tunnler

Tunnler

A Node.js library and CLI tool for creating Cloudflare tunnels with DNS management. Tunnler simplifies the process of exposing local services through Cloudflare's tunnel infrastructure.

Features

• 🔧 Easy initialization with Cloudflare credentials
• 🌐 Automatic DNS record management
• 🚀 Simple tunnel creation and management
• 📦 Available as both CLI tool and Node.js module
• 🔒 Credential storage

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Cloudflare account with API access
• cloudflared CLI tool installed and authenticated

Installing cloudflared

# macOS
brew install cloudflare/cloudflare/cloudflared

# Linux
wget https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb

# Windows
# Download from https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases

Installation

npm intall tunnler

Quick Start

1. Initialize Tunnler

First, you need to initialize tunnler with your Cloudflare credentials:

# Interactive mode (will prompt for credentials)
npx tunnler init

# Or provide credentials directly
npx tunnler init --apiKey YOUR_API_KEY --accountId YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID --zone yourdomain.com

This will store your credentials in ~/.tunnler/credentials.json.

2. Create a Tunnel

# Basic tunnel to localhost:3000
npx tunnler --port 3000

# With custom subdomain
npx tunnler --port 3000 --subdomain myapp

# With specific zone
npx tunnler --port 3000 --subdomain myapp --zone mydomain.com

CLI Usage

Commands

init - Initialize Configuration

Initialize tunnler with your Cloudflare credentials:

tunnler init [options]

Options:

• -a, --apiKey <key> - Cloudflare API key
• -i, --accountId <id> - Cloudflare account ID
• -z, --zone <zone> - Default zone to use
• -h, --help - Show help

Examples:

# Interactive mode
tunnler init

# With all options
tunnler init --apiKey abc123 --accountId def456 --zone example.com

tunnel - Create Tunnel (default command)

Create a tunnel to expose a local service:

tunnler [tunnel] [options]

Options:

• -p, --port <port> - Port to tunnel to (required)
• -s, --subdomain <subdomain> - Subdomain name (default: random)
• -z, --zone <zone> - Zone to use (default: from init)
• -e, --service <service> - Service URL (default: http://localhost)
• -a, --apiKey <key> - Override API key
• -i, --accountId <id> - Override account ID
• -h, --help - Show help

Examples:

# Basic tunnel
tunnler --port 3000

# With custom subdomain
tunnler --port 3000 --subdomain myapp

# With specific zone
tunnler --port 3000 --subdomain myapp --zone mydomain.com

# Tunnel to different service
tunnler --port 8080 --service http://192.168.1.100

Module Usage

Basic Setup

Note: Init options are only required if you have not set up your ~/.tunnler/credentials.json file. Other options for loading are diretly from process.env, as well as a .env file

import * as Tunnel from 'tunnler';

// Initialize with credentials
Tunnel.init({
  apiKey: 'your-api-key',
  accountId: 'your-account-id',
  defaultZone: 'yourdomain.com'
});

// Create and connect tunnel
const tunnel = await Tunnel.createTunnel({
  port: 3000,
  subdomain: 'myapp'
});

await tunnel.connect();

Advanced Usage

import * as Tunnel from 'tunnler';

// Initialize
Tunnel.init({
  apiKey: 'your-api-key',
  accountId: 'your-account-id',
  defaultZone: 'yourdomain.com'
});

// Create tunnel with all options
const tunnel = await Tunnel.createTunnel({
  port: 3000,
  subdomain: 'myapp',
  zone: 'customdomain.com',
  service: 'http://localhost'
});

// Connect to tunnel
await tunnel.connect();

// Later, close the tunnel
await tunnel.close();

TypeScript Support

import * as Tunnel from 'tunnler';

interface TunnelOptions {
  port: number;
  subdomain?: string;
  zone?: string;
  service?: string;
}

const tunnel = await Tunnel.createTunnel({
  port: 3000,
  subdomain: 'myapp'
} as TunnelOptions);

Configuration

Credential Storage

Tunnler stores credentials in ~/.tunnler/credentials.json:

{
  "CLOUDLFARE_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
  "CLOUDLFARE_ACCOUNT_ID": "your-account-id", 
  "DEFAULT_ZONE": "yourdomain.com"
}

Environment Variables

You can also use environment variables:

export CLOUDLFARE_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export CLOUDLFARE_ACCOUNT_ID="your-account-id"
export DEFAULT_ZONE="yourdomain.com"

API Reference

Tunnel.init(options)

Initialize tunnler with credentials.

Parameters:

• options.apiKey (string) - Cloudflare API key
• options.accountId (string) - Cloudflare account ID
• options.defaultZone (string, optional) - Default zone to use
• options.envPath (string, optional) - Path to .env file

Tunnel.createTunnel(options)

Create a new tunnel instance.

Parameters:

• options.port (number) - Port to tunnel to
• options.subdomain (string, optional) - Subdomain name (default: random UUID)
• options.zone (string, optional) - Zone to use (default: from init)
• options.service (string, optional) - Service URL (default: http://localhost)

Returns: Promise

Tunnel Instance

A tunnel instance has the following methods:

• connect() - Connect to the tunnel
• close() - Close the tunnel and cleanup resources

Examples

Development Server

# Start your development server
npm run dev

# In another terminal, create tunnel
tunnler --port 3000 --subdomain dev

Docker Container

# Run container
docker run -p 8080:80 nginx

# Create tunnel to container
tunnler --port 8080 --subdomain nginx

Multiple Services

import * as Tunnel from 'tunnler';

Tunnel.init({
  apiKey: 'your-key',
  accountId: 'your-id',
  defaultZone: 'yourdomain.com'
});

// Frontend tunnel
const frontend = await Tunnel.createTunnel({
  port: 3000,
  subdomain: 'frontend'
});

// Backend tunnel  
const backend = await Tunnel.createTunnel({
  port: 8000,
  subdomain: 'api'
});

await Promise.all([
  frontend.connect(),
  backend.connect()
]);

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• "Failed to initialize tunnler"

  • Ensure your Cloudflare API key and account ID are correct
  • Check that you have the necessary permissions

• "Port is required"

  • Always specify the --port option when creating tunnels

• "cloudflared not found"

  • Install cloudflared CLI tool
  • Ensure it's in your PATH

• DNS errors

  • Verify your zone exists in Cloudflare
  • Check that your API key has DNS management permissions

Debug Mode

For debugging, you can check the stored credentials:

cat ~/.tunnler/credentials.json

License

ISC