🌥️ Litecloud

Your files, your server, your privacy. Litecloud is a lightweight, secure cloud storage solution that you can host yourself. Upload, organize, and share files without compromising your privacy or depending on big tech companies.

What makes Litecloud special?

🔒 Privacy-first: Your files are encrypted with military-grade AES-256-GCM encryption before they ever touch the disk
🏠 Self-hosted: Run it on your own server—you control your data
⚡ Lightning fast: Built with Rust for maximum performance and safety
🔧 Developer-friendly: Clean REST API lets you build custom apps and integrations
🚀 Dead simple: One Docker command and you're running your own cloud

Features at a glance

• Secure authentication with JWT-based sessions
• File encryption using AES-256-GCM (the same standard used by banks)
• Share files easily with customizable access controls and expiration dates
• Full REST API for building your own clients or automations
• Modern web interface built with React and TypeScript
• Single binary deployment — no complex setup required

The tech behind the magic

Backend Stack

• Rust + Rocket: For blazing-fast, memory-safe performance
• AES-256-GCM encryption: Your files are scrambled before they hit storage
• JWT authentication: Secure, stateless session management
• Docker-ready: Runs on port 8082 by default

Frontend

• React + Vite + TypeScript: Modern, type-safe user interface, with all the added benefits of vite
• Tailwind CSS: Clean, responsive design

Why Rust? Why not just use Node.js?

Great question! Rust gives us superpowers:

• Memory safety without garbage collection — no mysterious crashes or memory leaks, hence safer handling of encrypted files.
• Fearless concurrency — handle thousands of simultaneous uploads without breaking a sweat
• Zero-cost abstractions — all the safety with none of the performance overhead
• Type safety for encryption — this really is a no-brainer for an app built with security in mind

Rocket framework adds the cherry on top with its elegant routing system and built-in request validation.

How secure is "secure"?

We take security seriously:

• AES-256-GCM encryption: The same encryption standard trusted by governments and militaries
• Server-side encryption: Files are encrypted before they're written to your server's disk — even system administrators can't read your files without the keys
• No plaintext storage: Your original files never exist unencrypted on the server
• JWT-based auth: Secure, industry-standard authentication tokens

API-first design

Everything you can do in the web interface, you can do programmatically. The entire Litecloud feature set is available under /api, so you can:

• Build a mobile app that syncs with your Litecloud instance
• Create automated backup scripts
• Integrate file storage into your existing applications
• Build a command-line client for power users

API documentation is coming soon — we're working on comprehensive docs with examples!

Getting started in 30 seconds

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://git.mercurio.moe/Mercury/litecloud.git
   cd litecloud
   

2. Fire it up:

   docker compose up --build
   

3. Open your browser to http://localhost:8082 and create your account!

That's it! You now have your own private cloud storage running locally.

Exposing to the internet (Production deployment)

Running locally is great for testing, but you'll probably want to access your files from anywhere. Here's how to properly expose Litecloud with SSL encryption:

Option 1: Using Caddy (Recommended - Super Easy!)

Caddy automatically handles SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt. Create a Caddyfile:

your-domain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8082
}

Then run Caddy:

caddy run

That's it! Caddy will automatically get SSL certificates and proxy requests to your Litecloud instance.

Option 2: Using Nginx Proxy Manager (GUI-friendly)

If you prefer a web interface for managing your reverse proxy:

1. Set up Nginx Proxy Manager
2. Create a new proxy host pointing to localhost:8082
3. Enable SSL and let NPM handle the certificate generation
4. Configure any additional security headers you want

Option 3: Traditional Nginx

For those who prefer manual configuration, here's a basic Nginx config:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name your-domain.com;
    
    ssl_certificate /path/to/your/certificate.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/your/private.key;
    
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8082;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        
        # Important for file uploads, app default is 5 gb
        client_max_body_size 100M;
    }
}

Security considerations

When exposing to the internet:

• Always use HTTPS — your files are encrypted at rest, but you want them encrypted in transit too
• Consider IP whitelisting if you only access from specific locations
• Set up fail2ban to prevent brute force attacks on your login
• Regular backups of your encrypted file storage
• Keep your Docker images updated for security patches

What's next?

• 📱 Mobile app development
• 📚 Comprehensive API documentation
• 🔍 File search and tagging
• 🔄 Client-side sync capabilities

Contributing

Found a bug? Have a feature idea? We'd love your help! Check out our issues page or submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). This means:

• ✅ You can use, modify, and distribute this software freely
• ✅ You can use it for commercial purposes
• ✅ You must provide source code to users (even if they access it over a network)
• ✅ Any modifications must also be open source under AGPL-3.0

The AGPL ensures that if you run a modified version of Litecloud as a service, your users have the right to access the source code. This keeps the project truly open and prevents proprietary forks from closing off improvements to the community.

See the LICENSE file for full details.

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Built with ❤️ and lots of ☕ by a solo developer who believes your files belong to you, not Big Tech.