Show HN: Sink – Sync any directory with any device on your local network
43 comments
·June 27, 2025dewey
What is the selling point over the very mature Syncthing? I’ve been using that for this use case for many years, with the additional benefit of also being able to sync it to my server, having a UI and being in all package managers already.
sirbread
being fr, i never even knew about syncthing until now. it's (clearly) a lot better, but again, the reason I made this is because of my school's software whitelist. they only allow certain apps to run on my laptop, one of them being python due to out compsci class. since then, I've been using it to get around whitelists and make my own stuff. this allows me to sync up me and my friend's stuff (like projects, etc.) while we're in school and not have to worry about the whitelist :)
ryanjshaw
That’s perfectly valid. Maybe add it to the top of your readme explaining what problem it solves (need to sync files between machines and all you can use is python).
globular-toast
My initial thought was, man, your school is lame. But maybe it's genius? Creativity thrives in a constrained environment.
donatj
Syncthing is the most confounding user-unfriendly software I have ever had the displeasure of using. It makes a process that should be pretty easy, pick some folders and share some keys remarkably painful and convoluted.
shakna
SyncThing's insistence that a web UI be how you do everything has caused me quite a few headaches. Especially when said UI regularly breaks accessibility tools.
(The team do tend to fix those accessibility problems pretty fast. But spending a couple days a month working around a tool is not my idea of fun.)
zimpenfish
> SyncThing's insistence that a web UI be how you do everything
It does have `syncthing cli ...` which -I think- lets you do everything but to call it obtuse would be an understatement.
fxtentacle
I especially like that Syncthing can do encrypted revision backups to untrusted servers. My workstation and laptop get synchronised. And in case I ever accidentally overwrite a file, there’s the past five revisions on an offsite server.
_pferreir_
This ^
I also recommend magic wormhole.
anerli
^ syncthing is nice
progx
NIH?
alt187
Be proud you did a thing. Not everything has to optimize profits, userbase, or some other metrics. You developed something for yourself, and saw it through until it worked, and no one can take that away from you.
It's also much more stimulating to build something than ask like a pedant "why this exists when Syncthing?", so, I guess the joke's on them.
poisonborz
This title on HN sounds like the "Until now, this was the only way to get juice from an orange"[1] scene from Simpsons.
maweki
I don't really understand what the difference is to syncthing (or value over syncthing, as it is very mature and also works across the Internet). You share folders and other devices are discovered locally and you decide which devices to trust and to share with.
Daril
I use Syncthing in combination with Cryptomator for sensible files, but there is also the Localsend app : https://localsend.org/
bilekas
The commit log reads exactly like my stream of consciousness with personal projects :
MrGilbert
Congrats! It's always neat to have something out there in the wild. :)
For quickly sending a file, url, text or whatever between two devices, I usually use a selfhosted version of https://tnxfr.com (https://github.com/mustakimali/just-an-email). Thanks to a web interface, it works on almost every device.
kinow
Most of whayt I emailed myself were links to have a look at later.
I stopped doing that after learning about the sync feature in Firefox, and the option to send tabs across devices.
saaspirant
I used to use Firefox tabs too but I look at links maybe once a week and keeping too many tabs is annoying for me. So I am back to emailing notes and thoughts
neepi
I solved this problem again recently as well. After evaluating various synchronisation methods I thought it would be a good idea to design a new methodology which doesn't reinvent the wheel. Completely out of the box thinking. It took a few days to come up with a solution which worked on paper and a couple of weeks to implement it. I call this onecomputer. What you do is uninstall all sync software from your devices and put everything other than the primary one in the cupboard. Job done. No problems with conflict resolution. No race conditions. No resource and locking issues. Fast, reliable and does not depend on any third party provider or network. It just works. No wheel reinventing - this is uninvention.
shaism
How do I get stuff from my “onesmartphone” to the “onecomputer”?
Or shall I also put the “onesmartphone” in the cupboard?
neepi
The phone here basically does IMAP (which is sync I suppose) and gets plugged into the computer and stuff copied around as required manually, which turns out to be rarely as it's not the primary device!
sirbread
i can't tell if this is satire or not </3
neepi
I haven't decided yet :)
More seriously, I am mostly working like this now. I've had at least some data loss or reliability from every single sync solution I've tried so am practicing avoidance where possible.
I really want something to work but I can't find anything that does and I've tried all major ecosystems and syncthing etc.
globalnode
its something, lets move along quietly and hope they dont notice...
also not sure why so many have a love affair with syncthing, id never heard of it but more diverse software in the world is a good thing imho. the more wheels reinvented the better, its fun!
saaspirant
From the headline, I thought it was a way to easily note your thoughts because I unless I e-mail myself my thoughts, I never look at them.
kunley
One word comes to mind: syncthing
bbno4
bro just reinvented syncthing
sirbread
lol sure i "reinvented it" but the reason I made it in the first place is because my school's whitelist. they whitelisted certain apps (like Python 3.11, for our Comp Sci class) and i've been using that since to get around the whitelist :p
jonwinstanley
Re-inventing a product is great for learning. Looks like a decent project and hopefully you had a good time solving the issues.
i made sink. it's a simple little tool that continuously syncs folders between 2 devices. no cloud, no email, flash drives, no bs.
it just uses your local wifi. run it on your machines, tell them to trust each other, and you're set. and if you manage to edit the same file at once, it handles the conflict and saves both copies.
for anyone who just wants to get files from point a to b without the headache. hope it makes your life a bit less annoying.
github: https://github.com/sirbread/sink binary: https://github.com/sirbread/sink/releases/tag/v0.1