Opengist

Opengist is a self-hosted pastebin that stores snippets as Git repositories and exposes a web UI and JSON API for creating, browsing and embedding code snippets. It is written in Go and designed for fast deployment with Docker or a native binary.

Key Features

• Store snippets in Git repositories with full revision history and standard git push/pull over HTTP or SSH
• Create public, unlisted or private snippets; like, fork and tag snippets with topics
• Syntax highlighting, Markdown and CSV rendering; editor with indentation controls and drag-and-drop files
• Search snippets, browse users, likes and forks; download raw files or ZIP archives
• OAuth2 login (GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, OpenID Connect) and avatar support via Gravatar/OAuth providers
• Admin panel with user/gist management, repo sync and git garbage collection
• Supports SQLite, PostgreSQL or MySQL as backend databases
• Distributed deployment options: Docker image, docker-compose configuration and Helm chart

Use Cases

• Host an internal team gist/pastebin for sharing code snippets, configs and small scripts
• Publish embeddable code samples or documentation snippets on blogs and docs sites
• Maintain private or unlisted snippets for onboarding, secure notes, or ephemeral sharing between developers

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires Git (recommended 2.28+) and OpenSSH for SSH-based Git operations; SSH support depends on system OpenSSH setup
• Because each snippet is stored in Git, very large numbers of fragments can increase repository size and may impact search or git operation performance; plan storage and backups accordingly

Opengist is a focused, Git-centric alternative to gist-style services, offering familiar git workflows and a lightweight web UI. It is suitable for teams that want snippet hosting under their own control and integrates with common auth providers and containerized deployment workflows.