pylocalsend 0.2.0

A lightweight CLI tool for sharing files over a local network, inspired by LocalSend

PyLocalSend CLI

A lightweight Python command-line tool for sharing files over a local network, inspired by LocalSend.

Features

• Interactive Shell — Persistent (pylocalsend) prompt for managing transfers without restarting
• Auto Discovery — Automatically find other devices on the LAN via mDNS (Zeroconf)
• File Transfer — Push files to or pull files from remote devices
• Text Messaging — Send instant text messages to LAN devices
• Transfer Progress — Real-time progress bar with speed display for large file transfers
• Smart Networking — Automatically filters out VPN/Docker/TUN virtual interfaces and selects the real LAN IP; bypasses system proxy
• Cross-Platform — Works on macOS, Ubuntu, and other Linux distributions

Project Structure

pylocalsend/
  __init__.py          # Package version
  cli.py               # Main program
pyproject.toml         # Package metadata and build config
requirements.txt       # Dependencies (for development)
LICENSE                # MIT License
README.md              # This file

Installation

Requires Python 3.7+.

From PyPI

pip install pylocalsend

With all optional dependencies:

pip install pylocalsend[all]

From Source

git clone https://github.com/guolei/pylocalsend.git
cd pylocalsend
pip install .

Or install in development mode:

pip install -e .

Dependencies

Package	Required	Purpose
requests	Yes	HTTP client for file transfer and messaging
zeroconf	Optional	mDNS device discovery (scan command); without it, you can still use IP addresses directly
netifaces	Optional	Accurate network interface enumeration and virtual adapter filtering; falls back to socket-based detection if not installed

Optional dependency groups:

pip install pylocalsend[discovery]    # + zeroconf
pip install pylocalsend[network]      # + netifaces
pip install pylocalsend[all]          # + zeroconf + netifaces

Usage

Starting

After installation, run on two machines within the same local network:

pylocalsend

Or run directly without installation:

python3 -m pylocalsend.cli

Optional arguments:

pylocalsend --dir ./shared_files --port 53317

Argument	Default	Description
--dir	. (current directory)	Directory for sharing and receiving files
--port	53317	Port to listen on

Commands

Once inside the (pylocalsend) prompt:

Command	Description	Example
scan	Discover devices on the local network	scan
list	List shared files on a remote device	list 1 or list 192.168.1.10
pull	Download a file from a remote device	pull report.pdf 1
push	Push a file to a remote device	push ./photo.jpg 1
msg	Send a text message to a remote device	msg 1 Hello!
ls	List files in the local shared directory	ls
setdir	Change the local shared directory	setdir ~/Downloads
status	Show current IP, port, and shared directory	status
help	Show command help and examples	help push
exit	Exit the application (Ctrl+D also works)	exit

The target in commands can be a device ID from scan results (e.g. 1) or a direct IP address.

Example Session

$ pylocalsend --dir ./shared
[*] Initializing PyLocalSend with shared directory: /home/user/shared
Welcome to PyLocalSend. Type help or ? to list commands.

(pylocalsend) scan
[+] Discovered devices:
  [1] MacBook-Pro (192.168.1.10)
  [2] Ubuntu-PC (192.168.1.20)

(pylocalsend) push ./report.pdf 1
[*] Pushing report.pdf (15.2MB) to 192.168.1.10...
  ██████████████████████████████ 100.0%  15.2MB/15.2MB  48.5MB/s
[+] Success!

(pylocalsend) msg 2 File sent, please check
[+] Message sent!

(pylocalsend) list 1
[*] Files on 192.168.1.10:
  - notes.txt
  - photo.jpg

(pylocalsend) pull notes.txt 1
[*] Pulling notes.txt from 192.168.1.10...
  ██████████████████████████████ 100.0%  2.3KB/2.3KB  1.1MB/s
[+] Downloaded to current directory.

Network Requirements

• Both devices must be on the same local network
• Firewall must allow TCP port 53317 (UDP 53317 for mDNS discovery)
• AP isolation (client isolation) must be disabled on the router

License

MIT