SidecarX

X stands for Cross — cross-machine file operations.

A lightweight, high-performance Rust server for multi-machine file management. Connect to any number of remote machines from a single browser tab — copy, paste, move files across machines with drag-and-drop.

🌐 Website: sidecarx.dev  |  🚀 Live Demo: demo.sidecarx.dev

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Why SidecarX?

There are many file browsers on GitHub. Here's why SidecarX exists.

vs. File Browser — the most popular alternative

File Browser is a mature, widely-adopted project. SidecarX builds on that foundation but is purpose-built for the AI-agent era:

Capability	File Browser	SidecarX
Terminal	Shell execute only (no TTY)	Full WebSocket PTY terminal — interactive shell, resize-aware
Code Editor	Basic text editor	Advanced code editor with syntax highlighting (third-party)
Preview	Text + images	Lightbox viewer: Video, Image, Audio, PDF, Markdown, HTML
Markdown Preview	Not supported	Native Markdown rendering — critical for AI-generated content
HTML Preview	Not supported	Live HTML preview with security sandbox (CDN/external JS allowed; local JS blocked)
Multi-Machine	Single-instance only	Connect N machines from one browser tab with cross-machine clipboard

vs. Docker/Kubernetes monitoring platforms

SidecarX is not a DevOps dashboard. No CI/CD, no container orchestration, no metrics pipelines. It is a pure, focused multi-machine file browser — simple, direct file management and terminal access across all your machines. No complexity you didn't ask for.

vs. other multi-machine tools

The closest alternative in the multi-machine space is file-explorer, which uses a hub-and-spoke model: one central hub proxies all traffic to remote machines. SidecarX adopts a peer-to-peer model — every instance is an independent node with its own panel, its own server, and the ability to connect to others. No single point of failure, no hub to maintain. Each SidecarX instance is a self-contained, statically-linked Rust binary.

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Features

Unified Multi-Machine Operations

• Cross-Machine Clipboard: Copy files on machine A, paste to machine B. No SSH, SCP, or Rsync.
• Cross-Machine Drag-and-Drop: Drag files between machines in a single browser window.
• Unified Workspace: Editors and terminals for all connected machines inside one tab dock.
• Centralized Config: Define all target machines in admin_cfg.json, switch with one click.

Advanced Lightbox Previewer

• Universal Preview: Overlay-based viewer supporting Video, Image, Audio, PDF, Markdown, and HTML.
• Security-First Sandboxing: In-place HTML rendering with native element sandboxing. Token-in-URL isolation — fetch tokens are strictly separate from auth tokens.
• Maximized Cache Efficiency: Default 7-day browser cache TTL. Configurable down to 1 day, 4 hours, or 1 hour for high-security environments.

Core File & Terminal Capabilities

• File Management: Remote search (regex/glob), upload/download, batch ZIP, directory ops, video frame extraction (optional ffmpeg).
• Interactive Terminal: WebSocket PTY (xterm.js / portable-pty) with responsive resize.
• Jail Isolation: SIDECAR_ROOT_DIR sandboxes all file operations — path-traversal hardened.

UI Design Highlights

• Business Sleek: Professional, minimal, performance-engineered visual style.
• Human Taste: Hand-calibrated aesthetics — organic, not AI-generated.
• Pure Handcrafted CSS: 1,000+ lines of custom CSS. Zero UI frameworks, zero component libraries, zero CDN stylesheets. Every style is embedded and pixel-perfected by hand.

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Gallery

Dark theme:

Markdown preview overlay:

Media preview overlay:

Mobile responsive:

Mobile responsive (sidebar):

Terminal running Hermes Agent:

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Installation & Deployment

Choose the method that matches your architecture:

1. One-Line Script Install

For local machines or cloud VPS hosts. Downloads, configures, and installs SidecarX:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pgmi-builds/sidecarx/main/install.sh | bash

(On native VPS hosts, SidecarX registers as a standard systemd service.)

2. Docker Deployment

For Docker or container runtimes (e.g., Railway).

• Container Scripting: No SSH? Run the install script directly inside the container.
• SupervisorD: Production Dockerfile template uses supervisord as PID 1.
• Co-location: Bundle your Main App side-by-side with SidecarX in the same container.
• Config: See docker-deploy/ for the Dockerfile, supervisord.conf, and start.sh template.

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Configuration

Set via environment variables or .env:

Variable	Default	Description
SIDECAR_PORT	3000	Server port
SIDECAR_HOST	0.0.0.0	Bind address
SIDECAR_SECRET	—	JWT signing secret (required in production)
SIDECAR_PANEL_DIR	./admin	Admin panel static files directory
SIDECAR_ROOT_DIR	—	Jail directory for sandboxed file operations
SIDECAR_UPLOAD_LIMIT	1024	Upload size limit in MB
SIDECAR_ENV_FILE	.env	Path to env file

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API Reference

All API specifications live in the docs-and-specs/ directory. Refer there for endpoint details, request/response models, and route documentation.

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Releases

Current release: v0.1.0

Pre-built binaries on the GitHub Releases page:

Platform	Binary
Linux (x86_64)	sidecar-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
Linux (ARM64)	sidecar-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
macOS (Apple Silicon)	sidecar-aarch64-apple-darwin

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Open Source Components

Library	License	Role
Monaco Editor	MIT	Code editor
xterm.js	MIT	Terminal emulator
Lit	BSD-3-Clause	Web Components
marked	MIT	Markdown rendering
Material Symbols	Apache 2.0	Icons
Roboto	OFL	Font

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License

Apache 2.0 © 2026 SidecarX Contributors

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Links

• Website: sidecarx.dev
• Live Demo: demo.sidecarx.dev
• GitHub: github.com/pgmi-builds/sidecarx