rustunnel

rustunnel

The open-source tunnel that scales with you. Don't pay for idle time. Secure, Rust-fast, and Pay-as-you-go.

Expose local services through a public server over encrypted WebSocket connections with TLS termination, HTTP/TCP proxying, a live dashboard, Prometheus metrics, and audit logging.

You can self-host or use our managed service.

Using an AI agent? rustunnel ships an MCP server: one-click setup for Cursor (then add your API token):

For Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, and others, see the agent integration guide or the agent manual at rustunnel.com/agents.md.

---

Table of Contents

• Hosted service
• Architecture overview
• Requirements
• Local development setup
  • Build
  • Run tests
  • Run the server locally
  • Run the client locally
  • Git hooks
• Production deployment (Ubuntu / systemd)
  • 1: Install dependencies
  • 2: Build release binaries
  • 3: Create system user and directories
  • 4: Install the server binary
  • 5: Create the server config file
  • 6: TLS certificates (Let's Encrypt + Cloudflare)
  • 7: Set up systemd service
  • 8: Open firewall ports
  • 9: Verify the server is running
  • Updating the server
• Docker deployment · full guide
• Client configuration
  • Installation
  • Setup wizard
  • Quick start (CLI flags)
  • Machine-readable output (--json)
  • Config file
  • Token management
• Port reference
• Config file reference (server)
• REST API
• AI agent integration (MCP server)
  • OpenClaw skill
• Monitoring
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License
• Contact

---

Hosted service

You can use rustunnel without running your own server. We operate a global fleet of public edge servers that you can connect to immediately.

Available regions

Region ID	Server	Location	Control plane	Status
eu	eu.edge.rustunnel.com	Helsinki, FI	:4040	Live
us	us.edge.rustunnel.com	Hillsboro, OR	:4040	Live
ap	ap.edge.rustunnel.com	Singapore	:4040	Live

The client auto-selects the nearest region by default. Use --region <id> to connect to a specific one. The legacy address edge.rustunnel.com is a CNAME to eu.edge.rustunnel.com and will continue to work for backward compatibility.

Getting an auth token

Sign up for a free account at rustunnel.com. No waiting list, no manual approval.

1. Create an account at rustunnel.com
2. Go to Dashboard → API Keys and create a token
3. Copy the token. It is shown only once

Plans:

Plan	Price	Tunnels	Subdomains	Bandwidth	TLS/HTTPS
Hobby (free)	$0	2 concurrent	Random only	1 GB/mo	✓
Pay-as-you-go	$3/mo minimum, credited at $0.10/GB	No cap	Custom	$0.10/GB	✓
Self-host	Free (run your own server)	Unlimited	Custom	Unmetered	✓

The Hobby (free) plan is a great way to get started: 2 concurrent tunnels, random subdomains only, and 1 GB/mo. Upgrade to pay-as-you-go from your dashboard whenever you need custom subdomains or more tunnels. Pay-as-you-go has no tunnel cap.

Quick start with the hosted server

Once you have a token, run the setup wizard:

rustunnel setup
# Region [auto / eu / us / ap / self-hosted] (default: auto): (press Enter)
#   Selecting nearest region… eu 12ms · us 143ms · ap 311ms · → eu (Helsinki, FI) 12ms
#   Server set to: eu.edge.rustunnel.com:4040
# Auth token: <paste your token>

Then expose a local service:

# HTTP tunnel: auto-selects the nearest region
rustunnel http 3000

# Connect to a specific region
rustunnel http 3000 --region eu

# Custom subdomain
rustunnel http 3000 --subdomain myapp

# TCP tunnel: e.g. expose a local database
rustunnel tcp 5432

# UDP tunnel: e.g. expose a game server
rustunnel udp 27015

# P2P tunnel: expose a service to another rustunnel client
rustunnel p2p 27015 --name my-game --secret "shared-secret"

# P2P tunnel: connect to a peer's service
rustunnel p2p 8000 --target my-game --secret "shared-secret"

The client prints the public URL as soon as the tunnel is established:

  Selecting nearest region… eu 12ms · us 143ms · ap 311ms → eu (Helsinki, FI) 12ms
✓ tunnel open  https://abc123.eu.edge.rustunnel.com

