loremfile
Free, CC0, hotlink-friendly sample files for every file type. Lorem Picsum, but for
PDFs, images, audio, video, office documents, data files, archives, fonts, text encodings,
raw byte blobs and deliberately malformed edge cases.
https://loremfile.dev/pdf/a4-3pages.pdf
https://loremfile.dev/bin/10mb.bin
https://loremfile.dev/mp4/720p-5s.mp4
https://loremfile.dev/edge/jpg-truncated-50pct.jpg
No ads, no accounts, no rate-limit surprises, no attribution required. Open CORS, byte-range
support, one-year immutable caching, and a machine-readable
manifest.json with SHA-256 hashes for every file.
228 files across 78 formats plus the edge/ set are live, at catalog version 1.2.0. The
specification lives in docs/.
Canonical host
The canonical host is https://loremfile.dev.
This README is the out-of-band pointer: if loremfile.dev is ever unavailable or moves, the
current canonical host is stated here first. Do not rely on any other mirror.
What you can rely on
- The bytes at a published path do not change. Hash, byte count and MIME type stay as
they are; a fix is a new path, and the old entry records
supersededBy. A file may be
withdrawn for legal reasons, and the manifest then keeps a tombstone for it. There is no
promise of availability; see the terms.
- Hotlinking is welcome. That is what this is for. Please keep automated traffic under
30 requests per second per client (the edge rate-limits at 300 requests / 10 s per IP).
- No tracking cookies, no analytics scripts, no accounts.
For agents and CI
/llms.txt: what this service is, in one file./manifest.json: every fixture with path, bytes,
sha256, MIME type, tags and format-specific properties./sha256sums.txt: verify downloads with
sha256sum -c./{format}/index.json: one format at a time.
GitHub Action
Pull fixtures into a workflow and check each one against its sha256 in the manifest:
- uses: kumarprabhashanand/loremfile/action@action-v1
with:
paths: pdf/minimal.pdf mp4/720p-5s.mp4
formats: svg
It writes to loremfile-fixtures/ and outputs dir and count. A file whose bytes do not
match the manifest fails the step and names the file. catalog-version: "1.2.0" refuses to
run if loremfile.dev has moved on.
The action is shell only and talks to nothing but loremfile.dev. It downloads one file at a
time with a pause between them and backs off on a 429, because the published rate limit
applies to it like any other client. Linux and macOS runners only: it needs sha256sum
or shasum, and Windows is not supported rather than half-supported.
action-v1 is a major tag that moves as the action changes; it is deliberately not a v*
release tag, because those name a catalog version and are frozen once pushed. Pinning a
commit SHA works too and is the strictest option.
Command-line clients
loremfile on PyPI (Python 3.11 or newer) and
loremfile on npm take named files or a whole
format, and write a file only after checking it against its sha256:
npx loremfile get --format pdf
loremfile get pdf/minimal.pdf mp4/720p-5s.mp4 # after pip install loremfile
Neither has a dependency. The Python package declares dependencies = [] and uses only the
standard library; the npm package's package.json lists no dependencies and uses only Node's
built-ins. Installing either installs that one package.
MCP server
Both packages also run a Model Context Protocol server over stdio, with three read-only
tools: list_fixtures, describe_fixture and verify_file. With Node:
{ "mcpServers": { "loremfile": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "loremfile", "mcp"] } } }
With Python, without an install:
{ "mcpServers": { "loremfile": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["loremfile", "mcp"] } } }
It is listed in the
MCP Registry
as io.github.kumarprabhashanand/loremfile, and loremfile.dev/docs/mcp
describes the tools.
Licences
| What | Licence |
|---|
Every file served under a format path (/pdf/…, /bin/…, /edge/…) | CC0 1.0 Universal: public domain, no attribution needed |
| Generators, site and tooling in this repository | MIT |
| Website text and graphics | CC BY 4.0, attribute "loremfile.dev" |
Third-party tools used to generate the files are listed in THIRD_PARTY.md.
No third-party media is redistributed: everything is generated.
Repository
| Path | What |
|---|
docs/ | The full specification, 00–19. Start with docs/README.md. |
catalog/ | Declarative fixture definitions, one YAML per format. |
src/loremfile/ | Generators, validators, site builder, uploader, infrastructure code. |
infra/ | Cloudflare desired state, applied by workflow. |
manifest.json | Generated lock file, never hand-edited. |
Contributing
Fixture requests and bug reports go in Issues; see
CONTRIBUTING.md for the naming grammar and what makes a good fixture.
Security reports: SECURITY.md.
By opening a pull request you agree that generator code is MIT and any resulting fixtures
are CC0.
