Features

A detailed guide to everything hostly can do.

Custom Local Domains

Create any dotted domain and point it to a local port:

Domains must match a dotted-name pattern like myapp.local. Ports must be integers between 1 and 65535. The target is always 127.0.0.1 — hostly maps the host name to loopback and lets Caddy route the port.

Managed Hosts File

hostly adds your domains to the system hosts file (/etc/hosts) inside a fenced block:

# Hostly Start
127.0.0.1	app.local
127.0.0.1	api.local
# Hostly End

• Entries outside the managed block are never touched
• hostly writes the file directly when it can, and falls back to sudo cp only when permission is denied
• The block is rewritten from your registry on every change, so it always reflects your current domains

Trusted HTTPS

hostly relies on Caddy's internal Certificate Authority. When you create an https (or both) domain, Caddy issues a certificate signed by its local CA.

From the Certificate screen you can:

• Trust local CA — runs caddy trust to install the root certificate into your OS trust store
• Untrust local CA — runs caddy untrust to remove it

Once trusted:

• Chrome, Safari, and Edge show a valid certificate
• No "Your connection is not private" warnings
• Works for OAuth callbacks, Secure/SameSite cookies, and service workers that require HTTPS

Trust state isn't auto-detected, so re-running either action is always safe.

Reverse Proxy

Each domain is routed by Caddy (opens in a new tab). hostly talks to Caddy's admin API at http://localhost:2019 and builds the routing config for you:

• When you visit app.local, Caddy forwards the request to 127.0.0.1:3000
• HTTPS terminates at Caddy — your dev server stays plain HTTP
• Multiple domains run simultaneously, each pointing at a different port

From the Proxy & Caddy screen you can see whether the admin API is reachable, list the active routes, and re-sync routes from your registry.

Scheme Options

Each domain has a scheme, chosen when you add or edit it:

Drift Detection

The Domains list marks each domain with a glyph so you can tell whether reality matches your registry:

• ✓ synced — the domain is present in both /etc/hosts and Caddy's live routes
• ⚠ drift — it's missing from one of them (for example, after Caddy restarted without a sync)

Press r on the Domains screen to refresh the status.

Boot Daemon

Caddy's admin-API config is not persisted across restarts, so a reboot or a caddy stop/start wipes your routes. The boot daemon fixes this by running hostly sync automatically.

From the Daemon screen:

• Install boot daemon — registers a service that runs hostly sync at boot
• Remove boot daemon — unregisters and deletes it

Under the hood:

The daemon only restores Caddy routes — it never touches /etc/hosts, which already persists across reboots.

The sync Command

hostly sync is the non-interactive counterpart used by the daemon. It waits for the Caddy admin API to become reachable, re-applies your saved domains, and exits. You can run it manually any time Caddy has lost its routes:

hostly sync

See Commands for details.

Domain Registry

Your domains are stored as plain JSON in your OS config directory (resolved via env-paths (opens in a new tab)), for example ~/.config/hostly/domains.json on Linux. This file is the single source of truth — /etc/hosts and Caddy are both reconciled from it.