Where to Find NoPaste's Source Code and Learn More

Updated

NoPaste's own page points to GitHub for more information, and the site itself exposes About and Source entries in its interface. Because NoPaste is open source and stores all data inside the link rather than a database, you can also run your own clone — and any link you generate will still work on other NoPaste clones, including your own.

Where the source and documentation live

The page states directly: "If you want to know more, you can find more information on GitHub." That is the canonical place to look for the codebase, deployment notes, and project background.

The NoPaste interface also provides two built-in entry points:

  • About — background on what NoPaste is and how it works.
  • Source — a link to the project's source code.

NoPaste is described as an improved version of Topaz's Paste, so if you are tracing its lineage or comparing implementations, that earlier project is worth knowing about as context.

What the project actually is

NoPaste is an open-source, Pastebin-like site for storing code and generating shareable links. The distinguishing design choice is that it works with no database and no back-end code. Instead, the data is compressed and stored entirely in the link you share — nowhere else.

That single design decision produces the properties the page lists:

Property What it means for you
🗑️ Cannot be deleted Your data cannot be deleted from NoPaste
🔞 Cannot be censored Your data cannot be censored
👁️ Server cannot read it The host (or any clone) cannot read or access your data
⏳ Accessible forever Your data stays accessible as long as you have the link
🔀 Portable across clones You can access your data on every NoPaste clone, including your own
🔍 Not indexed Google will not index your data, even if your link is public

Why you might want to self-host or use a clone

If you care about not depending on a single host, the portability property is the practical reason to deploy your own instance: links generated on one NoPaste clone remain readable on another, so moving hosts or running a private copy does not strand your existing links.

The trade-off is the flip side of the same design. Since the data lives only in the link:

  • Anyone who has the link can read the content — there is no server-side access control to revoke.
  • There is no way to delete or edit a paste after sharing; the page notes data cannot be deleted from NoPaste.
  • If the link is corrupted or truncated, it cannot be recovered — the page's own error message ("NoPaste cannot decompress the URL") reflects exactly this, because the payload is the URL.

Getting started

  1. Open the NoPaste site and use the editor to enter your code or text.
  2. Use Generate link to produce a shareable URL, or Generate markdown if you want an embeddable form.
  3. Copy the link — that link is the storage. Keep it intact.
  4. To explore the code or deploy your own instance, follow the Source link in the interface or the GitHub reference on the page.

If you want the full technical background before deciding whether to self-host, the GitHub project is the place to read it; the NoPaste page itself is the working tool, not the documentation.