Ghostboard: A Lightweight, Self-Hosted Real-Time Text Sharing Tool (Open Source + Dockerized)

Hey everyone,

I’m excited to share Ghostboard, my new open-source project for real-time, synchronized text sharing. It’s super simple, lightweight, and completely self-hosted—perfect for those who love tinkering with Docker or Python.

Here’s what Ghostboard can do:

🖥️ Web-based Text Syncing: A web server serves a synchronized text field that updates in real-time across all connected clients.
🛠️ Command-Line Client: Retrieve or update the shared text directly from the CLI—great for scripts or automation.
🐳 Docker-Ready: Prebuilt images for both the server and client are available on DockerHub for quick deployment.
💾 Simple and Lightweight: No databases or complicated setups, just WebSockets and a static webpage.

🚀 How to Try It:

Run the Server:Then open http://:8080 to see the live text field.docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -p 8765:8765 thehelpfulidiot/ghostboard-server
Use the Client: Retrieve text:Update text:docker run --rm thehelpfulidiot/ghostboard-client docker run --rm thehelpfulidiot/ghostboard-client “New text”

👨‍💻 Why I Built It:

I often needed a simple way to share text between devices (e.g., quick notes, clipboard syncing) without relying on external services. Ghostboard was born out of a desire to make something fast, private, and easy to set up for self-hosters.

🔗 Repo: GitHub - Ghostboard

🐳 DockerHub:

💡 Future Ideas:

Adding optional encryption.
Customizable interfaces or themes.
Feedback from the community!

❓ Would Love to Hear From You!

I’m curious how others might use this tool. Do you see any additional use cases or features I should explore? Any thoughts or feedback would be amazing!

Looking forward to hearing what you think! 😊