CLI

The localport command creates a tunnel from your computer to a public URL. One command shares your dev server, game server, database, or homelab service with anything that can open a URL.

Your first tunnel

localport http 3000 --token YOUR_TOKEN

Localport connects, registers the tunnel, and shows the public URL. Copy it from the status panel and share it — open it in a browser, paste it into a webhook setting, or send it to a teammate.

Tokens come from the Localport dashboard. To avoid passing --token every run, export it in your shell.

Supported protocols

The first argument after localport is the protocol your local service speaks; the second is its port.

Protocol	Use it for
http	Web apps and APIs — Next.js, Django, Rails, Flask, Express, anything serving HTTP. Also accepts https as an alias.
tcp	Game servers, databases, SSH, MQTT, gRPC, and anything else over raw TCP.
tls	TLS pass-through. Use this when your local service handles TLS itself and the bytes should reach it encrypted end-to-end.

Forwarding to a different machine

localport http 3000 is shorthand for localhost:3000. To forward to a service on another machine — a Raspberry Pi, a container, a NAS, a coworker's laptop — point --local at it directly:

# Postgres on a LAN server
localport --token YOUR_TOKEN --local tcp://192.168.1.50:5432

# A web app in a Docker container
localport --token YOUR_TOKEN --local http://app.local:8080

The scheme on --local sets the protocol. Use tcp://, http://, or tls:// to match the service.

Flags

Short aliases sit next to the long form — --token and -t are interchangeable.

Flag	What it does
--token, -t	Tunnel authentication token from the dashboard.
--local, -l	Local address to forward to, with an optional scheme prefix (tcp://192.168.1.50:5432, http://app.local:8080). Skip when forwarding to your own machine — use the positional form.
--region, -r	Edge region: eu, us, or ap. Omit to use Localport's default endpoint.
--name	Label for this connection. Used by mesh and shared tunnels to identify the device — see Mesh Tunnels.
--proto	Sets the protocol when --local has no scheme. Rarely needed.
--noui	Disables the live status panel and writes plain log lines instead. Auto-enabled when stdout is not a terminal.
--config	Path to a YAML configuration file — see running several tunnels at once.
-version	Print version and exit.

Output modes

The CLI renders a live status panel by default: tunnel state, the public URL, region, and a table of active connections with bytes in and out.

With --noui — or whenever stdout is piped to a file or running under journald / CI — the CLI switches to plain mode. Every event is one timestamped line: startup, state changes, the public URL on connect, each connection opened (conn.open) and closed (conn.close) with originating IP, bytes in/out, and duration. While a tunnel has active traffic, a one-line usage summary is emitted every 60 seconds.

Environment variables

export LOCALPORT_TOKEN=tok_abc123
localport http 3000

Variable	What it does
LOCALPORT_TOKEN	Stand-in for --token. The flag wins if both are set.
NO_COLOR	Disable colored output.
COLORTERM	Set to truecolor or 24bit for 24-bit color in the status panel.
TERM	Set to dumb to force plain output regardless of TTY detection.

Examples

# Share a web app you're building
localport http 3000 --token tok_abc123

# Host a Minecraft server
localport tcp 25565 --token tok_abc123

# Expose a Postgres database to a remote teammate
localport tcp 5432 --token tok_abc123

# Reach Home Assistant from outside your network
localport http 8123 --token tok_abc123

# Forward to a service on another box on your LAN
localport --token tok_abc123 --local http://192.168.1.20:8080

# Pin the connection to Europe
localport http 3000 --token tok_abc123 --region eu

# Name this device in a mesh tunnel
localport http 8080 --token tok_abc123 --name kitchen-pi

# Plain log output (useful in CI or systemd units)
localport http 3000 --token tok_abc123 --noui

Running several tunnels at once

For a web app, a database, and a homelab service running side by side, define them in a YAML file and start everything with one command:

localport --config localport.yaml

Same flags, written down once. See Configuration for the format and worked examples.

Reconnection and limits

• Network drops, sleeping laptops, and brief outages reconnect automatically. The public URL stays the same.
• When a bandwidth or connection limit is reached, the CLI prints which limit was hit and exits cleanly. No silent failures.

Next steps

• HTTP & HTTPS Tunnels — Sharing web apps and APIs
• TCP Tunnels — Game servers, databases, SSH
• Configuration — Multi-tunnel YAML reference