Commands

hostly has two entry points: the interactive app and the sync subcommand.

`hostly`

hostly

Launches the interactive local domain manager. On start, hostly runs sudo -v to cache your credentials (needed to write /etc/hosts), then renders the main menu:

Screen	What it does
Domains	List, add, edit, and delete domains. Shows sync status per domain.
Proxy & Caddy	Check the Caddy admin API, list live routes, and re-sync routes from your registry.
Certificate	Trust or untrust Caddy's local CA in your system trust store.
Daemon	Install or remove the boot daemon that runs `hostly sync` at startup.
Quit	Exit the app (same as `Ctrl+C`).

Keyboard

Key	Action
`↑` / `↓`	Move the selection
`Enter`	Select
`r`	Refresh (on the Domains screen)
`Esc`	Go back to the previous screen
`Ctrl+C`	Quit

`hostly sync`

hostly sync

Re-applies your saved domains to Caddy, then exits. It does not open the interactive UI and does not touch /etc/hosts.

This exists because Caddy's admin-API configuration is not persisted across restarts. After Caddy restarts, its routes are gone until something re-applies them. hostly sync:

Waits for the Caddy admin API (http://localhost:2019) to become reachable
Loads your domain registry
Pushes the routing and TLS config to Caddy

The boot daemon (installed from the Daemon screen) runs this command for you at startup. You can also run it by hand whenever Caddy has lost its routes.

Exit codes: 0 on success, 1 if Caddy never became reachable or the config could not be applied. The error is printed to stderr.

Requirements

Both commands require Caddy (opens in a new tab) installed and on your PATH. hostly additionally requires a TTY (it's an interactive terminal app), while hostly sync is safe to run headless from a service.

Features Troubleshooting