LocalSend

Send and receive files, folders and text with LocalSend devices on your network, straight from the Noctalia bar. It talks the LocalSend v2 protocol, so it works with the LocalSend apps on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS and Linux.

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	mera/localsend
Entries	Bar widget: widget; panel: panel; service: service

Requirements

Install these on PATH:

• python3 (3.10 or newer, standard library only)
• openssl (creates the device certificate on first start)
• zenity (file and folder pickers)

Close the official LocalSend app on this computer while the plugin runs: both use port 53317 by default. Change the port in the settings if you need both.

Usage

1. Add mera/localsend:widget to a bar section (for example end = [ ..., "mera/localsend:widget", ... ]).
2. Click the widget to open the panel. Nearby devices appear automatically.
3. Click a device to pick files and send them. Use the folder button to send a whole folder and the clipboard button to send the current clipboard text.
4. When someone sends you something, a notification appears and the panel opens with Accept and Reject. Received files go to the save folder (default ~/Downloads/LocalSend). Received text can be copied from the panel.

Open the panel from a keybind or script:

noctalia msg panel-toggle mera/localsend:panel

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
alias	string	hostname	Name other devices see. Empty uses the hostname.
save_dir	folder	~/Downloads/LocalSend	Where received files are written.
auto_accept	bool	false	Skip the confirmation prompt for incoming files.
pin	string	empty	Senders must provide this PIN to send to you. Empty disables it.
port	int	53317	LocalSend port (advanced).
control_port	int	53318	Loopback port between the plugin and its daemon (advanced).

IPC

noctalia msg plugin mera/localsend:widget focused toggle   # open or close the panel
noctalia msg plugin mera/localsend:service all rescan      # announce again and look for devices

Notes

• Architecture. service.luau starts daemon/localsendd.py, a small background process that handles LocalSend discovery (UDP multicast 224.0.0.167:53317), the HTTPS server for receiving, and sending. The Luau side only talks to it over http://127.0.0.1:<control port>. Every request must carry a random per-run token that the daemon writes to control.token (mode 0600, in its private 0700 data directory), so only your user can drive it. The PIN is handed to the daemon through a file it deletes after reading, not on the command line.
• Network. Multicast announcements on the local network, an HTTPS server on the LocalSend port, and HTTPS requests to other devices on the LAN. Nothing leaves your network and no remote code is downloaded.
• Files. Writes only to the save folder (names are sanitised and cannot escape it) and to the plugin data directory (device certificate, private key and control token, mode 600). Files you pick are read, never modified.
• Processes. python3 for the daemon, openssl once to create the certificate, zenity for file pickers.
• Security. Transfers use TLS with a self-signed per-device certificate, as LocalSend does. Without a PIN, anyone on your network can send you a request (you still have to accept it unless auto-accept is on).
• Limits. Sending to a device that requires a PIN is not supported yet. Folder sends are capped at 5000 files and text messages at 1 MiB.
• Tests. python3 -m unittest discover -s tests runs the daemon's integration tests on loopback.