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What is Wormkey?

Wormkey creates a secure tunnel from your localhost to a public URL in seconds. Perfect for:
  • Sharing your local development with clients or teammates
  • Testing webhooks from external services
  • Demoing features before deployment
  • Mobile device testing on real URLs
Wormkey is not a deploy platform or hosting provider. It’s a controlled wormhole to your localhost.

Get started in 30 seconds

1

Install Wormkey

Install globally or use npx directly:
npm install -g wormkey
2

Start your local server

Run your application on any port:
# Example: Next.js on port 3000
npm run dev
3

Open the wormhole

Expose your local port:
wormkey http 3000
You’ll get a public URL like https://wormkey.run/s/quiet-lime-82 that tunnels directly to your localhost.

Key features

Instant tunnels

Create a secure public URL to your localhost in seconds. No account or configuration required.

Basic authentication

Protect your tunnel with username and password authentication using the --auth flag.

Owner controls

Claim ownership of your tunnel to manage access and view connection status through a control bar.

React integration

Built-in React component and overlay helpers for seamless integration with Next.js and React apps.

Quickstart

Get your first wormhole running in under a minute

Installation

Installation options for npm, yarn, and pnpm

CLI commands

Explore all available commands and options

React integration

Add the Wormkey overlay to your React app

How it works

Wormkey uses a lightweight protocol to create a WebSocket tunnel between your localhost and a public edge gateway:
  1. The CLI connects to the control plane and requests a session
  2. You receive a unique slug (e.g., quiet-lime-82) and public URL
  3. The CLI establishes a WebSocket tunnel to the edge gateway
  4. Incoming HTTP requests to your public URL are forwarded through the tunnel to your localhost
The tunnel stays open as long as the CLI is running. Press Ctrl+C to close the wormhole.

Architecture components

ComponentRole
CLI (wormkey)Connects to edge, forwards traffic to localhost
Control PlaneSession creation, slug allocation
Edge GatewayTLS termination, routing, stream forwarding

Learn more

Dive deep into the Wormkey architecture and protocol

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love