Docs Dashboard

Import from GitHub

Anchorify can snapshot a file from a public GitHub repository and publish it as a new share — useful when you want to share a file from someone else's repo (a README, a spec, a sample config) with a non-technical recipient and link them at a clean URL instead of GitHub's raw-source page.

This is the v1 of GitHub publishing — see the Limits section for what it doesn't yet do.

Open the importer

  1. Sign in.
  2. Open /new (the New share button on the dashboard).
  3. The Input-mode tabs show Paste content, Upload file, and Import from GitHub. Click the GitHub tab.
  4. You land on /dashboard/github.

Paste a GitHub URL

Anchorify accepts any of these URL shapes for a public repo file:

  • The normal "blob" URL: https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/blob/<ref>/<path>
  • The raw URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<owner>/<repo>/<ref>/<path>
  • A gist.githubusercontent.com raw URL (single-file gists).

Pick the file's slug (or leave blank for one auto-generated from the filename), pick visibility, click Import. The server fetches the file from GitHub's raw endpoint, stores a snapshot of the content under the chosen slug, and redirects to the new share.

The snapshot is independent of the source — Anchorify does not re-fetch the file later, so updates to the GitHub file are not mirrored. To pick up a new revision, re-import (you can overwrite by reusing the same slug, or import to a different slug).

Why a snapshot, not a live pointer?

Three reasons:

  1. Stability. The Anchorify URL keeps working even if the GitHub repo is deleted, renamed, force-pushed, or transferred.
  2. Auth model. Live pointers would need authenticated reads for private repos and rate-limit handling at view time. The v1 stays out of that surface area.
  3. Performance. Snapshots are served from Anchorify's own storage; no GitHub round-trip per view, no cold-start delay for the recipient.

A live-pointer mode is on the roadmap (see Limits).

Limits

The v1 importer is intentionally narrow.

  • Public repos only. Private repos would require OAuth + per-user GitHub tokens. Tracked as [V4-#5-followup].
  • No OAuth flow. Anchorify makes no authenticated request to GitHub.
  • No live pointer. The snapshot is one-shot; subsequent edits to the GitHub file are not reflected on the share. Re-import to refresh.
  • No multi-file or full-repo import. One file at a time. For directory uploads use Multi-file uploads from a local clone.
  • No repo browser UI. You paste the URL; Anchorify does not list the repo's files for you.
  • Size cap. The same per-share size limit as paste/upload applies. The importer surfaces an error if the file exceeds it.

Alternatives

If GitHub-import doesn't fit:

  • Paste content — for content already on your clipboard (markdown, code, JSON, CSV).
  • Upload file — for a local file (text or binary).
  • Multi-file uploads — for a folder of files; see Uploads.
  • anchorify CLI — when the file lives in a local repo, anchorify <file> publishes from your terminal in one command. See the CLI guide.