rustunnel

The open-source tunnel that scales with you. Don't pay for idle time. Secure, Rust-fast, and Pay-as-you-go.

Expose local services through a public server over encrypted WebSocket connections with TLS termination, HTTP/TCP proxying, a live dashboard, Prometheus metrics, and audit logging.

You can self-host or use our managed service.

Using an AI agent? rustunnel ships an MCP server — one-click setup for Cursor (then add your API token):

For Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, and others, see the agent integration guide or the agent manual at rustunnel.com/agents.md.

---

Table of Contents

• Hosted service
• Architecture overview
• Requirements
• Local development setup
  • Build
  • Run tests
  • Run the server locally
  • Run the client locally
  • Git hooks
• Production deployment (Ubuntu / systemd)
  • 1 — Install dependencies
  • 2 — Build release binaries
  • 3 — Create system user and directories
  • 4 — Install the server binary
  • 5 — Create the server config file
  • 6 — TLS certificates (Let's Encrypt + Cloudflare)
  • 7 — Set up systemd service
  • 8 — Open firewall ports
  • 9 — Verify the server is running
  • Updating the server
• Docker deployment · full guide
• Client configuration
  • Installation
  • Setup wizard
  • Quick start (CLI flags)
  • Machine-readable output (--json)
  • Config file
  • Token management
• Port reference
• Config file reference (server)
• REST API
• AI agent integration (MCP server)
  • OpenClaw skill
• Monitoring
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License
• Contact

---

Hosted service

You can use rustunnel without running your own server. We operate a global fleet of public edge servers that you can connect to immediately.

Available regions

Region ID	Server	Location	Control plane	Status
eu	eu.edge.rustunnel.com	Helsinki, FI	:4040	Live
us	us.edge.rustunnel.com	Hillsboro, OR	:4040	Live
ap	ap.edge.rustunnel.com	Singapore	:4040	Live

The client auto-selects the nearest region by default. Use --region <id> to connect to a specific one. The legacy address edge.rustunnel.com is a CNAME to eu.edge.rustunnel.com and will continue to work for backward compatibility.

Getting an auth token

Sign up for a free account at rustunnel.com — no waiting list, no manual approval.

1. Create an account at rustunnel.com
2. Go to Dashboard → API Keys and create a token
3. Copy the token — it is shown only once

Plans:

Plan	Price	Tunnels	Custom subdomains	TLS/HTTPS
Free	$0	Up to 3	—	✓
Pay-as-you-go	$3/mo minimum + $0.10/GB	Unlimited	✓	✓
Self-host	Free (run your own server)	Unlimited	✓	✓

The free plan is a great way to get started. Upgrade to pay-as-you-go from your dashboard whenever you need custom subdomains or unlimited tunnels.

Quick start with the hosted server

Once you have a token, run the setup wizard:

rustunnel setup
# 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>

Then expose a local service:

# HTTP tunnel — auto-selects the nearest region
rustunnel http 3000

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

# Custom subdomain
rustunnel http 3000 --subdomain myapp

# TCP tunnel — e.g. expose a local database
rustunnel tcp 5432

# UDP tunnel — e.g. expose a game server
rustunnel udp 27015

# P2P tunnel — expose a service to another rustunnel client
rustunnel p2p 27015 --name my-game --secret "shared-secret"

# P2P tunnel — connect to a peer's service
rustunnel p2p 8000 --target 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

---

Architecture overview

                        ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
                        │           rustunnel-server               │
                        │                                          │
Internet ──── :80 ─────▶│  HTTP edge (301 → HTTPS)                 │
Internet ──── :443 ────▶│  HTTPS edge  ──▶ yamux stream ──▶ client │
Client ───── :4040 ────▶│  Control-plane WebSocket (TLS)           │
Browser ──── :8443 ────▶│  Dashboard UI + REST API                 │
Prometheus ─ :9090 ────▶│  Metrics endpoint                        │
Internet ── :20000+ ───▶│  TCP tunnel ports (one per TCP tunnel)   │
                        └──────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                          │ yamux multiplexed streams
                                          ▼
                              ┌─────────────────────┐
                              │   rustunnel client   │
                              │  (developer laptop)  │
                              └──────────┬──────────┘
                                         │ localhost
                                         ▼
                                ┌────────────────┐
                                │  local service  │
                                │  e.g. :3000    │
                                └────────────────┘

