File Transfer

Shurli includes a built-in file transfer plugin that sends files directly between peers over the P2P network. Files are checksummed with SHA-256 and verified on receipt.

Sending a File

# By peer name
shurli send photo.jpg home-server

# By peer ID
shurli send photo.jpg 12D3KooW...

# With JSON output (for scripting)
shurli send photo.jpg home-server --json

The CLI shows live progress during transfer:

Sending photo.jpg (2.4 MB) to home-server...
  1.2 MB / 2.4 MB (50%)
Complete 2.4 MB sent

Receiving Files

Files are received automatically when the daemon is running. No action needed on the receiving end.

Default receive directory: ~/Downloads/shurli/

Change it with:

shurli config set transfer.receive_dir /path/to/your/dir

If a file with the same name already exists, Shurli creates photo (1).jpg, photo (2).jpg, etc.

Requirements

• Both peers must be running the daemon (shurli daemon)
• Peers must be paired (via shurli invite / shurli join)
• Works over any connection type: LAN (mDNS), direct, or relay

Security

• Integrity: SHA-256 checksum computed before sending, verified after receiving. Corrupted transfers are rejected and the partial file is deleted.
• Path traversal protection: Filenames like ../../../etc/passwd are sanitized to just passwd. Only the base filename is used.
• Transport encryption: All data travels over libp2p’s encrypted transport (TLS 1.3 or Noise). No additional encryption layer needed for authorized peers.
• Authorization: Only paired peers can send files. Unauthorized peers are rejected at the connection gating layer.

Daemon API

For programmatic use (SDK consumers, scripts, other applications):

Send a file

curl -X POST --unix-socket ~/.shurli/daemon.sock \
  http://localhost/v1/send \
  -H "Cookie: auth=$(cat ~/.shurli/daemon.cookie)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"file_path": "/absolute/path/to/file.pdf", "peer": "home-server"}'

Response:

{
  "transfer_id": "xfer-1"
}

Check transfer progress

curl --unix-socket ~/.shurli/daemon.sock \
  http://localhost/v1/transfer/xfer-1 \
  -H "Cookie: auth=$(cat ~/.shurli/daemon.cookie)"

Response:

{
  "id": "xfer-1",
  "filename": "file.pdf",
  "size": 1048576,
  "sent": 524288,
  "peer_id": "12D3KooW...",
  "direction": "send",
  "done": false
}

List all transfers

curl --unix-socket ~/.shurli/daemon.sock \
  http://localhost/v1/transfers \
  -H "Cookie: auth=$(cat ~/.shurli/daemon.cookie)"

Limits

Current Limitations

• Single files only. Directory transfer is not yet supported.
• No pause/resume. Interrupted transfers must be restarted.
• No queuing. Each shurli send initiates an immediate transfer.

These limitations will be addressed in future phases.