Tunelo

Expose anything to the internet — local ports, files, directories.

$ tunelo port 3000
  Tunnel is ready.

  Public URL:  https://swift-fox-3847.tunelo.net
  Forwarding:  http://localhost:3000

$ tunelo serve .
  Serving /Users/you/project on :51234
  Tunnel is ready.

  Public URL:  https://calm-river-9012.tunelo.net
  Forwarding:  http://127.0.0.1:51234

Architecture

Browser → HTTPS → Relay → QUIC stream → Client → localhost:3000
                 (8 MB)                  (8 MB)

• QUIC tunnel (quinn + rustls) — multiplexed, encrypted, low-latency
• Zero-copy data plane — copy_bidirectional between TCP and QUIC streams
• Built-in file server — embedded React web explorer with viewers for code/markdown/PDF/images/video/audio/CSV/Excel
• Decoupled client + relay — client defaults to tunelo.net, or self-host your own relay
• One binary — tunelo port, tunelo serve, tunelo relay — client and server in one

Install

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://tunelo.net/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://tunelo.net/install.ps1 | iex

Supported Platforms

OS	Architecture	Binary
Linux	x86_64 / arm64	tunelo-linux-amd64 / tunelo-linux-arm64
macOS	x86_64 / arm64	tunelo-macos-amd64 / tunelo-macos-arm64
Windows	x86_64	tunelo-windows-amd64.exe

Quick Start

# Expose a local service (defaults to public relay at tunelo.net)
tunelo port 3000

# Password-protected tunnel
tunelo port 3000 --password
tunelo port 3000 --password mysecret

# Serve a directory with web explorer
tunelo serve .

# Local-only preview (no tunnel)
tunelo serve . --local

Self-Host

# Run your own relay on any VPS
tunelo relay --domain yourdomain.com

# Point clients to your relay
tunelo port 3000 --relay yourdomain.com:4433

CLI

tunelo port <PORT>                          # Expose local port
tunelo port <PORT> --relay host:4433        # Custom relay server
tunelo port <PORT> -H 0.0.0.0              # Forward to non-localhost
tunelo port <PORT> --password               # Private tunnel (auto-generated password)
tunelo port <PORT> --password mysecret      # Private tunnel (specific password)
tunelo port <PORT> -- pnpm dev              # Run command and tunnel it
tunelo port <PORT> -- next start            # Run Next.js and tunnel it
tunelo port 5173 -- vite                    # Run Vite and tunnel it

tunelo serve .                              # Serve current directory
tunelo serve ./dist                         # Serve a specific directory
tunelo serve README.md                      # Serve a single file
tunelo serve index.html                     # Serve an HTML file
tunelo serve . --local                      # Local-only preview (no tunnel)
tunelo serve . -l -p 8000                   # Local preview on port 8000

tunelo relay                                # Start relay with defaults
tunelo relay --domain tunelo.net            # Production domain
tunelo relay --tunnel-addr 0.0.0.0:4433     # QUIC listener
tunelo relay --http-addr 0.0.0.0:80         # HTTP listener

File Server

When you run tunelo serve, tunelo starts a built-in file server with:

• Web Explorer — browse directories, navigate with breadcrumbs
• File viewers — syntax-highlighted code, rendered markdown, PDF viewer, image/video/audio players, CSV/Excel tables
• Range requests — streaming support for large files and media seeking
• Embedded frontend — the React app is compiled into the binary, zero external dependencies

Docker

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -p 4433:4433/udp \
  tunelo/tunelo relay --domain yourdomain.com

Or with docker-compose:

docker compose up -d

Project Structure

crates/
  protocol/     Shared protocol types + codec
  relay/        Relay server (lib)
  tunelo/       Main binary (client + relay subcommand)
web/            File explorer frontend (embedded into binary)
website/        Landing page (tunelo.net)
deploy/         VPS deployment scripts + configs
skills/         AI agent skill (SKILL.md)

Performance

Metric	Value
Relay memory	8 MB RSS
Tunnel overhead	~14% vs direct
Throughput	~670 req/s (localhost)
Binary size	~4 MB

License

MIT