Why Tuna?

There are many ways to expose your local development server to the internet. Here's why tuna might be the right choice for you.

The Problem

When developing modern web applications, you often need to expose your local server to the internet for:

Webhook testing - Stripe, GitHub, Twilio all need to send data to your app
OAuth callbacks - Social login providers need a real URL
Mobile testing - Test on real devices without complex network config
Client demos - Share work-in-progress securely
Team collaboration - Multiple devs working on the same project

The traditional solutions each have drawbacks:

ngrok

Random URLs on free tier
Custom domains require paid plan ($8+/month)
Tunnels don't persist across restarts
No native access control

localtunnel

Random subdomains only
Unreliable uptime
No authentication
Often blocked by corporate firewalls

Raw cloudflared

Complex setup with multiple commands
Manual DNS configuration
Dashboard required for access control
No command wrapping

The Solution

Tuna wraps cloudflared with a developer-friendly interface:

# Instead of this...
cloudflared tunnel create my-tunnel
cloudflared tunnel route dns my-tunnel my-app.example.com
cloudflared tunnel run my-tunnel &
npm run dev
 
# Just do this
tuna npm run dev

Feature Comparison

Feature	tuna	ngrok	localtunnel	cloudflared
Free custom domains	✅	❌	❌	✅
Persistent tunnels	✅	❌	❌	✅
Zero config	✅	❌	✅	❌
Wrapper mode	✅	❌	❌	❌
Team collaboration	✅	❌	❌	❌
Config-based access control	✅	❌	❌	❌
Secure credential storage	✅	✅	N/A	❌
No account required	❌	✅	✅	❌

Key Advantages

1. Free Custom Domains

Use your own domain at no extra cost. If you have example.com on Cloudflare, you can create unlimited subdomains:

{
  "tuna": {
    "forward": "dev.example.com",
    "port": 3000
  }
}

2. Persistent Tunnels

Tuna installs cloudflared as a system service. Your tunnel survives:

Terminal restarts
SSH disconnections
System reboots (with auto-start)

3. Team-Friendly

The $USER variable prevents subdomain conflicts:

{
  "tuna": {
    "forward": "$USER-api.example.com",
    "port": 3000
  }
}

Alice gets alice-api.example.com
Bob gets bob-api.example.com
No coordination needed

4. Config-Driven Access Control

Restrict access without touching a dashboard:

{
  "tuna": {
    "forward": "staging.example.com",
    "port": 3000,
    "access": ["@mycompany.com", "client@gmail.com"]
  }
}

5. Transparent Wrapper

Tuna doesn't interfere with your dev tools:

Full color output preserved
TTY/interactive mode works
Exit codes passed through
Ctrl+C works as expected

When NOT to Use Tuna

Tuna might not be right for you if:

You don't have a Cloudflare account - Tuna requires a domain on Cloudflare
You need Windows/Linux support - Currently macOS only
You need one-off tunnels - ngrok's random URLs are simpler for quick shares
You're in a restricted network - Some corporate networks block Cloudflare tunnels

Cost

Tuna itself is free and open source. The underlying Cloudflare services are also free:

Cloudflare Tunnels: Free
Cloudflare DNS: Free
Cloudflare Access (up to 50 users): Free

You just need a domain on Cloudflare (can be a cheap $10/year domain).