magik6k/git-remote-iroh

git-remote-iroh lets you fetch and push git repositories directly between two computers, with no hosting service like GitHub involved, no separate background program to run, no router configuration, and no VPN. Once installed, it works as a plugin that git recognizes automatically, so any command that would normally point at a github.com address can instead point at an iroh:// address, connecting straight to another machine. It works by tunneling git's own native transfer protocol over a networking technology called iroh, which handles the tricky parts of connecting two computers directly over the internet, including punching through home routers and falling back to a relay server when a direct connection is not possible. Every connection is encrypted end to end, and because git's real transfer programs run on both ends, the same exact data moves as if you were using a normal ssh connection, just without a server in the middle to host it. There are two main ways to use it. The simplest is a one shot transfer: one machine runs a push command, which prints out a special address and waits, and as soon as another machine fetches from that address, the transfer completes and nothing is stored anywhere afterward. Alternatively, you can run a serve command on one machine to keep a repository available as a normal named remote that others can fetch from and push to repeatedly, as long as the serving machine keeps that command running. Security relies on the special address itself: it contains a public key and a random secret, and anyone holding the full address can fetch, or push if writable mode is enabled, so it should be shared carefully like a password. The identity and secret are stored in a hidden folder inside your repository with restricted permissions, and can be deleted or regenerated to get a fresh address. A few practical notes: pushing to a currently checked out branch is blocked by git unless configured otherwise, and one shot pushes are meant for handing a repo to someone once rather than acting as permanent storage. The project is released under the Apache 2.0 license, which allows free use, modification, and redistribution as long as the license and copyright notices are kept.