Manage System Hosts File Entries Safely with Toolkit

The Toolkit hosts manager lets you add custom domain-to-IP mappings — like routing api.local to 127.0.0.1 or staging.internal to a specific LAN address — without ever risking corruption of your existing system entries. Every change Toolkit makes is written inside clearly labeled delimiter blocks, keeping toolkit-managed rules fully isolated from anything that was already in your hosts file.

Isolated Blocks

When you add an entry, Toolkit writes it inside a dedicated section:

# >>> ALL-IN-ONE-TOOLKIT BEGIN >>>
127.0.0.1   api.local
127.0.0.1   project.test
192.168.1.50  staging.internal
# <<< ALL-IN-ONE-TOOLKIT END <<<

Entries that existed in your hosts file before you ever used Toolkit are never touched. When you remove an entry or clear all toolkit rules, only the content between the delimiters changes — your pre-existing system rules stay exactly as they were.

On Windows and some Linux configurations, your hosts file is owned by the system and requires elevated permissions to modify. Toolkit detects this automatically via the canWrite flag and will prompt you to approve a privilege escalation (UAC on Windows, sudo on Unix) before making any change. No modification is attempted silently.

Hosts File Locations

OS	Hosts File Path
Windows	`C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts`
Linux	`/etc/hosts`
macOS	`/etc/hosts`

`toolkit hosts list`

Show every domain mapping Toolkit currently manages, plus a summary count of unmanaged entries already present in your system hosts file. The managed flag in each entry tells you whether Toolkit owns it.

toolkit hosts list

toolkit hosts list --json

Example terminal output:

=== Hosts File (/etc/hosts) ===

Managed Toolkit Entries (3):
  127.0.0.1        api.local
  127.0.0.1        project.test
  192.168.1.50     staging.internal

Total unmanaged system entries: 8

`toolkit hosts add <domain> [ip]`

Add a domain-to-IP mapping to the toolkit-managed block. If you omit the IP address, it defaults to 127.0.0.1 — the most common use case for local development domains.

# Add a domain pointing to localhost (default IP: 127.0.0.1)
toolkit hosts add project.test

# Add a domain pointing to a custom IP address
toolkit hosts add api.local 192.168.1.50

# Add a domain and get a JSON confirmation
toolkit hosts add project.test --json

Argument / Flag	Type	Required	Description
`<domain>`	`string`	✅	Domain name to map (e.g., `api.local`, `my-app.test`).
`[ip]`	`string`	—	Target IP address. Defaults to `127.0.0.1` if omitted.
`--json`	`boolean`	—	Emit the operation result as JSON.

`toolkit hosts remove <domain>`

Remove a specific Toolkit-managed domain mapping. Only entries inside the toolkit delimiter block are eligible for removal — you cannot accidentally delete system entries this way.

# Remove a managed entry
toolkit hosts remove project.test

# Remove and confirm via JSON
toolkit hosts remove api.local --json

Argument / Flag	Type	Required	Description
`<domain>`	`string`	✅	The managed domain to remove.
`--json`	`boolean`	—	Emit the operation result as JSON.

`--json` Output

toolkit hosts list --json emits a HostsFileStatus object containing both managed and unmanaged entries:

toolkit hosts list --json

{
  "filePath": "/etc/hosts",
  "canWrite": true,
  "totalEntries": 11,
  "managedEntries": [
    {
      "ip": "127.0.0.1",
      "domain": "api.local",
      "comment": null,
      "managed": true
    },
    {
      "ip": "127.0.0.1",
      "domain": "project.test",
      "comment": null,
      "managed": true
    },
    {
      "ip": "192.168.1.50",
      "domain": "staging.internal",
      "comment": "staging server",
      "managed": true
    }
  ],
  "unmanagedEntries": [
    {
      "ip": "127.0.0.1",
      "domain": "localhost",
      "comment": null,
      "managed": false
    },
    {
      "ip": "::1",
      "domain": "localhost",
      "comment": null,
      "managed": false
    }
  ]
}

toolkit hosts add --json emits a confirmation object with the domain and resolved IP:

toolkit hosts add api.local 192.168.1.50 --json

{
  "success": true,
  "domain": "api.local",
  "ip": "192.168.1.50"
}

toolkit hosts remove --json emits a confirmation object with the removed domain:

toolkit hosts remove api.local --json

{
  "success": true,
  "domain": "api.local"
}

Getting Started

Core Features

Web Dashboard

Guides

Manage System Hosts File Entries Safely with Toolkit

Isolated Blocks

Hosts File Locations

`toolkit hosts list`

`toolkit hosts add <domain> [ip]`

`toolkit hosts remove <domain>`

`--json` Output

​Isolated Blocks

​Hosts File Locations

​toolkit hosts list

​toolkit hosts add <domain> [ip]

​toolkit hosts remove <domain>

​--json Output

Isolated Blocks

Hosts File Locations

`toolkit hosts list`

`toolkit hosts add <domain> [ip]`

`toolkit hosts remove <domain>`

`--json` Output