sher — deploy to a live preview URL

sher is a CLI that builds your frontend project, uploads it, and returns a live preview URL. One command. No accounts. No config.

Use it after you've built or scaffolded a frontend project and the user wants to see it live.

Install

Global (recommended for agents):

npm i -g shersh

Or one-off with npx:

npx shersh link

Deploy

From the project root:

sher link

That's it. sher auto-detects the framework, runs the build, uploads the output, and returns a URL.

Options

Flag	Description
`--dir <path>`	Upload a specific directory (skips framework detection)
`--ttl <hours>`	Set link expiry in hours (default: 24)
`--no-build`	Skip the build step (use if already built)
`--pass [password]`	Password-protect the preview (Pro only)

Examples

# Standard deploy
sher link

# Deploy a pre-built project
sher link --no-build

# Deploy a specific output directory
sher link --dir ./dist

# Short-lived link (2 hours)
sher link --ttl 2

Parsing the output

The CLI prints the live URL to stdout in this format:

  https://a8xk2m1p.sher.sh  (copied)
  expires 2/19/2026, 11:00 AM

The URL always matches the pattern https://[a-z0-9]{8}.sher.sh. Extract it with:

https://[a-z0-9]{8}\.sher\.sh

The URL is also automatically copied to the clipboard.

After deploying

Present the URL to the user:

Your preview is live at https://a8xk2m1p.sher.sh

If you set a --ttl, mention when it expires. If using --pass, share the password too.

Supported frameworks

sher auto-detects and builds:

Vite — outputs to dist/
Next.js — auto-configures static export, outputs to out/
Astro — outputs to dist/
Create React App — outputs to build/
Any project with a build script that produces dist/, build/, or out/
Static HTML — no build needed, use --dir . to upload directly

Agent-friendly by default

No browser opens after deploy
No interactive prompts
No account required for basic usage (1 deploy, 10MB max, 6h TTL)
Authenticated users get 25 deploys, 50MB, 24h TTL
Exit code 0 on success, non-zero on failure

Troubleshooting

If sher link fails:

No build script — the project needs a build script in package.json, or use --dir to point to pre-built output
Build error — fix the build error first, then retry
Size limit — the upload is too large (10MB anonymous, 50MB authenticated, 100MB Pro)
No output directory — ensure the build produces dist/, build/, or out/, or specify --dir

sher-deploy