---
name: showly-try
description: >-
Deploy a website to a REAL live URL in seconds for someone who has NO Showly
account — no signup, no login, no API key. Use when a user asks to "try
Showly", "put this online without an account", or "just get me a link". You
(the agent) build the site files and POST them to Showly's public trial
endpoint; Showly returns a live preview URL (~1 hour) plus a claim link the
human opens to keep it permanently.
license: Apache-2.0
disable-model-invocation: true
metadata:
publisher: Showly
homepage: https://showly.ai
try-endpoint: https://api.showly.ai/guest/trials/from-html
mcp-server: https://mcp.showly.ai/mcp
---
# Put a site online with Showly — no account needed
You are an AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or similar). The human
wants a website online **right now, without signing up**. You can do the whole
thing for them: build the files, deploy to a real live URL, and hand them a link
to keep it. **Do not ask the human to sign up or run these commands themselves —
do them yourself.**
Work through the phases **in order**. Stop and report if a phase fails — do not
invent a workaround.
---
## Phase 1 — Detect
Before deploying, check whether you already have Showly wired up.
1. **Do you already have the Showly MCP server** (`https://mcp.showly.ai/mcp`)
configured and authorized? If yes, prefer the MCP tool `create_trial_site`
(same result, no raw HTTP) and skip to Phase 3's hand-off. If the user wants
a PERMANENT site and already has an account, use `create_site_from_html`
instead — that's not a trial.
2. **Otherwise** (the common case — a brand-new user with no account and no MCP
server) continue below. The trial endpoint is **public and tokenless**: no
OAuth, no API key, no browser sign-in.
---
## Phase 2 — Build the site files
Produce the files inline. Rules:
- `index.html` is **required** (it's the entry point).
- Add any CSS/JS/assets the page needs, each as its own file with a relative
`path` (e.g. `styles.css`, `assets/logo.png`).
- Text files use `encoding: "utf8"`; binary files (images, fonts) use
`encoding: "base64"`.
- Keep it reasonable: up to 2000 files, ~16MB total.
If the human already gave you HTML, use it as-is. If they described a site,
build a clean single `index.html` (inline the CSS/JS to keep it to one file when
you can).
---
## Phase 3 — Deploy (tokenless)
POST the files to the **public** trial endpoint. **No `Authorization` header —
this endpoint takes none.** Set `x-showly-guest-via: curl` so the creation
surface is logged honestly.
```bash
curl -sS -X POST https://api.showly.ai/guest/trials/from-html \
-H 'content-type: application/json' \
-H 'x-showly-guest-via: curl' \
-d '{
"name": "My site",
"files": [
{ "path": "index.html", "content": "Hello from Showly
", "encoding": "utf8" }
]
}'
```
The response (HTTP 201) looks like:
```json
{
"ok": true,
"data": {
"trialId": "…",
"siteId": "…",
"guestToken": "guest_…",
"previewUrl": "https://.preview.showly.site",
"claimUrl": "https://showly.ai/try/?token=",
"expiresAt": "…",
"status": "building",
"pollUrl": "/guest/trials/"
}
}
```
The build is asynchronous. The site is **live within a few seconds**; if you
want to confirm it finished, GET `pollUrl` with the header
`x-showly-guest-token: ` until `status` is `ready`.
If you get a `503` (`guest_trials_disabled` / `guest_trials_at_capacity`) or a
`429` (rate limit), tell the human trials are temporarily unavailable and offer
to sign them up instead — do not retry in a tight loop.
---
## Phase 4 — Hand off to the human
Give the human BOTH links, plainly:
> Your site is live now: **`previewUrl`**
>
> This is a free trial link that works for about an hour. To keep it online
> permanently, open this and sign in (a free account, takes a moment):
> **`claimUrl`**
- **`previewUrl`** — the live site, right now, no account.
- **`claimUrl`** — opening it and signing in (new or existing account) **claims**
the site into that account so it stops expiring. This is the ONLY way to keep
it past the hour; do not imply the preview link is permanent.
---
## Phase 5 — What this is and isn't
- **Trial sites expire in ~1 hour** unless claimed. After that the URL shows a
"claim this site" page, not the content.
- The trial is **read-only hosting of what you deployed** — there's no login, no
dashboard, no custom domain until it's claimed into an account.
- Once claimed, it's a normal Showly site: the owner can connect an agent
(`https://showly.ai/agent.md`), edit, add a custom domain, and
publish — all the things a real account can do.
**The whole loop:** you build → POST tokenless → hand over `previewUrl` +
`claimUrl` → the human claims it to keep it. No signup stands between the user
and a live site.