---

Architecture overview

                        ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
                        │           rustunnel-server               │
                        │                                          │
Internet ──── :80 ─────▶│  HTTP edge (301 → HTTPS)                 │
Internet ──── :443 ────▶│  HTTPS edge  ──▶ yamux stream ──▶ client │
Client ───── :4040 ────▶│  Control-plane WebSocket (TLS)           │
Browser ──── :8443 ────▶│  Dashboard UI + REST API                 │
Prometheus ─ :9090 ────▶│  Metrics endpoint                        │
Internet ── :20000+ ───▶│  TCP tunnel ports (one per TCP tunnel)   │
                        └──────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                          │ yamux multiplexed streams
                                          ▼
                              ┌─────────────────────┐
                              │   rustunnel client   │
                              │  (developer laptop)  │
                              └──────────┬──────────┘
                                         │ localhost
                                         ▼
                                ┌────────────────┐
                                │  local service  │
                                │  e.g. :3000    │
                                └────────────────┘

---

Requirements

To build

Requirement	Version	Notes
Rust toolchain	1.76+	Install via rustup
pkg-config	any	Needed by reqwest (TLS)
libssl-dev	any	On Debian/Ubuntu: apt install libssl-dev
Node.js + npm	18+	Only needed to rebuild the dashboard UI

To run the server in production

Requirement	Notes
Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+)	systemd service included
TLS certificate + private key	PEM format (Let's Encrypt recommended)
Public IP / DNS	Wildcard DNS *.tunnel.yourdomain.com → server IP required for HTTP tunnels

---

Local development setup

Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/joaoh82/rustunnel.git
cd rustunnel

# Compile all workspace crates (debug mode)
cargo build --workspace

# Or use the Makefile shortcut
make build

Run tests

The integration test suite spins up a real server on random ports and exercises auth, HTTP tunnels, TCP tunnels, and reconnection logic. It requires a running PostgreSQL instance.

# Start the local PostgreSQL container (once per machine, persists across reboots)
make db-start

# Full suite (unit + integration)
make test

# With output visible
TEST_DATABASE_URL=postgres://rustunnel:test@localhost:5432/rustunnel_test \
  cargo test --workspace -- --nocapture

# Stop PostgreSQL when you no longer need it
make db-stop

make db-start runs deploy/docker-compose.dev-deps.yml which starts a Postgres 16 container on localhost:5432. The make test target injects TEST_DATABASE_URL automatically. If you run cargo test directly, export the variable first:

export TEST_DATABASE_URL=postgres://rustunnel:test@localhost:5432/rustunnel_test

Run the server locally

Generate a self-signed certificate for local testing:

mkdir -p /tmp/rustunnel-dev

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /tmp/rustunnel-dev/key.pem \
  -out /tmp/rustunnel-dev/cert.pem -days 365 -nodes \
  -subj "/CN=localhost"

A ready-made local config is checked into the repository at deploy/local/server.toml. It points to the self-signed cert paths above and has auth disabled for convenience. Start the server with it directly:

cargo run -p rustunnel-server -- --config deploy/local/server.toml

Key settings in deploy/local/server.toml:

Setting	Value
Domain	localhost
HTTP edge	:8080
HTTPS edge	:8443
Control plane	:4040
Dashboard	:4041
Auth token	dev-secret-change-me
Auth required	false
TLS cert	/tmp/rustunnel-dev/cert.pem
TLS key	/tmp/rustunnel-dev/key.pem
Database	/tmp/rustunnel-dev/rustunnel.db

Run the client locally

With the server running, expose a local service (e.g. something on port 3000):

# HTTP tunnel
cargo run -p rustunnel-client -- http 3000 \
  --server localhost:4040 \
  --token dev-secret-change-me \
  --insecure

# TCP tunnel
cargo run -p rustunnel-client -- tcp 5432 \
  --server localhost:4040 \
  --token dev-secret-change-me \
  --insecure

--insecure skips TLS certificate verification. Required when using a self-signed certificate locally. Never use this flag against a production server.

