Pbnj
A minimal, self-hosted pastebin you can deploy in 60 seconds
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I'm sure folks here have seen pastebins a thousand times. There's no innovation left in this space â and that's kind of the point.When I wanted to self-host a pastebin, every option I found was too much. Git-based version control, OAuth, elaborate admin panels. I just wanted something I could deploy in under a minute with a CLI that actually works.So I built pbnj (yes, like the sandwich).What it is:- A minimal, beautiful pastebin with syntax highlighting for 100+ languages- One-click deploy to Cloudflare (free tier gives you ~100,000 pastes)- CLI-first: pbnj file.py â get a URL, copied to clipboard- Memorable URLs: crunchy-peanut-butter-sandwich instead of x7f9a2- Private pastes with optional secret keys- Web UI for when you're not in a terminalWhat it isn't:- No accounts, no OAuth, no git integration- No multi-user support (fork it and run your own)- No expiring pastes, no folders, no comments- Not trying to replace Gist or be a "platform"Why not just use Gist? Maybe you want to own your data. Maybe you enjoy self-hosting things. Or maybe you're a little autistic like me and just like having your own stuff.Live demo: https://pbnj.sh GitHub: https://github.com/bhavnicksm/pbnj CLI: npm install -g @pbnjs/cliIf this scratches an itch for you, I'd appreciate a star on GitHub. Happy to answer any questions!
HN · launched Dec 5, 2025 · 69 upvotes (top 15%) · 0 views
Niche: self-hosted software platforms · 79 launches, 5 in the last 7 days ▼ -50% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Dev tools
- Developer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 79 launches in self-hosted software platforms →
Could you build this?
Yes A minimal, self-hosted pastebin is a straightforward CRUD web service with basic text storage and retrieval that can be vibe-coded easily in a weekend.
Discussion
18 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Github Gist, pinnwand, self-hosted pastebin services
Concerns raised: Cloudflare dependency makes it not true self-hosting, Hard-coded Cloudflare compatibility limits deployment options, Content moderation responsibility if publicly accessible, AUTH_KEY configuration unclear for access control
Feature requests: Dockerfile for easier self-hosted deployment, VPC hosting support, Disable built-in auth for VPN-only deployments, Markdown display toggle (typed vs formatted), Support for non-Cloudflare hosting without code modifications
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 273 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #43 of 274 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 32 days after the earliest competitor.
- DataBin · ph · 2026-10-26 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.49
- Built a tool that turns your GitHub commits into build-in-public posts · hn · 2026-03-01 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.49
- pastesite.com · ph · 2026-10-21 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- A free tool for non-technical folks to easily publish a website · hn · 2026-04-22 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- CJIT, a single-binary C compiler that can self host · hn · 2026-04-13 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- GitByBit â Git course integrated into VSCode and Cursor · hn · 2026-01-27 · 13 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Better Hub · hn · 2026-02-26 · 38 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- rbit · github · 2026-10-18 · 13 upvotes · similarity 0.45
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