Local Test

It’s the address your computer uses to talk to itself. http://localhost:8000 means “this machine, channel 8000.” It looks and behaves like a real website in your browser, because it is one, it just lives entirely on your computer.

Your files don’t. A deployed project is served by a server bound to 127.0.0.1, which only your own machine can reach, and there is no account, no analytics, and no telemetry, nothing about you or your projects is collected.

Three things do use the network, and all three are things you asked for: on launch the app asks whether a newer version exists (a switch in Settings turns that off); choosing Install downloads that release; and git clone, pull, and push run when you press those buttons. The LAN switch is the only setting that widens who can see a deployed site, and only to devices on your own Wi‑Fi.

No. If you have a folder with an index.html in it (from a class, a template, an export) you can use Local Test. If you don’t have one, Cmd/Ctrl+N builds a starter project (blank page, landing page, docs site, single-page app, portfolio) that deploys immediately. There’s a tutorial built into the app that assumes nothing.

The code is written for it: Windows paths throughout, an NSIS installer and uninstaller, process-tree kill through taskkill, and the Windows shell behind the editor and terminal buttons. What hasn’t happened is a validation pass on real Windows hardware, development and testing so far have been on macOS.

So: supported, and unproven. Running from source works the same way it does on a Mac; no Windows installer has been built or published yet. A bug report from a Windows machine is the single most useful thing anyone could send. One known quirk: turning on LAN sharing may raise the Windows firewall prompt on the first deploy, which is expected.

Serving only reads. Everything that writes is something you pressed: saving in the editor (or leaving auto-save on), inserting an image, which copies the file into the project, renaming a file, deleting one, which moves it to the Trash, scaffolding a template into an empty folder, and git commit, push, or a sync that pulls, including the pull-before-deploy setting, if you turned that on for a linked repository.

It checks. On launch it reads the public releases feed and stays quiet unless something newer exists; you can turn that check off in Settings, or run it by hand from the version badge. If you choose to install, it downloads the release and (on macOS) swaps the app in place and reopens it; on Windows it hands off to the installer. Because the app isn’t code-signed, that swap happens visibly on relaunch rather than silently in the background.

Because it isn’t signed with an Apple Developer ID. That’s a paid yearly membership, and this is a free project, so the first launch of a downloaded copy is right-click (or Control-click) → Open, then Open again in the dialog. Once, and it opens normally after that. A copy you build from source never shows it at all.

Local Test serves files exactly as they are; it doesn’t run your build. Run it the way you normally do, and Deploy will find the result: when the project root has no index page, it serves _site, dist, build, public, or out, whichever has one. You can also name the folder yourself in the project’s Settings tab.

Yes, with a deliberate switch. LAN sharing is off by default; turning it on in Settings binds new deploys to your network interface as well, and the project shows a second address like http://192.168.1.20:8000 that devices on the same Wi‑Fi can open. If you only want to check how it looks at that size, the Preview buttons open the live site in a phone-, tablet-, or desktop-sized window without any of that.

Nothing. Local Test is free to download and use, no account, no trial, no telemetry, nothing to buy. If it saves you time, there’s a coffee link in the footer.