The client will print a public URL, for example:

http tunnel  →  http://abc123.localhost:8080
tcp  tunnel  →  tcp://localhost:20000

Testing the HTTP tunnel locally

The tunnel URL uses a subdomain (e.g. http://abc123.localhost:8080). Browsers won't resolve *.localhost subdomains by default, so you have two options:

Option A: curl with a Host header (no setup required)

curl -v -H "Host: abc123.localhost" http://localhost:8080/

Option B: wildcard DNS via dnsmasq (enables browser access)

# Install and configure dnsmasq to resolve *.localhost → 127.0.0.1
brew install dnsmasq
echo "address=/.localhost/127.0.0.1" | sudo tee -a $(brew --prefix)/etc/dnsmasq.conf
sudo brew services start dnsmasq

# Tell macOS to use dnsmasq for .localhost queries
sudo mkdir -p /etc/resolver
echo "nameserver 127.0.0.1" | sudo tee /etc/resolver/localhost

Then visit http://abc123.localhost:8080 in the browser (include :8080 since the local config uses port 8080, not port 80).

Git hooks

A pre-push hook is included in .githooks/ that mirrors the CI check step (format check + Clippy). Run this once after cloning to activate it:

make install-hooks

From that point on, every git push will automatically run:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings

If either check fails the push is aborted, keeping the remote branch green.

---

Production deployment (Ubuntu / systemd)

The steps below match a deployment where:

• Domain: edge.rustunnel.com
• Wildcard DNS: *.edge.rustunnel.com → <server IP>
• TLS certs: Let's Encrypt via Certbot + Cloudflare DNS challenge

1: Install dependencies

apt update && apt install -y \
  pkg-config libssl-dev curl git \
  certbot python3-certbot-dns-cloudflare

Install Rust (as the build user, not root):

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

2: Build release binaries

git clone https://github.com/joaoh82/rustunnel.git
cd rustunnel
cargo build --release -p rustunnel-server -p rustunnel-client

Binaries will be at:

• target/release/rustunnel-server
• target/release/rustunnel

3: Create system user and directories

useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin rustunnel

mkdir -p /etc/rustunnel /var/lib/rustunnel
chown rustunnel:rustunnel /var/lib/rustunnel
chmod 750 /var/lib/rustunnel

4: Install the server binary

install -Dm755 target/release/rustunnel-server /usr/local/bin/rustunnel-server

# Optionally install the client system-wide
install -Dm755 target/release/rustunnel /usr/local/bin/rustunnel

Or use the Makefile target (runs build + install + systemd setup):

sudo make deploy

5: Set up PostgreSQL

rustunnel requires PostgreSQL for shared state (tokens, tunnel history, audit log).

apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib

# Start and enable the service
systemctl enable --now postgresql

Create a dedicated database and user:

sudo -u postgres psql <<'SQL'
CREATE USER rustunnel WITH PASSWORD 'CHANGE_ME';
CREATE DATABASE rustunnel OWNER rustunnel;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE rustunnel TO rustunnel;
SQL

Tip: For managed PostgreSQL (e.g. AWS RDS, DigitalOcean Managed Database, Supabase) skip the apt install step above and just note the connection URL for the config in the next step.

Schema migrations run automatically when the server starts. No manual SQL needed.

6: Create the server config file

Create /etc/rustunnel/server.toml with the content below. Replace your-admin-token-here with a strong random secret (e.g. openssl rand -hex 32).

# /etc/rustunnel/server.toml

[server]
# Primary domain: must match your wildcard DNS record.
domain       = "edge.rustunnel.com"

# Ports for incoming tunnel traffic (requires CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE or root).
http_port    = 80
https_port   = 443

# Control-plane WebSocket port: clients connect here.
control_port = 4040

# Dashboard UI and REST API port.
dashboard_port = 8443

# Allowed CORS origin for the dashboard UI.
# Set to the URL where you serve the dashboard-ui (e.g. http://localhost:3000 for local dev).
dashboard_origin = "http://localhost:3000"

# ── TLS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[tls]
# Paths written by Certbot (see step 6).
cert_path = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/fullchain.pem"
key_path  = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/privkey.pem"

# Set acme_enabled = true only if you want rustunnel to manage certs itself
# via the ACME protocol (requires Cloudflare credentials below).
# When using Certbot (recommended), leave this false.
acme_enabled = false

# ── Auth ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[auth]
# Strong random secret: used both as the admin token and for client auth.
# Generate: openssl rand -hex 32
admin_token  = "your-admin-token-here"
require_auth = true
# Failed auth attempts per source IP per minute before rejection (0 = off).
max_failed_auth_per_minute = 10

