getting you a seat

Meet at a word.

You both agree on one word. One of you runs a line, the other runs a line. Your two machines end up connected — directly.

Nothing to install and no account on the far end. The word is held for fifteen minutes on a directory that stores only a word and an address; the session itself runs point-to-point and never passes through it.

Sign in

This runs on your 0verload account — the same sign-in as the app. The person you connect to needs nothing: they run one line and that is the whole of their involvement.

1  ·  Pick a word

Say it out loud, text it, whatever — you just both have to type the same thing. Two people on the same word find each other; anyone on a different word sees nothing at all.

2  ·  Run this. So do they.

The same line on both machines. Whoever runs it first is told to open the door; the other one connects to it. You do not choose — choosing is how a door ends up open on the wrong computer.


  
  
 


  

    
On a Mac with nothing installed

    
One line instead of two. It fetches
       cloudflared from this site — no Homebrew, no sudo, nothing
       added to the system — into ~/g0t, then runs the meetup.
       Delete that folder and it is as if none of it happened.

    

    
    
The build for the chip is picked by uname -m,
       so there is nothing to choose and no wrong answer. If python3 has
       never run on that Mac the script stops and tells you to run
       xcode-select --install once — Apple's own download, and
       the only piece this site cannot hand you.

    
By hand instead:
       cloudflared for
       Apple Silicon  · 
       for Intel. Unpack with
       tar xz next to peer.py, which looks there
       before it looks at your PATH.

  











What actually happens



  
    
    
  1. The host spawns a Cloudflare quick tunnel at its own SSH port and
        gets back a one-off *.trycloudflare.com address.
    2. 
    
  2. It publishes that address under your word. The word is hashed, so
        the directory holds a fingerprint and an address — not your word.
    3. 
    
  3. The joiner polls for the same word and claims it. A claim consumes
        it: the second reader gets nothing, so a guessed word is worth one shot.
    4. 
    
  4. From there it is host and joiner, over the tunnel. The directory is
        out of the conversation and carries none of the session.
    5. 
  








Before it will work



  

    

      Both sides
      Python 3 and cloudflared. On a Mac the one-line
          setup above brings cloudflared from this site and wants neither
          Homebrew nor sudo; on Windows, the binary from Cloudflare on your
          PATH or sitting next to peer.py.
    

    

      Host only
      SSH has to actually be listening. On macOS that is
          System Settings › General › Sharing ›
          Remote Login. A tunnel to a closed port comes up looking
          perfectly healthy and then refuses every connection, so this is the
          one worth checking first — peer.py checks it for you and
          says so.
    

    

      Joiner only
      Nothing. It does not open a port and does not accept anything.
    

  








Worth knowing



  
The host side opens a shell on its own machine. Anyone
     who has the address and a credential can reach that SSH port while the
     window is open. Run it when you mean to, close it when you are done, and
     host from the machine you would rather expose.

  
A word is good once, for fifteen minutes. It is
     claimed on first read and expires on its own. Publishing onto a word
     somebody is already holding is refused, not overwritten — so nobody can
     quietly take over a word you are waiting on.

  
Quick tunnels are Cloudflare's free tier and carry no
     uptime promise. Fine for pairing on something for an afternoon; for
     anything standing, point --expose at a named tunnel instead.