Just use the directory listing of your favourite web server. You have a HTTP read only view of a directory and all of its content. If you self host likely you have already a reverse proxy, so it is just matter of updating its configuration. I'm sure it is supported by Apache, Nginx, LightHttpd, and Caddy. But I would expect every webserver supports it. Caddy is the easiest to use if you need to start from scratch.
this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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Install Nginx, add autoindex on; to the default site config, throw the files into /var/www/html or whatever default folder it uses, and delete the default index.html file. If you need to do it via Docker then use the official Nginx image https://hub.docker.com/_/nginx
You could also just share the files via SMB. Easy to use on a PC - you could configure their computers to mount the share as a network drive on boot (e.g. R:, for recipes). Not sure about other phones but the built-in files app on my Galaxy S25 Ultra supports SMB too.
I already have SMB but want something easier for non tech family members.
Nginx sounds like the way to go and just symlink www -> recipes
Thanks.
Based on OPs requirements, this is the answer
Caddy has this feature built-in. It looks nice too.
recipes.local {
root * /srv
file_server
}
https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/directives/file_server
There's also File Browser.
A web server with directory listing enabled would work fine for that.
I use dufs. Copyparty seems good too.
Copy files and do a
python3 -m http.server
Very simple and does the job.
Not quite what you want, but I am a huge fan of mealie.
Came here to say the same thing. More than OP is asking for, but it's fantastic.
Just used it to import a recipe, tweak it, and then I made it. Big fan of mealie.
I bet it would do a decent job of parsing those text files.
Are you referring to mealie-recipes/mealie?
Yes, that. It's a bit much, but it's really easy to use.
why not copyparty?
sandstorm is dead simple to host and crazy secure.
it handles user accounts for you and there are lots of apps to serve files or track text files.
it rocks.
sftpgo