How to Share Build Outputs Without Deploying

The deploy-to-share anti-pattern

Here's a workflow that happens in every engineering team:

1. Developer runs a build locally
2. QA / PM / designer needs to see the output
3. Developer deploys to a staging environment... just so someone can look at it
4. Twenty minutes later, they need to share a different build
5. Repeat

Deploying to staging to share a build artifact is like renting a warehouse to hand someone a package. You don't need infrastructure — you need a share link.

What you're actually sharing

In most cases, "share the build" means sharing one of these:

• ./dist or ./build — compiled frontend assets
• ./coverage — test coverage reports (HTML)
• ./docs — generated documentation (Storybook, TypeDoc, etc.)
• ./out — static site generator output
• Release binaries — compiled executables for testing

All of these are static folders that already exist on your machine. They don't need a deployment pipeline.

Share directly from your machine

With Local Bridge, you can share any folder instantly:

# Share your build output
localbridge --password "review123" ./dist

# Share a coverage report
localbridge --password "qa" ./coverage

# Share generated docs
localbridge ./docs --lan

The recipient opens a URL in their browser, enters the password, and browses the files. No deployment. No upload. No waiting.

Real CI/CD integration

Local Bridge isn't just for manual sharing. You can integrate it into CI pipelines:

# In a GitHub Actions step or CI script
localbridge --password "$PREVIEW_PASS" --expiry 2h --background ./dist

# The URL is printed to stdout — pipe it to Slack, email, or PR comments

Use the --background flag to run as a daemon, and --expiry to auto-stop after a set time. Perfect for:

• PR previews: Share the build from a PR without deploying to staging
• Nightly build artifacts: Make compiled binaries available for download overnight
• Client review rounds: Share a design build for 24 hours, then it auto-expires

Why not just use S3 / Vercel Preview / Netlify?

Those are great when you need permanent hosting. But for temporary sharing:

The workflow

Developer machine                    Recipient's browser
┌─────────────┐                     ┌──────────────┐
│ ./dist/     │  ──── HTTPS ────►  │ File browser │
│ index.html  │  (Cloudflare)       │ + downloads  │
│ assets/     │                     │              │
└─────────────┘                     └──────────────┘
        ▲                                    ▲
  Files stay here.                  Sees a clean UI.
  No upload step.                   Password required.

Get started

Read the quickstart guide for installation, or see the CI/CD docs for pipeline integration patterns.