WHost

A Windows-only Raycast extension for visually managing and switching the Windows hosts file — no more manually editing C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and flushing DNS by hand.

Features

• Manage multiple named profiles (groups) of IP↔hostname mappings.
• Enable / disable a whole profile with one keystroke; the hosts file updates automatically.
• Edit or delete profiles, and copy a profile's hosts snippet to the clipboard.
• Flush DNS (ipconfig /flushdns) automatically after every change.
• Only a managed block inside the hosts file is touched; your existing entries (e.g. localhost) stay intact.

Implemented

Everything below is already working in the current build:

• Profile management (CRUD) — create, edit, and delete named profiles via a form, persisted in profiles.json.
• Enable / disable profiles — toggling a profile rewrites its mappings in the hosts file (live lines vs. commented lines) and flushes DNS.
• Multi-mapping profiles — each profile holds one or more IP hostname [# comment] mappings, edited in a single Form.TextArea.
• Copy Hosts Snippet — copy a profile's raw mapping lines to the clipboard.
• Flush DNS — automatic after every change, plus a manual action.
• Open Hosts File — reveal the hosts file from the action panel.
• Managed block — wHost only owns a marked block inside the hosts file; pre-existing entries (e.g. localhost) are preserved.
• Elevation fallback — direct write first; one-time UAC-elevated PowerShell only when the direct write is denied.
• Real-time list refresh — the profile list reloads from disk after create/edit/delete/enable/disable, so changes show immediately.
• Windows-only — declared via platforms: ["Windows"]; all user-facing strings are in English.

How it works

Profiles are stored as the single source of truth in profiles.json under Raycast's support directory. The hosts file is derived from that configuration: wHost injects a block delimited by

# === wHost managed start ===
# === wHost managed end ===

and rewrites it on every change. Enabled profiles are written as live mapping lines; disabled profiles are written as commented lines.

Note: Writing to the hosts file requires administrator privileges. wHost tries a direct write first, and falls back to a one-time UAC prompt (elevated PowerShell) only when needed. Running Raycast as administrator removes the prompt entirely.

Commands

Action	Description
New Profile	Create a group of host mappings
Enable / Disable Profile	Toggle a profile's mappings in the hosts file
Edit Profile	Change the name or mappings
Delete Profile	Remove the profile and its mappings
Copy Hosts Snippet	Copy the raw mapping lines to the clipboard
Flush DNS	Manually run ipconfig /flushdns
Open Hosts File	Reveal the hosts file in your file manager