AirTransit CLI 🚀

AirTransit is a Python command-line tool for sharing files through the Catbox HTTPS service, with short download codes and terminal QR codes. It uses a hosted relay instead of a direct peer-to-peer connection.

Project maintainer: Kaan Demir (Oğuz Kaan Demir), software developer in Istanbul.

No Catbox account is required by the upload command. Files are uploaded to a third-party host, and the download URL is also sent to qrenco.de to generate the terminal QR code.

---

Features

• HTTPS Relay: Uploads and downloads through Catbox, avoiding the need for a direct P2P connection. Availability depends on the network and service.
• No Python Package Dependencies: Uses the Python 3 standard library. No pip install required; Catbox and qrenco.de are external services.
• Short Codes: Uses the filename returned by Catbox (e.g. f8agka.txt) so you don't have to type long URLs.
• Terminal QR Codes: Renders a scannable ASCII QR code directly on your terminal screen when sending a file, allowing you to download files on your phone instantly.
• HTTPS Uploads: The upload endpoint uses TLS. The tool does not encrypt file contents before uploading or add access control to the returned link.

---

How It Works (The Traversal)

Direct peer-to-peer transfers can fail behind restrictive NAT or firewall configurations. AirTransit instead uploads the file to Catbox and downloads it through the returned URL.

The CLI enforces a 200MB upload limit. It does not set a deletion time for hosted files. HTTPS access to the service can still be blocked by a network's rules.

---

Installation

macOS & Linux

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/kaahndemir/transfer.git ~/kaahn/dev/transfer
   cd ~/kaahn/dev/transfer

2. Run the installer script:

   ./install.sh

3. That's it! The transfer command is now available globally in your terminal.

---

Usage

1. Send a File (PC → Mobile / Another PC)

Upload any file (up to 200MB) from your terminal:

transfer send project.tar.gz

Output:

Uploading 'project.tar.gz' (4.20 MB) to Catbox...

✓ Upload Successful!
----------------------------------------
Short Code:   j85pg4.txt
Direct URL:   https://files.catbox.moe/j85pg4.txt
----------------------------------------
To download on another PC, run:
  transfer receive j85pg4.txt

Scan to Download:
█████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████████████████████████
████ ▄▄▄▄▄ █▀█ █▄ ▀ █ ▄▄ █ ▄▄▄▄▄ ████
...

• For Phones: Point your phone camera at the terminal screen to scan the QR code and download the file.
• For other PCs: Run transfer receive j85pg4.txt.

2. Receive a File (Mobile / Another PC → PC)

1. On your sending device, open your browser and go to catbox.moe.
2. Upload your file anonymously. It will generate a link (e.g., https://files.catbox.moe/x9ykd2.jpg).
3. On your target PC terminal, run:

   transfer receive x9ykd2.jpg

   (AirTransit will automatically resolve the short code and download the file directly into your current directory).

---

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Review and citation

See review notes and offline checks for a reproducible, network-free walkthrough and the data-path limitations. Use GitHub's Cite this repository menu, backed by CITATION.cff, and include the commit you reviewed when referencing the implementation.