Why I built tmpdrop: a self-hosted, expiring file drop

May 29, 2026 · 12:36 AM UTC ·5 min read · 0 reactions · 0 comments · 21 views

TL;DR · WeSearch summary

The article discusses the creation of tmpdrop, a self-hosted file drop service designed to address privacy concerns with public file hosts. It highlights the issues of file retention, predictable URLs, and security vulnerabilities that can arise from using such services. The author explains how tmpdrop mitigates these risks by implementing features like unguessable URLs, a time-to-live for uploads, and enhanced security measures.

Key facts

▪Tmpdrop is a self-hosted file drop service built to ensure privacy and security for temporary file sharing.
▪The service features unguessable URLs, a TTL for uploads, and a content security policy to prevent XSS attacks.
▪It was also adapted for use as a clipboard for an AI coding agent, allowing for seamless file transfers without third-party involvement.

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DEV.to (Top) files mainly under programming. We currently carry 4,924 of its stories.

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Record

Original publisher	DEV.to (Top)
Canonical URL	https://dev.to/kin_panho_319240e9b3688c/why-i-built-tmpdrop-a-self-hosted-expiring-file-drop-2fc6
Publication time	Fri, 29 May 2026 00:36:28 +0000
Retrieval time	2026-05-29T00:59:38.922Z
Last seen	2026-05-29T00:59:38.922Z
Headline source	Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite)
Excerpt source	publisher body
Excerpt method	First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited.
Summary	WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer)
Summary source text	contentText
Citation coverage	Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL.
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Publisher visit	Yes — open original
Substitutes article?	No — link-out required for full text

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Unknown

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WeSearch handling by dimension

Indexing	May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)?	Allowed
Snippet	May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown?	Allowed
AI summary	May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article?	Limited
Retrieval / RAG	May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation?	Not asserted
Model training	May the content be used to train AI models?	Not asserted
Commercial reuse	May the content be reused commercially?	Not permitted

Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.

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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand

try { if(localStorage) { let currentUser = localStorage.getItem('current_user'); if (currentUser) { currentUser = JSON.parse(currentUser); if (currentUser.id === 3950932) { document.getElementById('article-show-container').classList.add('current-user-is-article-author'); } } } } catch (e) { console.error(e); } Kin Pan Ho Posted on May 29 Why I built tmpdrop: a self-hosted, expiring file drop #node #opensource #ai #security I had a screenshot to send. Nothing secret — a stack trace from a side project — but it had an internal hostname, a file path with my username, and a chunk of a config file in the terminal behind it. The fast move is to drag it onto a free image host and paste the link. I sat there with my cursor over the upload button and couldn't do it.

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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at DEV.to (Top).

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