hostc

Localhost, anywhere.

One command gives your dev server a public HTTPS URL. WebSockets and hot reload included.
Free, open source, no account.

hostc.dev · 简体中文

## Quick start Start your app, then point hostc at its port: ```sh npx hostc@latest 3000 ``` ```text https://k7m2xq9pa4dn.hostc.app → http://localhost:3000 Anyone with this URL can reach your local server. Press Ctrl+C to stop. ``` Open the URL on any device. Every request shows up in your terminal as it arrives. hostc is free and open source. If it helps you, [a star on GitHub](https://github.com/akazwz/hostc) helps other developers find it, and it's the best encouragement for the project. ## Why hostc - **Nothing to set up.** No sign-up, no auth token, no binary to download. If you have Node.js, you have hostc. - **Visitors see your app.** No warning page to click through before they reach it. - **Hot reload works.** WebSockets pass straight through, so Vite, Next.js and friends update every open device the moment you save. Server-Sent Events stream as they are produced. - **Dev servers accept it as is.** Requests arrive addressed to localhost and redirects point back to the public URL, so there is no allowed-hosts setting to change. - **The link survives.** Network drops and server restarts don't change the URL; hostc reconnects on its own. - **Free and open source.** The server is a Cloudflare Worker you can also run on your own domain. ## Use it to - share something you built with an AI coding tool before you deploy it anywhere, - show work in progress to a teammate or a client, - test webhooks from Stripe, GitHub or Slack against the code on your machine, - try your site on a real phone, with hot reload, - let a coding agent share what it built. Point the agent at [hostc.dev/llms.txt](https://hostc.dev/llms.txt) and it knows how to run hostc and read the URL. ## Usage ```text hostc [options] 3000 http://localhost:3000 127.0.0.1:8080 http://127.0.0.1:8080 https://localhost:5173 any http(s) origin --server tunnel server (env HOSTC_SERVER) --qr print a QR code of the public URL -h, --help show this help -v, --version show the version ``` Press Ctrl+C to stop; the URL is released immediately. Restarting hostc gives a new URL. The URL is public: anyone who has it reaches your server. Only expose what you mean to share. ### Always run `@latest` hostc is free and moves fast, so server updates can be incompatible with older CLIs. Run it with `npx hostc@latest` and you always get the matching version. Don't install it globally (`npm i -g hostc`) or add it to a project: an installed copy stays on its version and stops working when the server moves on. An outdated CLI stops at startup and tells you to upgrade. ## How it works ``` browser ──▶ Worker ──▶ Durable Object (one per tunnel) ◀── WebSocket ── hostc ──▶ localhost ``` hostc opens a single outgoing WebSocket, so nothing on your machine has to be reachable from the internet. Each public request or WebSocket becomes a stream on that connection, with flow control for bodies. Idle tunnels sleep on the server, which is what keeps hostc free. The wire format is in [docs/protocol.md](./docs/protocol.md). ## Self-hosting 1. Add your domains to Cloudflare: one for the API and one for tunnels, for example `example.com` and `example.app`. They can be the same domain, but a separate tunnel domain keeps tunnel cookies and abuse reports away from your main site. Add a proxied wildcard DNS record on the tunnel domain (`*` → `192.0.2.1`); Cloudflare's Universal SSL covers `*.example.app`. 2. Set the token secret once: `pnpm -F @hostc/server exec wrangler secret put TOKEN_SECRET` (at least 32 random bytes, e.g. `openssl rand -base64 48`). 3. Deploy: ```sh API_DOMAIN=example.com TUNNEL_DOMAIN=example.app pnpm deploy:server ``` 4. Use it: `npx hostc@latest 3000 --server https://example.com`, or build the CLI with `HOSTC_DEFAULT_SERVER=https://example.com pnpm build`. ## Contributing Requires Node.js 22.22+ and pnpm. ```sh pnpm install cp apps/server/.dev.vars.example apps/server/.dev.vars pnpm dev # tunnel server on http://localhost:8787 pnpm build # build the CLI node apps/cli/dist/hostc.mjs 3000 --server http://localhost:8787 ``` Tunnels are served on `http://.localhost:8787`; Chrome and Firefox resolve `*.localhost` to your machine. ```sh pnpm check # format check, lint, typecheck, unit and integration tests pnpm test:e2e # wrangler dev + CLI + a local origin, end to end ``` | Path | What | | ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | | `packages/protocol` | frame format, messages and constants shared by both sides | | `packages/client` | Node.js client: connection, streams, reconnects | | `apps/server` | Cloudflare Worker + Durable Object tunnel server | | `apps/cli` | the `hostc` command | | `apps/web` | hostc.dev website (one static page) and llms.txt | Issues and pull requests are welcome. If hostc is useful to you, [star it on GitHub](https://github.com/akazwz/hostc). ## License [Apache-2.0](./LICENSE)