serve-git

Temporarily share a local Git repository with a peer over the internet.

serve-git starts a read-only Git smart HTTP server for a local worktree or bare repository, opens an ngrok HTTPS tunnel to it, and prints ready-to-run git clone and git remote add commands. stop-serve-git tears everything down.

There is no authentication: anyone who has the URL can clone or fetch while the tunnel is running.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• git with git-http-backend
• ngrok on PATH, already authenticated (ngrok config check)

Install

With pipx (recommended)

pipx install serve-git

Or install directly from GitHub:

pipx install git+https://github.com/pablogventura/serve-git.git

This installs the serve-git and stop-serve-git commands globally in an isolated environment.

Upgrade later with:

pipx upgrade serve-git

Editable install (development)

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Without packaging

Add the bin/ directory to your PATH:

export PATH="/path/to/serve-git/bin:$PATH"

Usage

On your machine:

serve-git /path/to/local/repo

Example output:

Share these commands with your peer:

# Clone into a new directory
git -c http.extraHeader="ngrok-skip-browser-warning:true" clone https://xxxx.ngrok-free.app/my-repo.git

# Or add as a remote on an existing clone
git remote add serve-git https://xxxx.ngrok-free.app/my-repo.git
git -c http.extraHeader="ngrok-skip-browser-warning:true" fetch serve-git

When finished on your machine, run: stop-serve-git

The http.extraHeader value skips ngrok's free-tier browser warning page so Git HTTP clients can talk to the tunnel.

When you are done:

stop-serve-git

Only one serve session is supported at a time. Push is disabled (read-only).

Tests

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

Tests exercise repository resolution, session state, command formatting, ngrok API parsing (mocked), and a real git clone against the local smart HTTP server. They do not open a live ngrok tunnel.

Manual ngrok check

serve-git /path/to/repo
# on another machine or after copying the printed URL:
# git -c http.extraHeader="ngrok-skip-browser-warning:true" clone <url>
stop-serve-git

License

MIT