# ── Database ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[database]
# PostgreSQL connection URL: the database and user must exist before starting
# the server (see the PostgreSQL setup step above).  Schema migrations run
# automatically on first start.
url = "postgresql://rustunnel:CHANGE_ME@localhost:5432/rustunnel"

# Per-region SQLite file for captured HTTP request bodies.
# The directory must be writable by the rustunnel user.
captured_path = "/var/lib/rustunnel/captured.db"

# ── Logging ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[logging]
level  = "info"
format = "json"

# Optional: write an append-only audit log (JSON-lines) for auth attempts,
# tunnel registrations, token creation/deletion, and admin actions.
# Omit or comment out to disable.
audit_log_path = "/var/lib/rustunnel/audit.log"

# ── Limits ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[limits]
# Maximum tunnels a single authenticated session may register.
max_tunnels_per_session = 10

# Maximum simultaneous proxied connections per tunnel (semaphore).
max_connections_per_tunnel = 100

# Per-tunnel request rate limit (requests/second).
rate_limit_rps = 100

# Per-source-IP rate limit (requests/second). Set to 0 to disable.
ip_rate_limit_rps = 100

# Maximum size of a proxied HTTP request body (bytes). Default: 10 MB.
request_body_max_bytes = 10485760

# Inclusive port range reserved for TCP tunnels.
# Each active TCP tunnel consumes one port from this range.
tcp_port_range = [20000, 20099]

# Inclusive port range reserved for UDP tunnels.
# Each active UDP tunnel consumes one port from this range.
# Must not overlap with tcp_port_range. Set to [0, 0] to disable UDP tunnels.
udp_port_range = [20100, 20199]

Secure the file:

chown root:rustunnel /etc/rustunnel/server.toml
chmod 640 /etc/rustunnel/server.toml

7: TLS certificates (Let's Encrypt + Cloudflare)

Create the Cloudflare credentials file:

cat > /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini <<'EOF'
# Cloudflare API token with DNS:Edit permission for the zone.
dns_cloudflare_api_token = YOUR_CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN
EOF

chmod 600 /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini

Request a certificate covering the bare domain and the wildcard (required for HTTP subdomain tunnels):

certbot certonly \
  --dns-cloudflare \
  --dns-cloudflare-credentials /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini \
  -d "edge.rustunnel.com" \
  -d "*.edge.rustunnel.com" \
  --agree-tos \
  --email [email protected]

Certbot writes the certificate to:

/etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/fullchain.pem
/etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/privkey.pem

These paths are already set in the config above. Certbot sets up automatic renewal via a systemd timer.

rustunnel reads TLS certificates from disk at startup, so it must be restarted after each renewal. Add a Certbot deploy hook to do this automatically:

cat > /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/deploy/restart-rustunnel.sh <<'EOF'
#!/bin/sh
systemctl restart rustunnel.service
EOF
chmod +x /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/deploy/restart-rustunnel.sh

Allow the rustunnel service user to read the certificates:

# Grant read access to the live/ and archive/ directories
chmod 755 /etc/letsencrypt/{live,archive}
chmod 640 /etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/*.pem
chgrp rustunnel /etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/*.pem
chgrp rustunnel /etc/letsencrypt/archive/edge.rustunnel.com/*.pem
chmod 640 /etc/letsencrypt/archive/edge.rustunnel.com/*.pem

8: Set up systemd service

# Copy the unit file from the repository
install -Dm644 deploy/rustunnel.service /etc/systemd/system/rustunnel.service

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now rustunnel.service

# Check it started
systemctl status rustunnel.service
journalctl -u rustunnel.service -f

9: Open firewall ports

ufw allow 80/tcp   comment "rustunnel HTTP edge"
ufw allow 443/tcp  comment "rustunnel HTTPS edge"
ufw allow 4040/tcp comment "rustunnel control plane"
ufw allow 8443/tcp comment "rustunnel dashboard"
ufw allow 9090/tcp comment "rustunnel Prometheus metrics"

# TCP tunnel port range (must match tcp_port_range in server.toml)
ufw allow 20000:20099/tcp comment "rustunnel TCP tunnels"

# UDP tunnel port range (must match udp_port_range in server.toml)
ufw allow 20100:20199/udp comment "rustunnel UDP tunnels"

10: Verify the server is running

# Health check: use dashboard_port from server.toml (default 8443 in production)
curl http://localhost:8443/api/status

# Confirm which ports the process is actually bound to
ss -tlnp | grep rustunnel-serve

# Startup banner is visible in the logs
journalctl -u rustunnel.service --no-pager | tail -30

# Prometheus metrics
curl -s http://localhost:9090/metrics

Port reminder: port 4040 is the control-plane WebSocket (clients connect here), not the dashboard. Hitting it with plain HTTP returns HTTP/0.9 which is expected. The dashboard is on dashboard_port. Check your server.toml if unsure.

