PRIVATEBIN.CONF(5)

💖 privatebin.conf — the manual page, but make it a group chat 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to privatebin.conf (section 5 of the Privatebin Manual) — this is the lil config file that the privatebin CLI reads to know where to put your pastes. pull up a chair, we're doing this together 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

privatebin.conf — the privatebin CLI configuration file. that's it, that's the name 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so basically, the privatebin(1) command line interface creates pastes to a PrivateBin instance — and which instance? the one you configured in the config.json. that's the whole vibe. no config, no paste, periodt ✨

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🎀 FORMAT 🎀

🌈 Top level object keys:

these are the big-girl settings that live at the very top of your config file 👑

• open-discussion (bool, default: false) — the default value of open discussion for a paste.
• burn-after-reading (bool, default: false) — the default value of burn after reading for a paste. 🔥 poof, gone.
• formatter (string, default: "plaintext") — the default formatter for a paste.
• expire (string, default: "1day") — the default time to live for a paste. clock's ticking bestie ⏳
• gzip (bool, default: false) — enable GZip the paste data. squeeze it, compress it, slay.
• skip-tls-verify (bool, default: false) — skip TLS certificate verification when connecting to the privatebin instance.
• proxy (string) — proxy URL to use for all requests. supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 schemes (e.g. "socks5://127.0.0.1:9050" for TOR). when set, it overrides the HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, and ALL_PROXY environment variables. can be overridden per-bin or by the --proxy CLI flag. so many layers of override, it's giving inheritance hierarchy 😭
• extra-header-fields (object<string, string>) — the extra HTTP header fields to include in the request sent.
• bin (array<bin>) — the list of bin instances. plural. a whole roster. main character energy for each one 💜

🦋 The bin object format:

each bin instance is its own lil world, with its own rules 🪩

• name (string) — the name of the bin instance.
• host (string) — the url of the bin instance.
• auth (auth) — the basic auth configuration of the bin instance.
• expire (string) — the default time to live for a paste.
• open-discussion (bool) — the default value of open discussion for a paste.
• burn-after-reading (bool) — the default value of burn after reading for a paste.
• formatter (string) — the formatter for the paste.
• gzip (bool) — GZip the paste data.
• skip-tls-verify (bool) — skip TLS certificate verification when connecting to the privatebin instance.
• proxy (string) — proxy URL to use for requests to this bin instance. supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 schemes. overrides the top-level proxy value and the proxy environment variables. can be overridden by the --proxy CLI flag.
• extra-header-fields (object<string, string>) — the extra HTTP header fields to include in the request sent.

🧚 The auth object format:

the secret lil corner where your login lives, be normal about it 🤫

• username (string) — the basic auth username.
• password (string) — the basic auth password.

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👑 EXAMPLES 👑

⭐ Minimal privatebin configuration file:

{
    "bin": [
        {
            "name": "", // default
            "host": "https://privatebin.net"
        }
    ]
}

🌸 A bit more complete configuration file:

{
    "bin": [
        {
            "name": "example",
            "host": "bin.example.com",
            "auth": {
                "username": "john.doe",
                "password": "s$cr$t"
            },
            "formatter": "markdown",
            "burn-after-reading": false
        },
        {
            "name": "",
            "host": "https://privatebin.net"
            "extra-header-fields": {
                "Foo": "Bar",
            },
        },
    ],
    "burn-after-reading": true
}

🔥 Configuration using a SOCKS5 proxy (e.g. TOR):

{
    "proxy": "socks5://127.0.0.1:9050",
    "bin": [
        {
            "name": "",
            "host": "https://privatebin.net"
        }
    ]
}

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🔍 FILES 🔍

the CLI goes looking for your config file in these locations, in order, and uses the first one it finds. it's not indecisive, it's efficient 💅

1. $HOME/.config/privatebin/config.json
2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/privatebin/config.json (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)
3. The platform-native user configuration directory (as returned by Go's os.UserConfigDir): HOME/.config_*_onLinux,_*HOME/Library/Application Support on macOS, %AppData% on Windows
4. Each directory in $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS (defaults to /etc/xdg)

duplicate paths are skipped, no double-dipping 🙈

when no --config flag is provided and no file is found, the CLI falls back to sensible defaults: expire: 1day, formatter: plaintext, gzip: enabled. and the privatebin init command writes to the first candidate path by default. so if you ever wondered where init is putting stuff — it's path number one bestie 🎀

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🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

Bryan Frimin.

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and that's the whole page!! this was privatebin.conf(5) from the Privatebin Manual, version 2.2.1, dated Feb 15, 2026 — go forth and configure your bins, you absolute icon 👑✨