OTFL — On The Fly List

Make a shareable checklist in one click. No accounts, no logins. Every list has a UUID and knowing the id is the only key — anyone with the link can read it and check things off. There's a small JSON API so assistants and scripts can create and drive lists too.

Live at https://otfl.inevitable.fyi · API docs for humans and LLMs at /llms.txt.

Why

Sometimes you just want a list — for a trip, a shopping run, a "did everyone pack their stuff" check — without signing up for anything or deciding who owns it. OTFL is that: create, share the link, done.

How it works

• Anonymous lists are open. A list id (UUID v4) is the credential — anyone with the link can view and edit. Treat the link like a secret.
• Optional GitHub sign-in. Sign in with GitHub to own lists: name them and track them on a "My lists" dashboard.
• One SQLite file on a persistent volume. Single-writer, single-replica.
• A static frontend served by the same Express process.

Ownership model

	Anonymous list (default)	Owned list (signed in)
Who can open/edit	Anyone with the link	Only the owner
Visibility	Shareable by link	Private to the owner
Shows on dashboard	No	Yes (/mine)
Reachable via API/MCP	Yes	No (session-less)

• Signed-in users create private lists by default; pass anonymous: true to POST /api/lists (or use "Create shared" in the UI) to make an open one.
• Claim: a signed-in user can claim any anonymous list (POST /api/lists/{id}/claim), which makes it private to them. Release (/release) turns it back into an open list.
• The JSON API and MCP server are session-less, so they only ever touch anonymous lists. Owned lists are reachable only through the owner's browser session (cookie).

GitHub sign-in is configured via GITHUB_CLIENT_ID / GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET. If those env vars are unset, OTFL runs in anonymous-only mode and the sign-in UI is hidden.

API

Base URL: https://otfl.inevitable.fyi. All bodies are JSON.

Method	Path	Purpose
POST	/api/lists	Create a list. Body: { title?, items? }
GET	/api/lists/{id}	Fetch a list + items
PATCH	/api/lists/{id}	Rename. Body: { title }
DELETE	/api/lists/{id}	Delete the list
POST	/api/lists/{id}/items	Add item. Body: { text, checked? }
PATCH	/api/lists/{id}/items/{itemId}	Update { text?, checked?, position? }
POST	/api/lists/{id}/items/{itemId}/toggle	Flip checked
DELETE	/api/lists/{id}/items/{itemId}	Remove an item
POST	/api/lists/{id}/clear-checked	Remove all checked items
GET	/healthz	Liveness probe

# Create a list and check the first item off
curl -s -X POST https://otfl.inevitable.fyi/api/lists \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"title":"Camping trip","items":["Tent","Headlamp"]}'

The full, assistant-friendly reference is generated at /llms.txt.

MCP server

OTFL speaks the Model Context Protocol over stateless Streamable HTTP at https://otfl.inevitable.fyi/mcp — point any MCP client at it:

{ "mcpServers": { "otfl": { "type": "http", "url": "https://otfl.inevitable.fyi/mcp" } } }

Tools: create_list, get_list, rename_list, delete_list, add_item, update_item, toggle_item, delete_item, clear_checked. The create_list/get_list tools return a share_url to hand to the user. The server is stateless (no sessions), so it works behind the same single replica as the web app.

Develop

npm install
npm start          # http://localhost:8080
# data goes to ./data/otfl.db (override with DATA_DIR)

Env vars: PORT (default 8080), DATA_DIR (default ./data), PUBLIC_URL (absolute base used in llms.txt).

Deploy

Pushing to main triggers .github/workflows/build.yml, which builds a multi-arch (amd64 + arm64) image and pushes ghcr.io/jhgaylor/otfl:latest.

The app runs on the home-cloud k3s cluster. Manifests live in k8s/ and are reconciled by Flux via clusters/home/apps/otfl.yaml in that repo (Longhorn PVC, single replica with Recreate strategy, Traefik IngressRoute, cert-manager TLS for otfl.inevitable.fyi).

License

MIT