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Open-source tunneling CLI that exposes localhost to shareable URLs. Built with Go, zero config, perfect for demos and webhook testing.

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Expose – OSS localhost tunneling CLI with a self‑hosted server

Name: Expose – OSS localhost tunneling CLI with a self‑hosted server
Availability: InStock
Author: samiulsk

by samiulsk·Feb 28, 2026·1 point·0 comments

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AI Analysis

●●SolidDark HorseShip It

ngrok alternative with self-hosted server support, but feature-complete version still early.

Strengths

•Multi-provider support (LocalTunnel, Cloudflare) lets users avoid vendor lock-in
•Zero signup, single binary, straightforward CLI UX targets friction points ngrok owns
•Self-hosted server PR shows authentic developer-first priorities

Weaknesses

•Missing auth and TLS in self-hosted server limits production readiness
•Tunneling is solved (ngrok, Cloudflare, LocalTunnel); no clear differentiation beyond being open-source

Post Description

Expose is a small open‑source tunneling CLI written in Go that lets you expose localhost with a simple command, similar to ngrok/localtunnel.

So far it has focused on the client side. Over the last few weekends I’ve been working on a self‑hosted tunnel server so you can run the whole stack yourself.

The new server (still early) lets you:

Run expose server --domain yourdomain.com on a VPS/home server

Connect clients with expose tunnel --server yourdomain.com:8080

Proxy public HTTP traffic → server → client → localhost

Keep a simple in‑memory tunnel registry to drive the flow end‑to‑end

What’s missing for now:

No auth or TLS yet

No persistence or clustering

Minimal protocol, focused on being easy to read and change

Links:

Repo: https://github.com/kernelshard/expose

Self‑hosted server PR: https://github.com/kernelshard/expose/pull/26

I’d love feedback from people who’ve built tunneling/reverse‑proxy tools (design, failure modes, protocol), and from self‑hosters who might want to run their own lightweight tunnel server.