GoPulley

Fast, secure, containerized enterprise file sharing

Self-hosted WeTransfer-style alternative with Active Directory integration

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Italian version: README.it.md

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What is GoPulley

GoPulley is an internal file-sharing application for enterprise and public organizations. Authenticated users (Active Directory / LDAP) can upload files and share them with temporary links and configurable expiration.

The app runs in a single lightweight container, with no external runtime stack.

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Features

Feature	Details
AD/LDAP authentication	Direct bind to Domain Controller, supports ldap:// and ldaps://
Optional group restriction	Limit access to members of one AD group (memberOf)
Modern upload UI	Drag and drop workflow with HTMX, no full page refresh
Configurable expiration	1 / 7 / 30 days / 1 year plus max constraints
Public links	Recipients can download using the link
Optional link password	Add password protection at share creation
Optional max downloads	Auto-expire links after N downloads
Chunked/resumable upload	Large files are uploaded in chunks and can resume
User upload quotas	Per-user storage quota (USER_QUOTA_MB)
Admin dashboard	Global file inventory and disk usage visibility
Automatic cleanup	Removes expired shares and stale upload sessions
Optional SHA-256	Compute and show checksum for integrity verification
Single container deploy	Docker/Podman, SQLite embedded

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Architecture

GoPulley is intentionally simple:

• cmd/server/main.go: HTTP server, routes, sessions, handlers
• internal/auth/ldap.go: LDAP bind and group checks
• internal/database/sqlite.go: schema + CRUD
• internal/storage/file.go: file persistence and streaming
• web/templates/*: server-side HTML templates
• web/static/*: CSS and vendored HTMX

Persistent data lives under /data in the container:

• SQLite database (/data/gopulley.db)
• uploaded files (/data/uploads/...)

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Quick start

Prerequisites

• Podman 4.7+ (or Docker with Compose plugin)

Start in 3 steps

# 1) Download runtime files
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mirkochipdotcom/GoPulley/main/compose.yml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mirkochipdotcom/GoPulley/main/.env.example

# 2) Configure env
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env for LDAP; keep LDAP_HOST=mock for local dev

# 3) Create data dir and start
mkdir -p ./data/uploads
podman compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8080.

Docker works the same way (docker compose ...).

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Data directory

By default, host data is mapped to ./data. Use DATA_DIR in .env to move DB/uploads to another disk or a mounted network path.

DATA_DIR=./data
# DATA_DIR=/mnt/storage/gopulley
# DATA_DIR=/mnt/nas/gopulley

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Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env and adjust values.

Important variables

• SESSION_SECRET
• SECURE_COOKIES
• LDAP_HOST, LDAP_BASE_DN, LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE
• LDAP_REQUIRED_GROUP, LDAP_ADMIN_GROUP, ADMIN_USERS, LDAP_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY
• MAX_GLOBAL_DAYS, MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE_MB, USER_QUOTA_MB
• UPLOAD_CHUNK_SIZE_MB, UPLOAD_SESSION_TTL_HOURS, MAX_UPLOAD_SESSIONS_PER_USER
• PUBLIC_BASE_URL, DATA_DIR, DB_PATH, UPLOAD_DIR
• ENABLE_SHA256

Upload behavior

• Chunk size defaults to 10 MB (UPLOAD_CHUNK_SIZE_MB)
• In-progress sessions are auto-expired (UPLOAD_SESSION_TTL_HOURS)
• Concurrent in-progress uploads per user are capped (MAX_UPLOAD_SESSIONS_PER_USER)

Share protection options

• Optional password at upload time
• Optional max download count ("burn after N downloads")

Email behavior

• SMTP link sharing is configured via SMTP_SERVER, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_SECURITY, SMTP_USER, SMTP_PASSWORD, SMTP_FROM
• SMTP_USER_AUTH=true: uses authenticated AD user email/password for sending (where supported)
• SMTP_USER_AUTH=false: uses shared SMTP sender credentials and messages should be treated as non-monitored mailbox (no-reply)

Session cookie security

To protect credentials stored in session cookies (when SMTP_USER_AUTH=true), GoPulley implements:

• Dual-key encryption: cookies encrypted with AES-256 using a key derived from SESSION_SECRET
• Dynamic Secure flag: automatic protocol detection via X-Forwarded-Proto header

HTTPS Reverse Proxy (recommended configuration)

GoPulley automatically detects if the original request was HTTPS by reading the X-Forwarded-Proto header set by the reverse proxy:

# Nginx example
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

# Traefik example (automatic with entryPoints)
labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.gopulley.entrypoints=websecure"
  - "traefik.http.routers.gopulley.tls=true"

With this configuration:

• Browser → Reverse Proxy: HTTPS (TLS terminated at proxy)
• Reverse Proxy → GoPulley: HTTP local (trusted network)
• Cookie Secure flag: automatically true because X-Forwarded-Proto: https

Fallback configuration

If the X-Forwarded-Proto header is not present (direct access without reverse proxy), GoPulley uses the SECURE_COOKIES variable:

# Direct HTTPS access to the app (no reverse proxy)
SECURE_COOKIES=true

# Direct HTTP access (local testing only - NOT for production)
SECURE_COOKIES=false

Note: in production with a properly configured HTTPS reverse proxy, SECURE_COOKIES is ignored and the Secure flag is set automatically.

LDAP examples

UPN style (modern AD):

LDAP_HOST=ldaps://dc.example.com:636
LDAP_BASE_DN=DC=example,DC=com
LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE=%s@example.com

Classic DN style:

LDAP_HOST=ldap://ldap.example.com:389
LDAP_BASE_DN=dc=example,dc=com
LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE=uid=%s,ou=Users,dc=example,dc=com

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Production operations

# first run
podman compose up -d

# update to latest image
podman compose pull && podman compose up -d

# logs
podman compose logs -f

# stop
podman compose down

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Container images

Images are published automatically on GitHub Container Registry on tag push.

# latest
podman pull ghcr.io/mirkochipdotcom/gopulley:latest

# specific tag
podman pull ghcr.io/mirkochipdotcom/gopulley:0.9.8

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Build from source

Requires Go 1.22+ and gcc (go-sqlite3 uses CGO).

CGO_ENABLED=1 go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o gopulley ./cmd/server

Run local dev:

LDAP_HOST=mock SESSION_SECRET=dev-secret ./gopulley

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Internationalization

UI strings are served via i18n bundles. Current supported locales in code:

• en
• it
• es
• de
• fr

Locale is resolved from Accept-Language with fallback to English.

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License

GNU AGPLv3 - see LICENSE.