hash-lite

Free tool that hashes text or local files with SHA-256, SHA-1, MD5, and optional SHA-512. You get hex and Base64.

Need it at scale in the cloud? A pay-per-use Apify Actor is in our publish queue and is not public yet. This free local tool is the one you can use today. We will add the Store link here after it goes live.

Plain code, not AI, so the same input always gives the same hashes. Runs on your own computer. MIT license. Works with Python 3.10 and newer, on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Also searched as: ES: hash SHA-256, suma de comprobación / PT: hash SHA-256 / DE: SHA-256 Hash, Prüfsumme / FR: hash SHA-256, somme de contrôle / JA: SHA-256、チェックサム

Links

• A pay-per-use Apify cloud version is in our publish queue and is not public yet. This free local tool is the one you can use today.

Related MCP server: Secops Toolkit MCP

Before and after

Before (text):

hello world

After (SHA-256, SHA-1, and MD5, which are on by default):

sha256: b94d27b9934d3e08a52e52d7da7dabfac484efe37a5380ee9088f7ace2efcde9
sha1:   2aae6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed
md5:    5eb63bbbe01eeed093cb22bb8f5acdc3

Text is hashed as UTF-8 bytes. Local files are hashed as the raw file bytes.

Install

pip install git+https://github.com/tidybytetools/hash-lite

Or use pipx, which keeps it in its own space:

pipx install git+https://github.com/tidybytetools/hash-lite

Or just download hash_lite.py and run it with python3. That one file uses only Python's standard library. (Installing with pip also adds the mcp package, which the MCP server needs.)

Use it

printf 'hello world' | hash-lite
hash-lite photo.png
hash-lite photo.png --algorithms sha256,sha512
hash-lite photo.png --no-base64
printf 'hello world' | hash-lite --json     # {"ok": true, "bytes": 11, "sha256": "...", ...}

If you pass a file, the raw bytes are hashed. If you pipe text, it is hashed as UTF-8. --algorithms is a comma-separated list from sha256, sha1, md5, and sha512. The default is sha256,sha1,md5.

From Python:

from hash_lite import hash_text
hash_text("hello world")["sha256"]  # 'b94d27b9934d3e08a52e52d7da7dabfac484efe37a5380ee9088f7ace2efcde9'

When you run it in a terminal it prints one short line about the Apify version to stderr after the result. It never goes into your JSON output, it only shows when you are looking at a terminal, and --quiet turns it off.

Known limits

• MD5 and SHA-1 are not safe for new security work. They are included because people still need them for checks. Prefer SHA-256 or SHA-512 when you can.

• Local files only. This free tool does not fetch file links from the internet. The Apify version does.

• 5 MB cap in the MCP file tool. The command line will read a larger local file, but very large jobs are a better fit for Apify.

• It does not look the hash up in a malware list or a password list.

Lite vs Apify

Use it from Claude Desktop or Cursor (MCP)

There is a small free MCP server built in. It gives your AI app two tools. Both only read. They never write or change files, and they never use the internet. It needs uv.

Run it by hand to check it starts (it waits quietly for an app to talk to it):

uvx --from git+https://github.com/tidybytetools/hash-lite hash-lite mcp

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json) or Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hash-lite": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/tidybytetools/hash-lite", "hash-lite", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

uvx --from git+https://github.com/tidybytetools/hash-lite hash-lite-mcp starts the same server.

Tools:

• hash_text(text, algorithms=null, include_base64=true): hash UTF-8 text in the chat.

• hash_file(path, algorithms=null, include_base64=true): hash the raw bytes of a local file, up to 5 MB.

algorithms is a list from sha256, sha1, md5, sha512. The default is sha256, sha1, and md5. Both tools return the hex (and Base64, unless you turn that off) for each selected algorithm.

For AI agents

• Use when: you need a SHA-256, SHA-1, MD5 or SHA-512 checksum of text or a local file.

• Don't use when: you need to fetch a file from a URL, look a hash up in a malware list, or the file is bigger than 5 MB in MCP. Use the Apify version for URL and large-file jobs.

• Input: text on stdin (UTF-8) or a file path (raw bytes). Optional --algorithms sha256,sha1,md5,sha512 and --no-base64.

• MCP: uvx --from git+https://github.com/tidybytetools/hash-lite hash-lite mcp gives two read-only tools, hash_text and hash_file.

• Output: with --json, one object: {"ok": true, "bytes": 11, "sha256": "...", ...}. On error ok is false. Exit code 0 ok, 1 error.

• Hint lines go to stderr only, and only in a terminal, so stdout is always clean JSON. See also llms.txt.

Tests

pip install "mcp>=1.10,<2"
python3 -m unittest discover tests

The MCP tests are skipped if mcp is not installed.

FAQ

What input does it take? Text on stdin (hashed as UTF-8), or a local file (hashed as raw bytes).

Do my files leave my computer? No. The tool runs on your computer and never uses the internet.

Is MD5 or SHA-1 safe to use for security? No, not for new security work. Prefer SHA-256 or SHA-512. MD5 and SHA-1 are still useful for simple checks.

How is this different from the Apify version? The Apify version runs in the cloud, can fetch file links, and can process many items in one run. This lite tool is free and local.

Does it work with AI apps? Yes. It includes a free MCP server. No API key.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.