rustunnel Quickstart — expose localhost in three steps

This quickstart takes you from nothing to a live public URL for your local service in three steps: install the rustunnel client, get an auth token, and open a tunnel. The same steps work against the managed cloud at rustunnel.com or your own self-hosted server.

Step 1 — Install the client

macOS and Linux (Homebrew)

brew tap joaoh82/rustunnel
brew install rustunnel

This installs both rustunnel (the CLI client) and rustunnel-mcp (the MCP server for AI agent integration). No Rust toolchain required.

Pre-built binary

Download the archive for your platform from the latest GitHub Release, extract it, and move the binary onto your $PATH.

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)	`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`

Build from source

Requires Rust 1.76 or later.

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

Verify the installation:

rustunnel --version

Step 2 — Get an auth token

Access to the hosted service requires an auth token. Create a free account and generate one yourself.

Create a free account

Generate a token

Go to Dashboard → API Keys → Create token and copy the token value.

Run the setup wizard

rustunnel setup

The wizard prompts for your region and token, then writes ~/.rustunnel/config.yml with the correct server address.

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>

Created: /Users/you/.rustunnel/config.yml

Pick a specific region (eu, us, ap) to skip probing, or self-hosted if you run your own server.

If you are self-hosting, skip token requests entirely — use the admin_token you set in your server.toml. See the Self-Hosting guide.

Step 3 — Open your first tunnel

# Expose a local HTTP service on port 3000
rustunnel http 3000

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

# Request a custom subdomain
rustunnel http 3000 --subdomain myapp

# Expose a raw TCP service (e.g. PostgreSQL)
rustunnel tcp 5432

# Expose a UDP service (e.g. game server)
rustunnel udp 27015

# P2P tunnel — connect two clients directly
rustunnel p2p 27015 --name 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

Press Ctrl-C to close the tunnel.

Available regions

Region	Location	Server
`eu`	Helsinki, FI	`eu.edge.rustunnel.com:4040`
`us`	Hillsboro, OR	`us.edge.rustunnel.com:4040`
`ap`	Singapore	`ap.edge.rustunnel.com:4040`

The client auto-selects the nearest region by default when region: auto is set in your config.

Next steps

Client Guide

All commands, flags, config options, reconnection behavior, and error reference.

Self-Hosting

Run your own rustunnel server on a VPS with systemd and Let’s Encrypt.

Docker Deployment

Spin up the server locally or in production using Docker Compose.

MCP Server

Let AI agents manage tunnels on your behalf via the Model Context Protocol.

Getting started

Guides

Reference

rustunnel Quickstart — expose localhost in three steps

Step 1 — Install the client

Step 2 — Get an auth token

Step 3 — Open your first tunnel

Available regions

Next steps

Client Guide

Self-Hosting

Docker Deployment

MCP Server

​Step 1 — Install the client

​Step 2 — Get an auth token

​Step 3 — Open your first tunnel

​Available regions

​Next steps

Client Guide

Self-Hosting

Docker Deployment

MCP Server

Step 1 — Install the client

Step 2 — Get an auth token

Step 3 — Open your first tunnel

Available regions

Next steps