console, click 🌐 Publish. The first time, paste a Netlify access token (netlify.com → User settings → Applications → New access token) — it's stored in your OS keychain. MediaHound deploys the site and hands you a shareable link.

• The site id is remembered (in data/.netlify-site.json), so the URL stays stable across publishes.
• Only the generated site is uploaded — RawImages/, .env, config.toml and dotfiles are excluded.
• Publish is localhost-only (it uses your token), so it's disabled in --phone/LAN mode.

Other static hosts

Deploy the site folder to any static host:

• Netlify / Vercel / Cloudflare Pages / GitHub Pages / S3 — drag the folder in, or point the host at it. A netlify.toml is scaffolded for you.
• The site works from file:// too (it embeds data/bundle.js), so you can just open index.html.

📱 Install it on your phone (PWA)

A published catalog is a Progressive Web App: open it in your phone's browser and choose Add to Home Screen — you get an app icon, a full-screen view, and offline access (the catalog is cached). It auto-updates whenever you republish. This is read-only browsing; editing still happens in the local app (mediahound app) and is then published.

⚠️ Never expose the admin server publicly

serve --admin / app / gui run a localhost-only write API for authoring. Public hosting should always serve the plain static files (Option B above) — never reverse-proxy the admin server to the internet. The portal's admin password is a convenience gate, not server-side auth. See SECURITY.md.