Hostly

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Hostly (Minimalist Hosts Switcher)

An ultra-lightweight, high-performance Hosts management tool built on Tauri v2 + Rust. By removing the frontend framework (migrating to Vanilla JS), we have pushed size and performance to the extreme.

<p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zengyufei/hostly/main/img/index.png" alt="Hostly Main Interface" width="600" /> </p>

🤖 Special Note: This project was deeply designed and implemented with the help of the AI agent, pursuing ultimate simplicity and efficiency.

✨ Core Features

• 🚀 Lightning Fast: Built with JS + Native CSS. Single-file app size is ~1MB with millisecond cold-start.
• 🎨 Modern UI & Personalization: Supports sidebar drag-to-resize, built-in Light/Dark themes, and window size memory.
• ⚡ Optimized Startup Experience: Startup performance and visuals optimized for various system environments.
• 🔔 Non-Intrusive Feedback: Built-in lightweight Toast notification system — say goodbye to disruptive confirmation dialogs.
• 🛡️ Smart Privilege Escalation: Automatically detects admin privileges and escalates on demand, supporting direct editing of the system Hosts file.
• ⚙️ Dual-Mode Operation: Fully supports GUI visual operation and professional CLI command-line invocation.
• 🤖 Headless CLI: Provides a standalone hostly-core binary, designed for server/CI environments with zero GUI dependencies.
• 🔄 Migration Support: Supports importing SwitchHosts configurations for a seamless transition.
• ☁️ Remote Subscriptions: Supports adding remote Hosts sources (HTTP/HTTPS), silently auto-updated by a background scheduler.
• 🍎 Universal Architecture Support: Builds for macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon), as well as Windows and Linux.
• 🔌 Data Portability: Supports full configuration import/export as text files.

🧩 Feature Details

• UI Interaction:
  • Drag to Resize: Drag the left divider to customize sidebar width; the app remembers your preference.
  • Theme Follow: Automatically applies the system or last-used theme on startup for a smooth visual experience.
• Sidebar Layout: Unified management of "System Backup", "Public Config", and "Custom Environments".
• Multi-Mode Support:
  • Single-Select Mode: Mutually exclusive switching to keep hosts clean.
  • Multi-Select Mode: Multiple environments can be stacked and activated simultaneously.
• Command Line (CLI): Full sub-command support, available in two modes:
  • hostly: Distributed with the GUI, suitable for desktop users, supports open/list/export and more.
  • hostly-core: Pure CLI version, smaller footprint, no GUI dependency, ideal for automation scripts.
• Remote Config & Auto-Update:
  • Subscriptions: Add a URL to subscribe to a remote config with a customizable update interval (default: 1 hour).
  • Interactive Status Bar: When a remote config is selected, the bottom status bar shows live update status with a one-click force-refresh button.
  • Background Scheduling: Built-in smart scheduler (activates 5 seconds after startup) silently performs updates in the background without blocking the UI.

<p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zengyufei/hostly/main/img/common.png" alt="Hostly Main Interface" width="600" /> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zengyufei/hostly/main/img/multi.png" alt="Hostly Main Interface" width="600" /> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zengyufei/hostly/main/img/window.png" alt="Hostly Main Interface" width="600" /> </p>

🚀 Quick Start

Build & Run

# After cloning the project
npm install

# Enter development mode
npm run tauri dev

# Build release package (output in src-tauri/target/release/)
npm run tauri build

Common CLI Commands

You can use hostly or hostly-core to run the following commands:

Tip: Running CLI commands on Windows will automatically request UAC elevation.

| Command | Description | Example | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | list | List all configurations and their status | hostly list | | open | Activate one or more environments | hostly open --names Dev Test --multi | | close | Deactivate a specified environment | hostly close --names Dev | | multi / single | Toggle global selection mode | hostly multi | | export | Export configuration or backup | hostly export --target global.json | | import | Import configuration or backup | hostly import --target    global.json   single.txt  or an http/https URL | | migration | Migrate a SwitchHosts backup | hostly migration --target swV4_backup.json |

Example: hostly-core-win-x64.exe import ycf --target hosts.txt --open --single Switches to single-select mode, imports hosts.txt into "ycf" and activates it. Creates "ycf" if it doesn't exist.

Example: hostly-core-win-x64.exe import ycf --target hosts.txt --open --multi Switches to multi-select mode, imports hosts.txt into "ycf" and activates it. Creates "ycf" if it doesn't exist.

Example: hostly-core-win-x64.exe import ycf --target http://localhost:8080/hosts.txt --open --multi Switches to multi-select mode, imports the remote hosts.txt into "ycf" and activates it. Creates "ycf" if it doesn't exist.

🛠️ FAQ

Q: Why is the generated app so small?

A: Because we use the browser's native DOM operations and native CSS directly, with zero dependency on any heavy third-party libraries (like React/Vue/Tailwind, etc.), achieving the ultimate minimal runtime overhead and file size (~1MB).

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Q: Which download is recommended?

A:

• Windows: Regular users are recommended to download Hostly.exe; if you need to manage permissions manually, download hostly-off-elevation.exe (requires right-click → Run as Administrator).
• macOS (Apple Silicon / M1/M2...): Download the version with the aarch64 or universal suffix.
• macOS (Intel): Download the version with the x86_64 or universal suffix.

⚠️ macOS Users Note: If you see "app is damaged and can't be opened", this is due to unsigned app security restrictions. Run the following command in Terminal to fix it:

xattr -cr /Applications/Hostly.app

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Q: Can't open with double-click or getting a permission error?

A: Please check which version you are using:

• Hostly.exe (Standard): Has built-in auto-elevation logic; a UAC prompt will appear on startup — click "Yes" to allow.
• hostly-off-elevation.exe (No Elevation): This is a clean version with no elevation code. You must right-click → Run as Administrator, or go to Properties → Compatibility → check "Run this program as an administrator" for permanent elevation.

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Q: Getting "Permission Denied" on macOS or Linux?

A: Modifying the system hosts file is a privileged operation.

• Linux: Run with sudo ./hostly-core-linux-x64.
• macOS: The GUI version will automatically prompt for a password. For CLI, ensure you have run with sudo or have the appropriate permissions beforehand.

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Q: Why does a new window briefly pop up and close after running a CLI command?

A: This is because the main process was launched without admin privileges. To gain the necessary permissions, it spawns a new admin child process to execute the command. This is normal Windows security behavior. --

Q: How do I migrate my SwitchHosts backup?

A:

• GUI: Click the "Import" button in the sidebar and directly select the SwitchHosts backup JSON file — it will be auto-detected.
• CLI: Use the dedicated migration command: hostly migration --target sw_backup.json. --

📄 License

MIT