airtrash is a free, open-source Mac utility that lets you transfer files directly between computers on the same local network using a simple peer-to-peer connection — no cloud, no cables, no account required.
What is airtrash?
airtrash is a lightweight command-line tool for macOS that replicates the core idea behind Apple's AirDrop: drop a file on one machine, pick it up on another, entirely over your local network. The twist is that it works without the AirDrop stack — no Bluetooth handshake, no continuity requirements, no "waiting for receiver" spinning wheel. It speaks straight HTTP under the hood, which means it is also friendlier to mixed environments where AirDrop's Bluetooth-plus-WiFi pairing ceremony tends to break down.
The project lives on GitHub, is actively maintained as open source, and installs in seconds via Homebrew Cask. If you have ever watched two perfectly capable Macs refuse to discover each other in AirDrop for ten minutes while you had a 4 GB project folder to hand off, you will immediately understand why airtrash exists.
What does airtrash do best?
airtrash excels at fast, frictionless local file transfer when the standard AirDrop ceremony fails you. The workflow is almost absurdly direct: run a single terminal command on the sender, receive a shareable local URL, and open that URL on any device on the same network — Mac, Linux box, even a phone browser. No Bluetooth proximity dance required.
Where airtrash really shines is in developer or power-user scenarios: piping build artifacts to a staging machine, handing off large assets between a MacBook and a Mac Studio in the same studio, or transferring files to a Linux server that obviously cannot run AirDrop at all. It treats the network as a dumb pipe and gets out of your way. For anyone already comfortable with the terminal, the cognitive overhead is essentially zero.
- Zero authentication friction — generate a URL, share it, done.
- Cross-platform receiver — any device with a browser can grab the file.
- No size limits imposed by the tool itself — only your network throughput.
- Fully offline — nothing leaves your LAN.
Is airtrash free?
Yes — airtrash is completely free to download and use. It is released as open-source software on GitHub under a permissive licence, meaning you can inspect the source, fork it, or contribute back. There is no paid tier, no freemium gating, and no telemetry.
Who should use airtrash?
airtrash is squarely aimed at Mac power users and developers who transfer files between machines regularly and find AirDrop's discovery reliability too flaky for a professional workflow. If your daily driver is a terminal tab rather than a Finder window, you will feel right at home.
It is also a natural fit for anyone working in mixed-OS environments — a macOS laptop paired with a Linux workstation, a Raspberry Pi media server, or a colleague on Windows who needs a file quickly. Standard AirDrop simply cannot serve those handoffs; airtrash can, because the receiver needs nothing more than a web browser.
Conversely, if you rarely leave the Apple ecosystem and AirDrop works reliably for you, you may not need it. airtrash has no GUI, so users who prefer drag-and-drop over typed commands should look elsewhere — perhaps NearDrop, LocalSend, or Snapdrop for a browser-based alternative with a friendlier interface.
How does airtrash compare to LocalSend and Snapdrop?
LocalSend is the closest spiritual sibling: fully cross-platform, LAN-only, open source, and privacy-respecting. It has a polished native UI on every platform, which gives it a decisive edge for non-technical users or teams. airtrash wins on simplicity of the server side — one command, one URL — but LocalSend wins on the receiver experience and mobile-app polish.
Snapdrop runs entirely in the browser via WebRTC and requires no install at all on either end, which is genuinely impressive. Its trade-off is that WebRTC peer negotiation can struggle on restrictive corporate Wi-Fi, while airtrash's plain HTTP transfer degrades more gracefully. For raw developer ergonomics — especially piping output straight into a transfer — airtrash's CLI model has no peer in that group.
What are the best airtrash alternatives?
The strongest alternatives depend on your constraint:
- AirDrop — Zero setup if you stay in the Apple ecosystem and Bluetooth cooperates.
- LocalSend — Native GUI, iOS/Android/Linux/Windows, fully LAN-based. Best all-rounder.
- Snapdrop / PairDrop — Browser-based WebRTC; zero install on either end.
- Magic Wormhole — Terminal-first, encrypted, works over the internet too, not just LAN.
- croc — Similar to Magic Wormhole; excellent for cross-network transfers with relay support.
