xport <port>

xport 3000

Registers a tunnel session on the configured relay and prints the public URL. The session stays alive until you stop the command (Ctrl-C) or it expires.

Example output:

Forwarding: https://k7fz2.xport.sh → http://localhost:3000
Expires: 2026-10-19 13:05:14 CET
Press Ctrl-C to stop.

How it works

1. The CLI opens a WebSocket to the relay’s control endpoint (relay.url, default: local development relay at http://localhost:8080).
2. It sends a register message; the relay assigns a random name and replies with the public URL.
3. A heartbeat keeps the session alive until you stop the command.

Data plane

Public requests to your URL are relayed to the local port over standing WebSocket data connections. The relay adds X-Forwarded-For and X-Real-IP with the visitor’s address, so your app sees who is really visiting. Details: tunnel protocol.

Options

All persistent options apply: --name, --domain, --policy-file, --expires, --password, --qr, --copy, --rewrite, --detach, --json.

Absolute URLs (WordPress and friends)

Apps that generate absolute URLs from their configured base URL — most notably WordPress — serve CSS, JS and links pointing at the local address, so a tunnel shows an unstyled page. Two ways out:

1. xport 3000 --rewrite rewrites responses on the fly: Location headers always, and bodies of HTML, CSS, JS, JSON, SVG and other text types, replacing the local target’s origin (e.g. http://localhost:8080) with the public URL — including protocol-relative //localhost:8080 references. Binary and pre-compressed responses pass through unchanged. Also settable per endpoint (rewrite: true) or as a default in the config (tunnel.rewrite: true).

2. Teach the app the public host. The tunnel preserves the public Host header, so for WordPress this wp-config.php snippet (above the “That’s all” line) makes every generated URL absolute-correct:

   define('WP_HOME',    'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']);
   define('WP_SITEURL', WP_HOME);

Both approaches leave absolute URLs saved inside post content untouched — regenerate or rewrite those in the database if you need them.