Portr is a tunnel solution that allows you to expose local HTTP, TCP, or WebSocket services to the public internet. Servers can run either SSH or WebSocket as the client-to-server tunnel transport, and generated client configs tell the client which transport to use.
Portr is primarily designed for small teams looking to expose development servers on a public URL. It is not recommended for use alongside production servers.
Features
- 🎉 Expose local HTTP, TCP, and WebSocket services on public URLs.
- 🚨 Built-in local inspector on
http://localhost:7777 for request inspection, replay, and WebSocket session debugging. Watch video.
- 🐳 Tunnel Docker Compose services by adding a
portr.enable label. Docker Compose guide.
- 🤖 Agent-friendly local request logs with
portr logs, backed by ~/.portr/db.sqlite.
- 👾 Admin dashboard for team, user, and connection management. Watch video.
Quick Start
- Set up a Portr server or use an existing one.
- Install the Portr client on your machine.
- Start a local service, then expose it:
portr http 9000
To pin the tunnel to a subdomain:
portr http 9000 -s amal-test
# or
portr http 9000 --subdomain amal-test
Starting an HTTP tunnel does three useful things immediately:
- Creates a public HTTPS URL that forwards to your local service.
- Starts the Portr inspector locally at http://localhost:7777.
- Persists HTTP request logs locally so they can be queried from the CLI.
HTTP tunnels also support WebSocket upgrades, so a local WebSocket endpoint behind
the tunneled HTTP service can be reached with wss://<subdomain>.<server-domain>.
HTTP tunnels start two tunnel workers by default; set pool_size in the client
config when you need a different worker count.
Inspector And Logs
The local inspector lets you:
- inspect incoming HTTP requests and responses
- replay stored requests as-is or edit method, path, headers, and body before replaying
- inspect headers and payloads
- monitor upgraded WebSocket sessions and captured frames
The same stored request data is available from the CLI:
# Show the latest logs for a subdomain
portr logs amal-test
# Filter by URL substring
portr logs amal-test /api/
# Emit the full stored records as JSON
portr logs amal-test --json
Setup
Deploy the server on Railway with one click (see the Railway guide):
Agent Skills
This repo includes a portr-cli skill for Claude Code and Codex through Vercel Labs skills.
Install it into both agents from GitHub:
npx skills add amalshaji/portr --skill portr-cli -a claude-code -a codex -y
To install it globally instead:
npx skills add amalshaji/portr --skill portr-cli -a claude-code -a codex -g -y
Contributing
Please read through our contributing guide and set up your development environment.
License
This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). See the LICENSE file for the full license text.
