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use-cases / share-your-screen-with-a-url / hero
PIPE · STREAMING · ?VIDEO

Share your screen with a URL, not a meeting invite

One ffmpeg pipe into curl. Whoever you DM gets a URL they can click. The pipe itself plays it back as embedded HTML video. No Zoom share, no Loom upload, no permission dialog, no calendar invite.

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use-cases / share-your-screen-with-a-url / mechanism

ffmpeg into curl, then a click

The sender encodes their X11 display to webm and pipes it into curl. curl PUTs the stream to a pipe path with n=5. The receiver opens the same path with ?video appended. The pipe itself returns an embedded HTML video player that plays the stream as it arrives.

One sender, up to five receivers4 STEPS · ZERO INSTALLS
0101 · CAPTURE

Encode the screen

ffmpeg -f x11grab -i :0 -c:v libvpx -f webm reads your X11 display and writes a webm stream to stdout.

0202 · STREAM

Pipe into curl

curl -T - PUTs stdin to /api/v1/pipe/screen?n=5. The pipe waits for receivers to connect on the same path.

0303 · LINK

Paste the URL

You drop the receiver URL with ?video into the chat. No app, no account, no install. They click.

0404 · WATCH

URL is the player

The pipe returns an HTML page with an embedded MSE video element. Up to five viewers watch the same live stream.

n=5 caps the audience. The pipe holds receivers up to five minutes for the sender to connect. Headers like Content-Type are forwarded. The whole thing runs through HTTPS — nothing more exotic than the protocol your browser already speaks.

use-cases / share-your-screen-with-a-url / friction

What never has to happen

Every screen-share tool you've ever used buys its features by adding rituals. The pipe-and-URL version skips the rituals because the URL itself is the entire interface.

RITUALS YOU SKIP0 SECONDS

Things that don't happen

  • Schedule a Zoom for tomorrow morning
  • Send a calendar invite with three time zones
  • Wait for the other side to install the desktop app
  • Click Allow on three permission prompts
  • Click Share Screen, then pick the right window
  • Sit through a recording-disclosure dialog
  • Upload a Loom afterwards and wait for it to process
WHAT YOU ACTUALLY DO8 SECONDS

Things that do happen

  • Type one ffmpeg | curl line in your terminal
  • Paste the receiver URL into the chat
  • Whoever clicks first gets to watch
  • ctrl-C when you are done
use-cases / share-your-screen-with-a-url / angles

Three readers, one URL

The same pipe-and-?video mechanism reads three different ways depending on what you wanted to do with the screen.

FOR THE SOLO FOUNDER

Show, don't schedule

An investor asks if the demo is real. You don't book a 30-minute slot for next Tuesday. You stream it now, paste the URL, watch them click.

FOR THE SMALL TEAM

Five eyes on one screen

n=5 means the whole engineering channel can watch the same incident-response screen at once. No bridge, no host privileges, no presenter.

FOR THE PRIVACY-MINDED

Nothing was ever stored

There is no recording on a server somewhere. The pipe is purely streaming — bytes pass through, nothing is written. ctrl-C and the URL goes dead.

use-cases / share-your-screen-with-a-url / punchline

Screen-sharing without the meeting, the app, or the calendar invite.

stream starts when you press enterstream ends when you press ctrl-C
livepipe.containers.hoody.com/api/v1/pipe/screen?videowhile the sender is up
ctrl-C
404pipe.containers.hoody.com/api/v1/pipe/screen?videono recording, no replay
use-cases / share-your-screen-with-a-url / replaces

What this replaces

The lineup of screen-share tools every team accumulates. Each one assumes a meeting, an account, or a recording. The pipe URL assumes none of those.

  • Zoom screenshareScheduled call, app install, host privileges
  • LoomRecords first, uploads, then a link — never live
  • Slack screenshareBoth sides on Slack desktop, Huddles only
  • Discord screen shareServer membership, voice channel, bitrate caps
  • Google Meet presentCalendar plumbing for a 30-second look
  • Manual recording + uploadffmpeg to file, then a separate share step
use-cases / share-your-screen-with-a-url / cta

The next time someone asks 'can you show me?', send a URL.

Read the pipe API
use-cases / share-your-screen-with-a-url / related

Read the others