Updating the server

Pull the latest code, rebuild, install, and restart in one command:

cd ~/rustunnel && sudo make update-server

This runs git pull → cargo build --release → install → systemctl restart → systemctl status.

---

Docker deployment

A full Docker guide covering both local development (self-signed cert) and production VPS (Let's Encrypt) is available in docs/docker-deployment.md.

Pull the published image

Multi-arch images (linux/amd64 + linux/arm64) are published to GitHub Container Registry on every stable release. No build required:

# Latest stable, or pin a version (e.g. :0.8.1)
docker pull ghcr.io/joaoh82/rustunnel-server:latest

# Run it with your server config mounted at /etc/rustunnel/server.toml
docker run --rm \
  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -p 4040:4040 -p 8443:8443 \
  -v "$PWD/deploy/server.toml:/etc/rustunnel/server.toml:ro" \
  ghcr.io/joaoh82/rustunnel-server:latest

Quick reference (build from source)

# Build the image locally (includes Next.js dashboard + Rust server)
make docker-build

# Build and push a multi-arch image to GHCR (maintainers; needs buildx + ghcr login)
make docker-push

# Local development (self-signed cert, no auth required)
docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.local.yml up

# Production VPS (requires deploy/server.toml to be configured first)
make docker-run

# Production + Prometheus + Grafana monitoring stack
make docker-run-monitoring

# Tail server logs
make docker-logs

# Stop everything
make docker-stop

Files

File	Purpose
deploy/Dockerfile	Multi-stage build: Node.js UI → Rust server → slim runtime
deploy/docker-compose.yml	Production compose file
deploy/docker-compose.local.yml	Local development compose file
deploy/server.toml	Production server config template
deploy/server.local.toml	Local development server config
deploy/prometheus.yml	Prometheus scrape config

---

Client configuration

Installation

Option 1: Homebrew (macOS and Linux, recommended)

brew tap joaoh82/rustunnel
brew install rustunnel

Homebrew installs pre-built binaries. No Rust toolchain required. The formula is updated automatically on every release. This installs both rustunnel (the CLI client) and rustunnel-mcp (the MCP server for AI agent integration).

Option 2: Pre-built binary

Download the archive for your platform from the latest GitHub Release, extract it, and move the rustunnel binary to a directory on your $PATH:

# Example for macOS Apple Silicon
curl -L https://github.com/joaoh82/rustunnel/releases/latest/download/rustunnel-<version>-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz \
  | tar xz
sudo install -Dm755 rustunnel /usr/local/bin/rustunnel

Available targets:

Platform	Archive
macOS Apple Silicon	rustunnel-<version>-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
macOS Intel	rustunnel-<version>-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
Linux x86_64 (glibc)	rustunnel-<version>-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
Linux x86_64 (musl, static)	rustunnel-<version>-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
Linux arm64	rustunnel-<version>-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
Windows x86_64	rustunnel-<version>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip

Option 3: Build from source

Requires Rust 1.76+.

git clone https://github.com/joaoh82/rustunnel.git
cd rustunnel
cargo build --release -p rustunnel-client
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/rustunnel /usr/local/bin/rustunnel

# Or via make
make deploy-client

Setup wizard

The easiest way to create your config file is the interactive setup wizard:

rustunnel setup

It prompts for your region and auth token, then writes ~/.rustunnel/config.yml with the correct server address and a commented tunnels: example section.

rustunnel setup: create ~/.rustunnel/config.yml

Region [auto / eu / us / ap / self-hosted] (default: auto):
  Selecting nearest region… eu 12ms · us 143ms · ap 311ms · → eu (Helsinki, FI) 12ms
  Server set to: eu.edge.rustunnel.com:4040

Auth token (leave blank to skip): rt_live_abc123...

