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Pancake Stack
ChaptersPancake Stack Manual
Getting started
  1. 1Welcome to Pancake
  2. 2A tour of the window
  3. 3Your first site
Building sites
  1. 4Working with sites
  2. 5Files, the editor and design
  3. 6Bringing sites in
  4. 7Databases
Sharing and publishing
  1. 8Putting sites online
  2. 9On my network and local HTTPS
  3. 10Mail from your sites
  4. 11Deploying
Running your stack
  1. 12Backups and save points
  2. 13Services, tasks and workers
  3. 14The Assistant and MCP
Reference
  1. 15Settings, templates and plug-ins
  2. 16Plans and subscription
  3. 17Troubleshooting
  4. 18Privacy and your data

Pancake Stack › Pancake Stack Manual

Serve it up · Sharing and publishing

Putting sites online

Show a site to anyone with a temporary link, put it at your own domain through Cloudflare, or serve it straight from your Mac. One switch takes everything off the internet.

The Online pane: On my network at the top, then a card for each site with its Online switch and Use my own domain.
Figure 8.1The Online pane: On my network at the top, then a card for each site with its Online switch and Use my own domain.

8.1Outside Access: the internet switch

The globe button in the toolbar is Outside Access. It decides whether anything leaves your Mac:

Turning Outside Access off is instant: tunnels close, router port mappings are removed and DDNS updates stop. Every setting is kept, so turning it on again brings everything back. The switch is also in the menu bar icon, the widget, and Shortcuts ("Take my Pancake sites offline").

Tip

Use Outside Access as a panic button. Whatever you have set up, one click makes every site private again.

A site is published only when all three are true: the site is switched Online, Outside Access is on, and the servers are running. The Online pane says which one is missing.

The quickest way to show a site to someone. No account is needed.

  1. Open the Online pane and switch the site Online.
  2. Make sure Outside Access is on and the servers are running.
  3. After about 20 seconds, the card shows an address like https://random-words.trycloudflare.com, with Open, Copy, Check and a QR code.

The link is for testing: it changes each time it restarts, and it works only while the site is online and Pancake is running. Check tests once that the link answers from the internet.

8.3Your own domain through Cloudflare

Pancake serves the site through a Cloudflare Tunnel. There is no router setup, it works behind any network, and your home address stays private. Your domain must be on Cloudflare; the free plan is fine.

  1. On the site's card in the Online pane, click Set Up… next to Use my own domain.
  2. The first time, connect Cloudflare: click Open Cloudflare…. Cloudflare's token page opens with most permissions filled in.
  3. Add one more permission row: Account › Cloudflare Tunnel › Edit. Create the token and copy it.
  4. Paste it into Cloudflare API token and click Connect. The token is kept in your Keychain.
  5. Type a subdomain (such as www, or leave it empty for the domain itself) and choose the domain. Pancake shows the address it will use.
  6. Click Use. Pancake creates this Mac's tunnel (the first time) and a DNS record pointing the name at it.

Once the site is online, the card shows its address with Open and a QR code. Cloudflare provides the HTTPS certificate.

Note

No domain in Cloudflare yet? Sign up at cloudflare.com and add your domain; Cloudflare shows the two nameservers to set at your registrar. Then click Refresh in Pancake. An existing DNS record at the same name is left alone unless it's a CNAME.

Settings ▸ Cloudflare shows your domains and which sites use them. Disconnect… can also remove Pancake's DNS records and tunnel from Cloudflare, or leave them there.

8.4How many sites can be online

ShortStackTallStackFullStack
Sites online at once110Unlimited
Cloudflare and Route 53 domains110Unlimited
DDNS names110Unlimited

Test links and own domains count together. The count covers all your Macs signed in to the same iCloud: if one Mac is serving your ShortStack site, another can't put a second one online (a Mac stops counting when Pancake quits or the Mac goes offline). The Online pane shows which Mac is using the allowance. Without iCloud, the limit is per Mac.

After moving to a smaller plan, extra sites keep their Online switch but stay unpublished until you upgrade or switch another site off.

8.5Is it still up?

While Outside Access is on, Pancake checks each site it serves from this Mac (its domain or test link) every five minutes. If a site fails twice in a row, macOS shows a notification ("blog can't be reached from the internet"), and another when it's back. The dot next to the site's name shows the last result. On FullStack, the same alerts can go to your phone (see Push alerts).

8.6Straight from this Mac

Turn on Advanced in the Online pane for Straight from this Mac: no tunnel, your router forwards web traffic to the Mac, and a DNS name follows your home address. Most people should use a Cloudflare tunnel instead; this is for when you want your own certificates and no middleman.

  1. Turn on Open ports 80 and 443 on my router automatically (NAT-PMP / UPnP), or forward them on your router by hand. Pancake shows your internet address and the mappings it made.
  2. Click Add Name, choose the site and a DNS service, and type the name, such as blog.example.com or myblog.duckdns.org.
  3. Switch the site Online. Pancake updates the name's address whenever your home address changes.

DNS services: Cloudflare DNS (with an option to proxy through Cloudflare, which hides your address), Amazon Route 53, Duck DNS, No-IP, DNS-O-Matic, Dyn and easyDNS. Route 53 uses the AWS key saved in Deploy ▸ Create a Server.

Free certificates from Let's Encrypt

Turn on HTTPS certificates from Let's Encrypt (free) and agree to its Subscriber Agreement, then click Get Certificate next to a name. Cloudflare and Route 53 names are checked through DNS; other names need port 80 forwarded to the Mac. Certificates renew by themselves 30 days before they expire.

Your own certificate

Bought a certificate, or have one from your company or a Cloudflare Origin certificate? Click Paste Certificate…, paste (or choose) the certificate followed by its chain in the top box and the private key in the bottom box, as PEM text. Pancake checks that the key matches and shows the names, issuer and expiry date, then uses it instead of Let's Encrypt for the names it covers, wildcards included.

Password-protected keys and .pfx files need converting first, for example with openssl pkcs12 -in file.pfx -nodes.

Careful

Sites served straight from your Mac are reachable at your home address, and your Mac must stay on and awake. Keep software up to date, and switch Outside Access off when you don't need it.