Self-host cowyo
v3.0.1Minimalist pastebin with live collab and E2E encryption
- Stars
- 983
- Port
- 8001 (HTTP web server)
- Requires
- SQLite
What is cowyo?
cowyo is a minimalist self-hosted pastebin and shared scratchpad designed for quick notes and collaboration. Users open a page, type, and changes save automatically with real-time sync across editors. It supports permanent private pages with client-side end-to-end encryption (XChaCha20-Poly1305), password-encrypted blocks within ordinary pages, page locking to prevent edits, publishing for search discovery, and self-destructing pages that delete after one final read. The server is a single Go binary that uses SQLite by default with optional PostgreSQL via DATABASE_URL. It provides a curl-friendly API for creating, reading, and controlling pages without authentication tokens. The web UI includes light/dark theme switching and clickable links. No user accounts or login are required.
Should you self-host cowyo?
cowyo scores 53/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #5 of 19 in Pastebins. It has 983 GitHub stars.
It shipped 2 stable releases in the past year. The latest, v3.0.1, came out on 2 August 2026. New versions land roughly every 4 days.
Setup is easy: most people get it running in one sitting. It is MIT-licensed and written mostly in Go.
Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is Opengist (68/100, 3 407 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See cowyo vs Opengist side by side.
Features
- Clickable links in text
- Curl-friendly API
- End-to-end encrypted private pages
- Memorable auto-generated page names
- Page control API
- Page locking
- Password-encrypted blocks
- Publishing for search engines
- Real-time collaborative editing
- Self-destructing pages
cowyo README
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