Created: /Users/you/.rustunnel/config.yml
Run `rustunnel start` to connect using this config.

Pick a specific region (eu, us, ap) to connect directly, or auto (the default) to let the client probe all regions and pick the nearest. Choose self-hosted if you run your own server. The wizard will then prompt for your server address.

After running setup, use rustunnel start to connect with all tunnels defined in the config, or use rustunnel http <port> / rustunnel tcp <port> for one-off tunnels.

Quick start (CLI flags)

# Expose a local HTTP service on port 3000 (auto-selects nearest region)
rustunnel http 3000 \
  --token YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN

# Connect to a specific region
rustunnel http 3000 --region eu --token YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN

# Use an explicit server address (bypasses region selection)
rustunnel http 3000 \
  --server edge.rustunnel.com:4040 \
  --token YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN

# Expose a local service with a custom subdomain
rustunnel http 3000 \
  --token YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN \
  --subdomain myapp

# Expose a local TCP service (e.g. a PostgreSQL database)
rustunnel tcp 5432 \
  --token YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN

# Disable automatic reconnection
rustunnel http 3000 --no-reconnect

Machine-readable output (--json)

All tunnel-running commands (http, tcp, udp, p2p, start) and token create accept a --json flag. With it, stdout emits NDJSON, one JSON event object per line, instead of the human-readable startup box, which makes the CLI easy to drive from scripts and AI agents:

rustunnel http 3000 --json --token YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN

{"event":"tunnel_ready","protocol":"http","public_url":"https://myapp.eu.edge.rustunnel.com","local_port":3000,"local_host":"localhost","tunnel_id":"6f9a…","name":"myapp"}

Events:

Event	When	Fields
tunnel_ready	Tunnel registered and accepting traffic	protocol, public_url, public_addr (host:port, tcp/udp only), local_port, local_host, tunnel_id, name
reconnecting	Connection dropped, retry scheduled	attempt, reason, delay_secs
reconnected	Reconnect succeeded (fresh tunnel_ready events follow)	None
error	Fatal error; process exits with code 1	code (config/auth/tunnel/connection/protocol/io), message, hint
token_created	token create --json succeeded	token, name, id

Diagnostics still go to stderr, so stdout stays valid NDJSON. For the http, tcp, udp, and p2p commands the auth token can also be supplied via the RUSTUNNEL_TOKEN environment variable instead of --token (start reads tokens from the config file).

Config file

Default location: ~/.rustunnel/config.yml

# ~/.rustunnel/config.yml

# Tunnel server address (host:control_port)
server: edge.rustunnel.com:4040

# Auth token (from server admin_token or a token created via the dashboard)
auth_token: YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN

# Region preference: auto (probe & pick nearest), or eu / us / ap.
# Omit for self-hosted / single-server setups.
region: auto

# Named tunnels started with `rustunnel start`
tunnels:
  web:
    proto: http
    local_port: 3000
    subdomain: myapp      # optional: server assigns one if omitted

  db:
    proto: tcp
    local_port: 5432

Start all tunnels from the config file:

rustunnel start
# or with an explicit path
rustunnel start --config /path/to/config.yml

Token management

Hosted service: manage tokens from the rustunnel.com dashboard under Dashboard → API Keys. You can create, label, and revoke tokens without any CLI commands.

Self-hosted: create additional tokens via the dashboard API:

rustunnel token create \
  --name "ci-deploy" \
  --server your-server:8443 \
  --admin-token YOUR_ADMIN_TOKEN

Or via curl:

curl -s -X POST https://your-server:8443/api/tokens \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ADMIN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"label": "ci-deploy"}'

---

Port reference

Port	Protocol	Purpose
80	TCP	HTTP edge: redirects to HTTPS; also ACME HTTP-01 challenge
443	TCP	HTTPS edge: TLS-terminated tunnel ingress
4040	TCP	Control-plane WebSocket: clients connect here
8443	TCP	Dashboard UI and REST API
9090	TCP	Prometheus metrics (/metrics)
20000–20099	TCP	TCP tunnel range (configurable via tcp_port_range)
20100–20199	UDP	UDP tunnel range (configurable via udp_port_range)

---

Config file reference (server)

