sugarcraft/candy-serve

PHP port of charmbracelet/soft-serve — self-hostable Git server over SSH, Git daemon, and HTTP. Supports user management via SSH public keys, repo access control (public/private), collaborators, on-demand repo creation, Git LFS, and an SSH-accessible TUI for browsing repos/files/commits.

v0.2.0 2026-05-07 01:29 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.2
• ext-json: *
• ext-openssl: *
• ext-ssh2: *

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: ^10.5

MIT

• Joe Huss

• git
• ssh
• self-hosted
• LFS
• sugarcraft
• git-server

README

CandyServe

PHP port of charmbracelet/soft-serve — the mighty, self-hostable Git server for the command line.

Overview

CandyServe is a self-hostable Git server you run on a VPS or machine. Users authenticate via SSH public keys and can:

• Browse repos, files, and commits via a terminal TUI over SSH
• Clone repos over SSH (git clone ssh://user@host/repo), HTTP, or Git protocol
• Push to create repos on demand
• Collaborate via per-repo access control with SSH public keys
• Use Git LFS for large file storage

Architecture

candy-serve/
├── bin/soft-serve          Entry point (serve command)
├── src/
│   ├── Server.php          Config (SSH/HTTP/Git daemon listen addrs)
│   ├── Config.php          YAML config loader
│   ├── Repo.php            Bare Git repo (init, access, metadata)
│   ├── User.php            SSH public key auth + user model
│   ├── AccessControl.php   Permissions (admin/read/write)
│   ├── SSH/
│   │   ├── SSHServer.php   libssh2-based SSH server
│   │   ├── Auth.php        Public key authentication
│   │   └── Commands.php    git-upload-pack / git-receive-pack
│   ├── Git/
│   │   ├── Protocol.php    Smart HTTP Git protocol handler
│   │   ├── UploadPack.php  git-upload-pack (clone/fetch)
│   │   └── ReceivePack.php git-receive-pack (push)
│   └── LFS/
│       └── LFSHandler.php  Git LFS batch API
├── cmd/
│   └── serve.php           Serve command implementation
└── tests/

Install

composer install

Configuration

Create config.yaml in your data directory:

name: "My Git Server"
ssh:
  listen_addr: ":23231"
  public_url: "ssh://localhost:23231"
  key_path: "ssh/soft_serve_host"
  idle_timeout: 120
git:
  listen_addr: ":9418"
http:
  listen_addr: ":23232"
  public_url: "http://localhost:23232"
db:
  driver: "sqlite"
  data_source: "candy-serve.db"
lfs:
  enabled: true

Run

# Set admin SSH key (your public key)
export CANDY_SERVE_INITIAL_ADMIN_KEYS="ssh-ed25519 AAAA... user@host"

# Start the server
CANDY_SERVE_DATA_PATH=/var/lib/candy-serve composer serve

SSH Access

# Connect to TUI
ssh -p 23231 user@your-server

# Clone a repo
git clone ssh://user@your-server:23231/repo-name

# Browse repo tree
ssh -p 23231 user@your-server repo tree repo-name

# View a file with syntax highlighting
ssh -p 23231 user@your-server repo blob repo-name path/to/file.php -c -l

Repo Permissions

• Public — anyone can read, only collaborators can push
• Private — only collaborators can read or push
• Collaborators — added by admin via SSH public key

License

MIT