Command-line file transfer

A Magic Wormhole alternative that goes through your own bucket

Both hand you a short code in a terminal, both are open source, and both exist for a person carrying something from one machine to another without an account.

How s3nd works Magic Wormhole

What Magic Wormhole is

In its own terms.

A command-line tool that sends files and directories from one computer to another with a short, human-readable code such as 7-crossover-clockwork. The two sides run a PAKE, so the code both finds the peer and keys the encryption; the bytes travel directly between the machines, or through a transit relay when they cannot reach each other.

Side by side

Where they part ways.

	s3nd	Magic Wormhole
What it is	A CLI, a library and React hooks over your own S3 bucket	CLI file transfer with a spoken code
Where the data lives	Your bucket: S3, R2, MinIO, Scaleway, Wasabi	In transit only: peer to peer, or through a transit relay
Both ends online at once	No. The code is redeemed later, until it expires	Yes
From inside your web app	Yes, through one route on your server	No, terminal first
Accounts	None. The code is the whole handshake	None
Hosting	Your bucket, plus your server when a browser takes part	Public rendezvous and relay servers by default; self-hostable
Price	Free. You pay your storage provider for a few objects that expire	Free
License	MIT	MIT

The differences

What actually changes.

Asynchronous, not live

Wormhole needs both ends running at the same time: the sender waits until the receiver enters the code. s3nd writes to the bucket and exits. The code is redeemed whenever the other machine gets to it, until the transfer expires.

Your bucket, not a relay

Wormhole goes through a rendezvous server and, when direct connection fails, a transit relay; public ones by default, yours if you run them. s3nd stores the object in a bucket you already own, and there is no relay to run or trust.

Where the encryption comes from

Wormhole is end-to-end encrypted by construction. s3nd is encrypted in transit and at rest by your provider; end to end is yours to add by encrypting before sending, and the code is a bearer token that a short expiry and a rate limit protect.

Also a library

Wormhole is a tool for people at keyboards. s3nd ships the same primitive as a library and React hooks, so a web app can move its own IndexedDB state with the same code.

The decision