Key	Type	Default	Description
server.domain	string	None	Base domain for tunnel URLs
server.http_port	u16	None	HTTP edge port
server.https_port	u16	None	HTTPS edge port
server.control_port	u16	None	WebSocket control-plane port
server.dashboard_port	u16	4040	Dashboard port
tls.cert_path	string	None	Path to TLS certificate (PEM)
tls.key_path	string	None	Path to TLS private key (PEM)
tls.acme_enabled	bool	false	Enable built-in ACME renewal
tls.acme_email	string	""	Contact email for ACME
tls.acme_staging	bool	false	Use Let's Encrypt staging CA
tls.acme_account_dir	string	/var/lib/rustunnel	ACME state directory
tls.cloudflare_api_token	string	""	Cloudflare DNS API token (prefer env var CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN)
tls.cloudflare_zone_id	string	""	Cloudflare Zone ID (prefer env var CLOUDFLARE_ZONE_ID)
auth.admin_token	string	None	Master auth token
auth.require_auth	bool	None	Reject unauthenticated clients
auth.max_failed_auth_per_minute	int	10	Failed auth attempts allowed per source IP per minute before further attempts are rejected (control-plane handshake and dashboard API); 0 disables
database.url	string	None	PostgreSQL connection URL (required)
database.captured_path	string	/var/lib/rustunnel/captured.db	Per-region SQLite file for captured HTTP request bodies
server.dashboard_origin	string	""	Allowed CORS origin for the dashboard UI (e.g. http://localhost:3000)
logging.level	string	None	trace / debug / info / warn / error
logging.format	string	None	json or pretty
logging.audit_log_path	string	null	Path for audit log (JSON-lines); omit to disable
limits.max_tunnels_per_session	usize	None	Max tunnels per connected client
limits.max_connections_per_tunnel	usize	None	Max concurrent connections per tunnel
limits.rate_limit_rps	u32	None	Per-tunnel request rate cap (req/s)
limits.ip_rate_limit_rps	u32	100	Per-source-IP rate cap (req/s); 0 = disabled
limits.request_body_max_bytes	usize	None	Max proxied request body size (bytes)
limits.tcp_port_range	[u16, u16]	None	Inclusive [low, high] TCP tunnel port range
limits.udp_port_range	[u16, u16]	[0, 0]	Inclusive [low, high] UDP tunnel port range; [0, 0] disables UDP tunnels
region.id	string	"default"	Region identifier recorded in tunnel history (e.g. "eu", "us", "ap")
region.name	string	"Default"	Human-readable region name shown in the dashboard
region.location	string	""	Physical location label (e.g. "Helsinki, FI")

---

Monitoring

A Prometheus metrics endpoint is available at :9090/metrics:

rustunnel_active_sessions      # gauge: connected clients
rustunnel_active_tunnels_http  # gauge: active HTTP tunnels
rustunnel_active_tunnels_tcp   # gauge: active TCP tunnels

Start with the full monitoring stack (Prometheus + Grafana):

make docker-run-monitoring
# Grafana:    http://localhost:3000  (admin / changeme)
# Prometheus: http://localhost:9090

Production note: The default Grafana password is changeme. Set the GRAFANA_PASSWORD environment variable before starting the stack in production:

export GRAFANA_PASSWORD=your-strong-password
make docker-run-monitoring

---

REST API

The dashboard port exposes a REST API for programmatic access to tunnels, tokens, captured requests, and tunnel history. All endpoints (except the health check) require an Authorization: Bearer <token> header.

/api/tunnels, /api/groups, and their per-tunnel sub-resources are scoped by caller: the admin token sees everything; a user-scoped API token sees only its own tunnels and groups; tunnels the caller can't see return 404, never 403. See docs/api-reference.md § Visibility scope for the full rules.

Quick reference

Method	Path	Description
GET	/api/status	Health check (no auth)
GET	/api/tunnels	List active tunnels
GET	/api/tunnels/:id	Get a single tunnel
DELETE	/api/tunnels/:id	Force-close a tunnel
GET	/api/tunnels/:id/requests	Captured HTTP requests
POST	/api/tunnels/:id/replay/:req_id	Fetch stored request for replay
GET	/api/tokens	List API tokens
POST	/api/tokens	Create an API token
DELETE	/api/tokens/:id	Delete an API token
GET	/api/history	Paginated tunnel history

Full request/response schemas, query parameters, and examples are in docs/api-reference.md.

