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Thingport Bridge

This helper registers the custom protocol thingport://, downloads the requested file, and launches it in the slicer Thingport asked for. It exists because some slicers’ own URL protocol handlers won’t take a link straight from a self-hosted Thingport instance:

  • Bambu Studio’s bambustudio:// and PrusaSlicer’s prusaslicer:// both only accept links from a domain allowlist (Bambu Lab’s own storefronts; printables.com plus a handful of sites Prusa has manually whitelisted, respectively) that a self-hosted instance is never on, so “Open in {Slicer}” would otherwise silently do nothing.
  • Cura’s cura://open handler isn’t domain-restricted, but its OS protocol registration is unreliable across its AppImage/Flatpak/Microsoft Store builds, so it’s routed the same way for consistency.

OrcaSlicer’s protocol handler accepts any HTTP(S) URL directly with no such restriction, so it’s launched straight from the browser and never needs this bridge.

Protocol format: thingport://open?url=<download-url>&slicer=<id>&filename=<name>

The url parameter should be a direct HTTP(s) download link. Thingport already includes the auth token in that URL.

Quick install (no shell commands)

Download the latest Bridge binary for your OS from the Thingport releases page (also linked from the in-app Download page) and run it once. It registers the thingport:// protocol handler and copies itself into a stable location:

  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Thingport\Bridge\thingport-bridge.exe
  • Linux: ~/.local/bin/thingport-bridge
  • macOS: ~/Applications/Thingport Bridge.app

Windows / Linux

Double-click the downloaded file (or run it with no arguments from a terminal). If your Linux file manager blocks execution, mark the file as executable first (chmod +x) and run it once.

macOS

macOS only recognizes a real .app bundle as a protocol handler, so install here is an explicit step rather than a plain double-click:

chmod +x ~/Downloads/thingport-bridge-macos
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/thingport-bridge-macos   # downloaded files are quarantined by Gatekeeper
~/Downloads/thingport-bridge-macos --install

This copies itself into ~/Applications/Thingport Bridge.app (a background, Dock-less agent) and registers the thingport:// scheme with Launch Services. If macOS still refuses to run it, open System Settings -> Privacy & Security and allow it there instead of using xattr.

If the terminal instead prints Killed: 9 (or [1] ... killed) the moment you run it, that’s a stale, invalidly-signed binary rather than a Gatekeeper block — re-sign it yourself and retry:

codesign --force -s - ~/Downloads/thingport-bridge-macos

Build

You need Go installed (1.21+ recommended). macOS builds also need Xcode’s command line tools (xcode-select --install) since the URL-open handling uses Cocoa via cgo, and can only be built on macOS itself.

Windows (PowerShell):

cd bridge
go build -o dist\thingport-bridge.exe .\cmd\thingport-bridge

Linux (bash):

cd bridge
go build -o dist/thingport-bridge ./cmd/thingport-bridge

macOS (bash), universal binary:

cd bridge
GOARCH=arm64 go build -o dist/thingport-bridge-arm64 ./cmd/thingport-bridge
GOARCH=amd64 go build -o dist/thingport-bridge-amd64 ./cmd/thingport-bridge
lipo -create -output dist/thingport-bridge-macos dist/thingport-bridge-arm64 dist/thingport-bridge-amd64
codesign --force -s - dist/thingport-bridge-macos   # lipo invalidates each slice's signature;
                                                        # without this, arm64 Macs SIGKILL it on launch

Install (manual)

Windows (PowerShell):

cd bridge\scripts
.\install-windows.ps1 -BridgePath "..\dist\thingport-bridge.exe"

Linux (bash):

cd bridge/scripts
./install-linux.sh ../dist/thingport-bridge

You can also run the binary directly: thingport-bridge --install (this is required, not just convenient, on macOS — see above).

If your shell blocks scripts, set the execution policy for the current user:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned

Auto-start at login (optional)

Not needed on any OS for correctness — see “Quick install” above: Windows and Linux launch the Bridge fresh, URL already attached, from the registered protocol handler on every click, and macOS launches its app bundle on demand the same way, even after a reboot. There is nothing sitting idle waiting to be started.

The only thing adding it as a login item buys you is skipping the ~1 second app-launch delay on the very first click after starting up your Mac (Windows/Linux have no such delay to skip, since each click is already a fresh, near-instant process start — there’s no persistent process to pre-warm).

If you still want it, on macOS:

Easiest — System Settings -> General -> Login Items & Extensions -> click + and add Thingport Bridge from ~/Applications.

Or, a LaunchAgent — save as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.thingport.bridge.plist (replace YOUR_USERNAME):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.thingport.bridge</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Applications/Thingport Bridge.app/Contents/MacOS/thingport-bridge</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

then:

mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents
# save the file above as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.thingport.bridge.plist
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.thingport.bridge.plist

Config

Create a config file if you want custom slicer paths or arguments:

  • Windows: %APPDATA%\thingport-bridge\config.json
  • Linux: ~/.config/thingport-bridge/config.json
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/thingport-bridge/config.json

Use config.example.json as a template.

Environment override (per slicer): THINGPORT_SLICER_BAMBUSTUDIO=/path/to/BambuStudio

Slicer IDs

  • bambustudio
  • orcaslicer (not actually routed through the Bridge — see above — but still a valid slicer= value and config.json/env-var override key)
  • prusaslicer
  • cura
  • other (opens with the OS default app)

Cura’s AppImage and Flatpak builds aren’t on PATH and won’t be auto-detected. If “Open in Cura” falls back to opening with your OS default app, add a cura entry to config.json (see config.example.json) or set THINGPORT_SLICER_CURA=/path/to/cura.

Testing

After install, paste this into your browser’s address bar (replace the URL): thingport://open?url=https://example.com/model.3mf&slicer=bambustudio&filename=model.3mf

Logs

  • Windows: %APPDATA%\thingport-bridge\bridge.log
  • Linux: ~/.config/thingport-bridge/bridge.log
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/thingport-bridge/bridge.log

Notes

  • The bridge downloads files into the user cache directory unless configured otherwise.
  • If a slicer isn’t found, the file opens with the OS default app instead.
  • On macOS, the installed app keeps running in the background (no Dock icon) so repeat opens don’t pay the app-launch cost every time — this mirrors how macOS delivers custom URL schemes to already-registered apps via Apple Events rather than a fresh process per open, unlike Windows/Linux.