Anonymous Publishing

How It Works

You can publish to SimpleHost without an API key. Anonymous sites:

Are live immediately at slug.simplehost.dev
Expire in 24 hours automatically
Come with a claim token to make them permanent later
Are rate limited to 5 requests per hour per IP

Publish Anonymously

With the script

Just don’t set SIMPLEHOST_API_KEY:

./publish.sh ./my-site

With the API

Omit the Authorization header:

curl -X POST https://simplehost.dev/api/v1/publish \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "files": [
      {"path": "index.html", "size": 512, "contentType": "text/html"}
    ]
  }'

Response

The response includes extra fields for anonymous publishes:

{
  "slug": "bright-canvas-a7k2",
  "siteUrl": "https://bright-canvas-a7k2.simplehost.dev/",
  "claimToken": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "claimUrl": "https://simplehost.dev/claim?slug=bright-canvas-a7k2&token=550e8400...",
  "expiresAt": "2026-03-21T20:00:00.000Z",
  "anonymous": true,
  "warning": "IMPORTANT: Save the claimToken and claimUrl. Returned only once.",
  "upload": { ... }
}

Save the claimToken immediately. It is returned only once and cannot be retrieved later. You need it to claim the site.

Claim a Site

To make an anonymous site permanent, claim it with your API key and the claim token:

curl -X POST https://simplehost.dev/api/v1/publish/bright-canvas-a7k2/claim \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sh_live_your_key_here" \
  -d '{"claimToken": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"}'

After claiming:

The site no longer expires
It appears in your dashboard
You can update, delete, and manage it normally

Use Cases

Quick demos — Share a prototype without signing up
CI previews — Generate deploy previews in PRs
One-off sharing — Share a file for a day, it cleans up automatically
Try before committing — Test SimpleHost before creating an account

​How It Works

​Publish Anonymously

​With the script

​With the API

​Response

​Claim a Site

​Use Cases

How It Works

Publish Anonymously

With the script

With the API

Response

Claim a Site

Use Cases