Tunnee lets you share a local development service without opening inbound ports, changing router settings, or putting your machine directly on the internet.
Your machine starts an encrypted outbound connection to Tunnee. When someone opens your public tunnel URL, Tunnee routes the request through that connection to the local port you picked.
Traffic handling
Tunnee servers do not analyze your application traffic. They just pipe requests and responses from A to B so your public tunnel URL can reach your local service.
We do not use tunnel traffic for profiling, inspection, advertising, or content analysis. Tunnee only needs the routing details required to keep the tunnel working, such as the tunnel hostname, connection state, timestamps, and operational logs.
Encryption
Public tunnel URLs use HTTPS. The connection from your machine to Tunnee is encrypted too, so traffic is protected while it moves between your machine, Tunnee, and the remote client.
Tunnee uses secure WebSockets for tunnel transport. Requests and responses travel through that encrypted connection, which keeps the data pipe end-to-end encrypted across the tunnel path.
If your local app also handles TLS itself, make sure it is set up the way your test needs it to be.
Localhost exposure
A tunnel only forwards to the local host and port you choose. It does not expose your whole machine or local network by default.
Still, treat an active tunnel URL like a public link:
- only expose the local service you intend to share
- avoid pointing tunnels at admin panels, databases, or internal tools unless you have added access controls
- shut down tunnels when you no longer need them
- use short-lived tunnels for temporary testing sessions
Access controls
Tunnee gives you a few simple controls for safer sharing:
- HTTPS tunnels by default
- optional password protection for shared links
- expiring tunnels with TTLs
- CLI-based tunnel management so you can inspect and stop active tunnels
Use them when a tunnel URL is going to teammates, customers, webhook providers, or devices outside your machine.
Production use
Tunnee is built for development and testing. For production services, use proper hosting, DNS, load balancing, monitoring, and access control instead of a local tunnel.
Next steps
- Read the introduction
- Open your first tunnel with the open a tunnel guide
- Learn how to manage tunnels from the CLI reference