A machine-readable OpenAPI 3.0 spec is served at GET /api/openapi.json (no auth required).

---

AI agent integration (MCP server)

rustunnel ships a rustunnel-mcp binary that implements the Model Context Protocol over stdio, letting AI agents (Claude, GPT-4o, custom agents) open and manage tunnels without any manual intervention.

Works with any MCP harness. For copy-paste config for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and custom agents, plus a one-command installer, see the Agent Integration Guide:

./integrations/install.sh        # prompts for your token, writes the config

Quick setup (Claude Desktop, hosted server)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rustunnel": {
      "command": "rustunnel-mcp",
      "args": [
        "--server", "edge.rustunnel.com:4040",
        "--api",    "https://edge.rustunnel.com:8443"
      ],
      "env": { "RUSTUNNEL_TOKEN": "<your-token>" }
    }
  }
}

Set RUSTUNNEL_TOKEN once and the agent never has to pass a token on a tool call.

Available tools

Tool	Description
create_tunnel	Open a tunnel and return the public URL: HTTP/TCP/UDP, P2P, and load-balanced pools with health checks
list_tunnels	List all active tunnels
close_tunnel	Force-close a tunnel by ID
list_regions	List available server regions
get_connection_info	Return the CLI command for cloud/sandbox agents
get_tunnel_history	Retrieve past tunnel activity

Installation

Homebrew (macOS and Linux): installs rustunnel-mcp alongside the CLI:

brew tap joaoh82/rustunnel
brew install rustunnel

Build from source:

make release-mcp
sudo install -m755 target/release/rustunnel-mcp /usr/local/bin/rustunnel-mcp

Full setup guide, configuration options, and workflow examples are in docs/mcp-server.md.

Claude Code plugin

The easiest way to use rustunnel with Claude Code. Install the plugin and it handles all MCP configuration automatically. Just enter your token once and start asking Claude to expose ports.

/plugin install rustunnel

The plugin prompts for your server address and API token at enable time, stores them securely, and starts the MCP server in the background. No .mcp.json editing or manual setup needed.

Plugin directory: plugins/claude-code/ Documentation: docs/claude-plugin.md

OpenClaw skill

rustunnel ships an OpenClaw skill that gives any OpenClaw-compatible AI agent first-class knowledge of rustunnel: config file format, authentication, tool signatures, and common workflows, without you having to explain it.

Skill file: skills/rustunnel/SKILL.md

What it covers:

Topic	Details
Config file	Location (~/.rustunnel/config.yml), format, named tunnels
First-time setup	rustunnel setup wizard or manual config creation
MCP tools	create_tunnel, list_tunnels, close_tunnel, get_connection_info, get_tunnel_history
Workflows	Webhook testing, demo sharing, cloud sandbox (no subprocess), named tunnels
Security	Token handling, file permissions, HTTPS-only transport

To load the skill in Claude Code:

/skills load skills/rustunnel/SKILL.md

Once loaded, you can ask the agent things like:

"Expose my local port 3000 as an HTTPS tunnel using rustunnel."

"List my active tunnels and close the one forwarding port 5432."

"Set up my rustunnel config file with my token."

The skill instructs the agent to read credentials from ~/.rustunnel/config.yml automatically, so you won't be prompted for your token on every invocation.

---

Roadmap

A detailed list of shipped features and planned future work is maintained in docs/ROADMAP.md.

---

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository and create a feature branch from main.
2. Run make install-hooks once after cloning to activate the pre-push quality gate.
3. Make your changes. Ensure make check (fmt + Clippy) and make test pass locally.
4. Open a Pull Request with a clear description of what changed and why.
5. A maintainer will review and merge once CI is green.

Guidelines

• Keep PRs focused: one logical change per PR.
• Add or update tests for any new behaviour.
• Follow the existing code style; cargo fmt is enforced by CI.
• For larger changes or new features, open an issue first to discuss the approach.

---

License

This project is licensed under the GNU AGPLv3 License. See the LICENSE file for details.

---

Contact

João Henrique Machado Silva

• GitHub: @joaoh82
• Project: github.com/joaoh82/rustunnel
• Issues & feature requests: GitHub Issues