Feature: jsserve - npx serve alternative with write support (new repo) #108

Summary

Create jsserve - a thin wrapper package around JSS that provides a drop-in alternative to npx serve with added REST write capabilities (PUT/DELETE).

New repo: github.com/JavaScriptSolidServer/jsserve

Difficulty: 20/100
Estimated Effort: 1 day
Dependencies: #107 (--public flag)

Motivation

npx serve is hugely popular for quick static file serving, but it's read-only. Developers often need:

• Quick file upload endpoint for testing
• Simple WebDAV-like functionality
• REST API for local development
• File sync between devices on LAN

jsserve fills this gap: "serve, but you can write too"

Comparison

Usage

# Install
npm i -g jsserve

# Serve current directory (read + write enabled)
jsserve

# Serve specific folder
jsserve ./public

# Custom port
jsserve -p 8080

# Read-only mode (exactly like npx serve)
jsserve --read-only

# With basic auth
jsserve --auth user:pass

# Enable full Solid features
jsserve --solid

Output

   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │                                         │
   │   Serving!                              │
   │                                         │
   │   - Local:    http://localhost:3000     │
   │   - Network:  http://192.168.1.5:3000   │
   │                                         │
   │   GET/PUT/DELETE enabled                │
   │                                         │
   └─────────────────────────────────────────┘

REST API Examples

# Read file
curl http://localhost:3000/file.txt

# Write file
curl -X PUT -d "content" http://localhost:3000/file.txt

# Delete file
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/file.txt

# Conditional update (optimistic concurrency)
curl -X PUT -H 'If-Match: "etag"' -d "new" http://localhost:3000/file.txt

Repository Structure

github.com/JavaScriptSolidServer/jsserve/
├── bin/
│   └── jsserve.js          # CLI entry point (~80 LOC)
├── package.json            # Depends on jss
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

Implementation

The wrapper is ~80 LOC that:

1. Parses serve-compatible CLI args
2. Translates to JSS flags
3. Spawns JSS with --public flag
4. Prints a nice banner

{
  "name": "jsserve",
  "bin": { "jsserve": "./bin/jsserve.js" },
  "dependencies": {
    "commander": "^12.0.0",
    "jss": "^0.1.0"
  }
}

Difficulty Breakdown

Related Issues

• Feature: --public flag to skip WAC and allow open access #107 - --public flag (required dependency)
• Feature: Docker Support - Dockerfile, Compose, and Container Registry #99 - Docker (jsserve could have its own image)
• Feature: remoteStorage Protocol Support #106 - remoteStorage (jsserve could enable RS mode)