I made an extension to securely share entire workspaces via a single link (with zero-knowledge encryption)

Denis_Mal — Tue, 19 May 2026 10:12:49 +0000

Hi Dev Community

Just pushed my first extension to the marketplace — it's called Snappy Link, and it solves a problem I kept running into: sharing a project with someone and going through the whole "zip it, upload it to Drive, send the link, now install dependencies" ritual every single time.

How it works:

You hit "Pack Files" in the sidebar
It auto-ignores heavy and sensitive paths (node_modules, .venv, .env, .git)
Encrypts everything locally with AES-256-GCM (Web Crypto API)
Gives you a single shareable link

On the receiving end, pasting the link downloads, decrypts, and mounts the workspace — and if it detects a package.json, requirements.txt, or .csproj, it offers a one-click dependency install.

**A few things I'm particularly happy with under the hood:

Smart packaging** — strips node_modules, pycache, build artifacts, etc., so you're not shipping 300MB of stuff the recipient will just regenerate anyway 2. Zero-knowledge encryption — the key never hits the server; it rides along as a URL hash fragment (#key=...), so my backend only ever stores encrypted blobs it can't read 3. Auto-setup — detects whether it's a Node, Python, or .NET project and runs the relevant install commands automatically

The streams + encryption part took way longer than I expected to get right, but I think it's in a solid place now.

Up to 1GB per payload, 5 links/month.

Would love feedback or feature requests — especially if something breaks on your setup!

Grab it here:
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DenisMal.snappy-link

Tags for reach: #vscode #webdev #javascript #typescript #programming #buildinpublic

Forem: Denis_Mal

I made an extension to securely share entire workspaces via a single link (with zero-knowledge encryption)