Per-bucket upload header rules
Set rules per bucket so matching files receive specified Cache-Control values on upload. The site gives long-lived caching for JavaScript and CSS and no-cache for HTML as examples.
Hoistbay
Hoistbay is a free, open-source desktop app for managing Amazon S3 buckets and CloudFront distributions. It helps developers handle deployment uploads, object changes, metadata fixes, and cache invalidations from macOS or Windows.
Desktop management for Amazon S3 and CloudFront
Hoistbay is a free, open-source desktop application for browsing and managing Amazon S3 buckets and Amazon CloudFront distributions. It is designed for the repeated storage and CDN tasks around releases, including uploading build folders, applying upload headers, managing objects, and invalidating cached content without using the AWS Console or remembering command-line flags.
The app connects to official AWS regional endpoints over HTTPS and states that it has no intermediary backend or analytics. Credentials are kept in the native key store on supported operating systems, while the MIT-licensed source is available for inspection or local builds with Flutter.
Core capabilities for S3 and CloudFront work
Object and folder management
Upload files or multiple folders while preserving folder structure, download objects or folders, and perform multi-select rename, move, copy across buckets or regions, and deletion operations.
CloudFront cache invalidation
Browse CloudFront distributions alongside buckets, invalidate all paths or named paths after a deployment, and follow the invalidation status.
Metadata inspection and editing
View an object's properties, HTTP headers, tags, and versions. Content-Type, Content-Encoding, and x-amz-meta-* values can be changed without re-uploading the object.
Activity tracking and retry handling
A single activity panel reports live progress, start and finish times, and success or failure for uploads, downloads, deletes, and cache clears. Network failures are retried up to three times and remaining failures are reported per object.
AWS profile and S3 workflow support
Save account-and-region profiles, switch between them, and use session tokens. The app detects bucket regions automatically and includes handling for special-character keys, Content-MD5 bulk deletes, and large folder pagination.
Practical deployment and storage scenarios
Publishing a static site release
Upload a completed web build as a folder while retaining its directory structure and applying predefined caching rules to asset and HTML file patterns.
Refreshing CDN-delivered content
After a deployment, invalidate all CloudFront paths or selected paths and use the activity status to confirm that the cache clear completed.
Maintaining S3-hosted assets
Move or copy selected objects between buckets or regions, download a folder for local work, or remove unneeded objects as a bulk operation.
Repairing object delivery metadata
Correct an object's Content-Type, Content-Encoding, or custom metadata in place when an existing asset has incorrect delivery settings.
Working across AWS environments
Keep separate saved connections for production, development, or staging AWS environments and switch profiles when working across accounts and regions.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Free and open source under the MIT license, with source available on GitHub.
- Keeps credentials in macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager and states that the app communicates only with AWS.
- Combines build-folder uploads, object administration, metadata fixes, and CloudFront invalidation in one desktop workflow.
- Provides per-object failure reporting and automatic retry attempts for network interruptions.
- Supports account and region profiles, including temporary session-token credentials.
Cons
- The published desktop clients support macOS and Windows; Linux is listed as coming soon.
- The macOS build is not yet notarized by Apple, so first launch requires the documented manual approval step.
- Its documented scope is Amazon S3 and CloudFront rather than broader AWS service administration.
FAQ
Where are AWS credentials stored?
Hoistbay stores AWS access keys in the native credential storage on supported platforms: macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager. The site states that keys are read when the app calls AWS.
Can it work with multiple AWS accounts or temporary credentials?
It supports saved profiles by AWS account and region, with session tokens for temporary credentials. Bucket regions are detected automatically.
Which operating systems are supported?
The application is available for macOS 12 or later on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, and for Windows 10/11 x64. A Linux client is listed as coming soon.
How does CloudFront cache invalidation work?
Hoistbay can invalidate all paths using /* or selected paths, and displays invalidation progress until the cache is cleared.
Quick Facts
- Category
- Developer Tool
- Primary services
- Amazon S3 and Amazon CloudFront
- Platforms
- macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon and Intel); Windows 10/11 x64
- License
- MIT open source
- Current release shown
- v1.1.0
- Source site
- hoistbay.app
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