Page Serve

---
name: page-serve
compatibility: "Claude Code 2.1.277+"
description: "Hand a human a rendered HTML page at a stable HTTPS URL. Registers a portless route for a file or directory (https://NAME.localhost/, never a :port), prints the URL, optionally screenshots it, and tears it down on stop. Use when an agent produced a page a human is meant to open: glyph explainers, playgrounds, decision pages, docs previews. Replaces ad hoc python http.server plus alias patterns that leave servers alive."
argument-hint: "[path] [--name slug] [--screenshot|--no-screenshot] | stop [name|--all] | status [--json]"
user-invocable: true
disable-model-invocation: false
context: inherit
metadata:
  category: devops
  milestone: M166
  upstream-packages: ["portless", "agent-browser"]
  version: "1.0.0"
  author: "OrchestKit"
  complexity: "low"
  tags: "page-serve, portless, agent-browser, playground, glyph, dev-loop, m166"
---

# page-serve, give a human a URL

An agent that renders a page for a human needs a way to hand it over. The pattern
that grew in sessions was `python3 -m http.server 8991` plus `portless alias <name> 8991`
typed by hand: no record of the process, no stop, servers outliving the session,
and one measured night (2026-09-06) where the same session did it twice and the
server was still up the next morning. This skill is that pattern with a state file,
a stop, a status, and a loud failure when the URL contract cannot be met.

## The contract

- The URL is `https://<name>.localhost/<file>`. No port, ever. portless's 443 service
  owns the port; a `:1355` or `:8991` in the URL is the pre-service fallback and the
  skill refuses rather than emit one.
- One static server per name, on a free loopback port, rooted at the file's
  directory (so sibling assets resolve) or at the directory you pass.
- State in `.claude/state/page-serve/<name>.json`: root, file, port, pid, url, time.
  `status` re-measures pid, route, and HTTP on every call; it never trusts the file.
- Idempotent per name: same name + same root reuses the live server; a different root
  replaces it; `--force` on the alias overrides a stale route with the same name.

## Usage

```
page-serve docs/playgrounds/roadmap-2026-09-07.html
page-serve docs/playgrounds/ --name playgrounds
page-serve <path> --screenshot          # agent-browser, returns the png path
page-serve status [--json]
page-serve stop <name>
page-serve stop --all
```

`serve.sh` prints `url=`, `name=`, `port=`, `pid=`, `http=`, optional `screenshot=`,
and the exact `stop=` line to paste. Put the `url=` line in your reply's Open section.

## Modes

| Invocation | Script | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| `<path> [flags]` | `scripts/serve.sh` | prerequisites, server, alias, state, curl check, optional screenshot |
| `status [--json]` | `scripts/status.sh` | one line per served page: server up/dead, route registered/missing, HTTP code |
| `stop <name>` or `stop --all` | `scripts/stop.sh` | alias removed, server killed, state and screenshot deleted; every step reports |

## Failure modes, all loud

| Condition | Exit | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| portless not installed | 2 | install line, then `portless service install` |
| 443 service not responding | 2 | `portless service status`, the operator's `launchctl kickstart` line, and "do not fall back to a :port URL" |
| server did not bind | 3 | port and log path |
| alias registration failed | 2 | portless's own message, server cleaned up |
| route up but URL not 200 | 4 | code, curl rc, and `portless list`; server left running for inspection |
| screenshot failed | 0 | reported on stderr, page still served, `screenshot=` line omitted |

A page that "served" but does not answer 200 through the proxy is exit 4, not 0, so a
caller that only reads the exit code cannot report a dead link as done.

## Screenshot

With agent-browser installed the default is to take one (`--no-screenshot` to skip;
`--screenshot` to insist and get a stderr line if it is missing). The png lands
beside the state file. The screenshot is evidence the page rendered, not proof it
rendered correctly: read the image before claiming the page looks right
(the glyph skill's rule 1).

## What this is not

- Not a dev server. For a framework app with hot reload use `dev`, which wraps
  the app's own dev command in portless. This skill serves static files.
- Not a publisher. Nothing leaves the machine; `.localhost` resolves locally only.
- Not a docs-site deploy. Lab pages under `docs/site/public/lab/` still ship through
  the docs-site build; this skill is for the hand-over before or beside that.

## Retiring the old pattern (#3900)

Any skill or page that tells an agent to run `python3 -m http.server` or to type
`portless alias` by hand should say `page-serve <path>` instead. As of this
skill's first release, `grep -rln 'http.server' src/skills` is empty; the pattern
lived in session habits and in hq-ext, so the sweep is glyph, playground,
visualize-plan and expect (the four that hand a human a page) plus hq-ext's glyph.

## Related skills

- `dev`, the dev-loop sibling for framework apps (portless wrapping a dev command)
- `portless` (the reference skill, model-invoked): service install, LAN mode, gotchas
- `glyph`, `visualize-plan`, `playground`, the producers of pages this serves
- `expect`, browser verification against the URL this prints