Documentation
SwiftFS is object storage that speaks the S3 API. You store objects (files of any kind, up to 5 GiB in one request and far more in parts) in buckets, and you reach them with the tools and SDKs built for Amazon S3: the AWS CLI, the AWS SDKs, rclone, s3cmd.
There are two ways to use it:
- SwiftFS Cloud: S&S Labs runs SwiftFS for you. You sign up, create an organization, and pay each month for what you store and move.
- Self-hosted: you run SwiftFS Core on your own servers, with PostgreSQL for metadata and a local disk for the data.
The S3 API is the same in both, so everything under Storing data applies to either.
The pieces
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Bucket | A named container for objects. Names are unique across all of SwiftFS. |
| Object | A file and its metadata, stored under a key such as photos/2026/beach.jpg. Keys may contain slashes; "folders" are just shared prefixes. |
| Access key | An ID and a secret that sign S3 requests. Keys can be limited to some buckets, read-only, and set to expire. |
| Endpoint | The URL of the S3 API. For SwiftFS Cloud it is https://s3.swiftfs.rw, region us-east-1. |
| Organization | In SwiftFS Cloud: the team that owns buckets, keys and invoices. |
Where to go next
- New to SwiftFS Cloud? The quickstart gets you from sign-up to a first upload in a few minutes.
- Already using S3? Read the S3 API for how SwiftFS differs, then SDKs and tools for configuration.
- Running it yourself? Start with running SwiftFS.
- Want the full list of supported operations? See the compatibility matrix.