playtest

One command puts the build you already have in front of real people.

You have a dist/. Someone should play it. Today that means uploading to a host, sending a link, and then never finding out where they got stuck.

playtest ./dist

You get a link and a QR code in a few seconds. Whoever you send it to opens it on their phone and plays — no account, no install, no app. You see who showed up, how long they stayed, and what they said about this version.

Website · Docs · Plaza · Releases

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Install

macOS and Linux — downloads a single binary, verifies its SHA-256, installs to ~/.local/bin:

curl -fsSL https://playtest.run/install.sh | bash
playtest --version

Windows, or if you'd rather do it by hand: grab the archive for your platform from Releases (macOS arm64/x86_64, Linux x86_64/arm64 musl, Windows x86_64) and put playtest on your PATH. The binaries are not code-signed yet; on macOS you'll have to allow it once under System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Publish

From the directory with index.html in it:

$ playtest ./dist
Reading ./dist: 2 files, 1.1 MB
Looks like a Phaser build
All 2 files are already on the server. Nothing to upload.
Published "phaser-jump" v1

https://playtest.run/p/misty-frog-44

Anonymous link, expires 2026-09-16 22:22. Run playtest login to keep it.
See how people played in the Developer Console: https://playtest.run/console/#/s/misty-frog-44

The first run needs no account. The link lives 24 hours; playtest login makes it permanent and moves anything you already published into your account.

Run it again in the same directory and it becomes v2 at the same address, so the people you already invited don't need a new link.

Share a dev server instead

playtest 5173                  # tunnel your local Vite / Next dev server
playtest ./dist --backend 3000 # upload the static build, tunnel /api and WebSockets to your machine

The tunnel runs on your uplink, so playtest tells you what that costs before anyone waits on it: "This page downloads about 32.0 MB. The tunnel runs on your uplink, so at a typical 30 Mbps home connection one player waits around 9 seconds."

What it checks before uploading

This is the part other hosts don't do. playtest reads your export and tells you why it won't run, at the moment you publish rather than after someone fails to load it:

• Threaded builds. If the wasm asks for shared memory, cross-origin isolation (COOP/COEP) is turned on for you and it says so. Godot 4 threaded exports need this; most static hosts can't set those headers at all.
• Missing engine payloads. A Godot export with no .pck, or a Unity export with no .data, means players sit on the loading bar forever. It names the file.
• Files the page asks for but nobody uploaded. Parsed out of index.html.
• Unity Decompression Fallback. If both .br/.gz and .unityweb are present, it reads dataUrl to tell you which set actually gets served, and that the other one is uploaded for nothing.
• Source directories. node_modules/ or a .git/ in what you're publishing usually means you meant dist/.

Commands

Command	What it does
playtest <dir>	Publish an exported static directory
playtest <port>	Tunnel a running local dev server
playtest <dir> --backend <port>	Static files from the edge, everything else tunneled to your machine
playtest ls	Projects published from this machine
playtest open	Print the link and open it
playtest card	Download the invite card PNG to send to a chat
playtest versions	Every version, and which one players see now
playtest rollback <version>	Put players back on an earlier version; nothing is re-uploaded
playtest files	Exact paths, sizes and content hashes that are live
playtest rm	Delete a project; its link stops working
playtest unlist	Take it off the Plaza; the link keeps working
playtest mcp	Run as an MCP server so Cursor / Claude Code can publish for you

Publishing flags: -m (what changed in this version), --name, --summary, --cover, --public (list on the Plaza), --seats N (mark it seeking testers), --community <url>, --isolated auto|on|off, --spa, --card <path>, --no-qr, --json.

playtest --help is the full list, and every command exits with a documented code (3 needs login, 4 network, 7 out of quota) so scripts don't have to match on text.

For AI assistants

playtest mcp speaks the Model Context Protocol: five tools — publish a directory, share a local port, list projects, check how one project is doing, fetch an invite card. playtest mcp --setup prints the config block for Cursor or Claude Code. The publish tool hands the invite card back as an image, so the assistant can paste it straight into the conversation.

The site also serves /skill.md, /llms.txt, /openapi.json and /.well-known/agent.json.

What it doesn't do

• It doesn't run your code on our servers. Everything you upload is served as static files.
• It doesn't rewrite or inject anything into your files.
• It doesn't invent numbers. Opens are opens; an empty roster says nothing rather than showing a zero.
• It isn't a store. There's no cart, no ratings, no algorithmic feed.
• Anonymous links expire after 24 hours, and free accounts have hard caps that stop rather than bill you.

How it fits together

• playtest.run — the Plaza, collections, following, the Developer Console, docs and the agent endpoints. No creator code ever runs on this origin.
• <slug>.playtest.run — where your project actually runs, on its own origin. Platform cookies are __Host- prefixed and never reach it.

The repository is one Rust workspace plus two TypeScript packages:

• cli/ — the playtest binary: upload, tunnel, export inspection, MCP server.
• common/ — manifests, contracts, the tunnel protocol, shared validation.
• edge/ — serves *.playtest.run: invitation pages, assets, the Plaza, rate limiting, structured data.
• api/ — control plane: accounts, versions, feedback, quotas, email.
• console/ — the developer console (Preact).
• sdk/ — the optional in-page feedback SDK.
• deploy/ — single-machine compose, Caddy config, install script.

Build it yourself

cargo build --workspace
cargo test --workspace
cd console && pnpm install && pnpm build

See deploy/README.md for running your own instance. Design decisions live in docs/DESIGN.md (Chinese), and every "this works" claim is backed by a dated record in docs/spikes/.

Security

Report vulnerabilities through GitHub's private advisory form — see SECURITY.md. playtest opens a tunnel from your machine and hosts other people's work, so we treat security reports as product defects, not PR problems.

Thanks

• 本项目积极参与并认可 LINUX DO 社区

License

• CLI and SDK: Apache-2.0
• Edge and API services: AGPL-3.0