---

Requirements

To build

Requirement	Version	Notes
Rust toolchain	1.76+	Install via rustup
pkg-config	any	Needed by reqwest (TLS)
libssl-dev	any	On Debian/Ubuntu: apt install libssl-dev
Node.js + npm	18+	Only needed to rebuild the dashboard UI

To run the server in production

Requirement	Notes
Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+)	systemd service included
TLS certificate + private key	PEM format (Let's Encrypt recommended)
Public IP / DNS	Wildcard DNS *.tunnel.yourdomain.com → server IP required for HTTP tunnels

---

Local development setup

Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/joaoh82/rustunnel.git
cd rustunnel

# Compile all workspace crates (debug mode)
cargo build --workspace

# Or use the Makefile shortcut
make build

Run tests

The integration test suite spins up a real server on random ports and exercises auth, HTTP tunnels, TCP tunnels, and reconnection logic. It requires a running PostgreSQL instance.

# Start the local PostgreSQL container (once per machine, persists across reboots)
make db-start

# Full suite (unit + integration)
make test

# With output visible
TEST_DATABASE_URL=postgres://rustunnel:test@localhost:5432/rustunnel_test \
  cargo test --workspace -- --nocapture

# Stop PostgreSQL when you no longer need it
make db-stop

make db-start runs deploy/docker-compose.dev-deps.yml which starts a Postgres 16 container on localhost:5432. The make test target injects TEST_DATABASE_URL automatically. If you run cargo test directly, export the variable first:

export TEST_DATABASE_URL=postgres://rustunnel:test@localhost:5432/rustunnel_test

Run the server locally

Generate a self-signed certificate for local testing:

mkdir -p /tmp/rustunnel-dev

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /tmp/rustunnel-dev/key.pem \
  -out /tmp/rustunnel-dev/cert.pem -days 365 -nodes \
  -subj "/CN=localhost"

A ready-made local config is checked into the repository at deploy/local/server.toml. It points to the self-signed cert paths above and has auth disabled for convenience. Start the server with it directly:

cargo run -p rustunnel-server -- --config deploy/local/server.toml

Key settings in deploy/local/server.toml:

Setting	Value
Domain	localhost
HTTP edge	:8080
HTTPS edge	:8443
Control plane	:4040
Dashboard	:4041
Auth token	dev-secret-change-me
Auth required	false
TLS cert	/tmp/rustunnel-dev/cert.pem
TLS key	/tmp/rustunnel-dev/key.pem
Database	/tmp/rustunnel-dev/rustunnel.db

Run the client locally

With the server running, expose a local service (e.g. something on port 3000):

# HTTP tunnel
cargo run -p rustunnel-client -- http 3000 \
  --server localhost:4040 \
  --token dev-secret-change-me \
  --insecure

# TCP tunnel
cargo run -p rustunnel-client -- tcp 5432 \
  --server localhost:4040 \
  --token dev-secret-change-me \
  --insecure

--insecure skips TLS certificate verification. Required when using a self-signed certificate locally. Never use this flag against a production server.

The client will print a public URL, for example:

http tunnel  →  http://abc123.localhost:8080
tcp  tunnel  →  tcp://localhost:20000

Testing the HTTP tunnel locally

The tunnel URL uses a subdomain (e.g. http://abc123.localhost:8080). Browsers won't resolve *.localhost subdomains by default, so you have two options:

Option A — curl with a Host header (no setup required)

curl -v -H "Host: abc123.localhost" http://localhost:8080/

Option B — wildcard DNS via dnsmasq (enables browser access)

# Install and configure dnsmasq to resolve *.localhost → 127.0.0.1
brew install dnsmasq
echo "address=/.localhost/127.0.0.1" | sudo tee -a $(brew --prefix)/etc/dnsmasq.conf
sudo brew services start dnsmasq

# Tell macOS to use dnsmasq for .localhost queries
sudo mkdir -p /etc/resolver
echo "nameserver 127.0.0.1" | sudo tee /etc/resolver/localhost

Then visit http://abc123.localhost:8080 in the browser (include :8080 since the local config uses port 8080, not port 80).

Git hooks

A pre-push hook is included in .githooks/ that mirrors the CI check step (format check + Clippy). Run this once after cloning to activate it:

make install-hooks

From that point on, every git push will automatically run:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings

If either check fails the push is aborted, keeping the remote branch green.

---

Production deployment (Ubuntu / systemd)

The steps below match a deployment where:

• Domain: edge.rustunnel.com
• Wildcard DNS: *.edge.rustunnel.com → <server IP>
• TLS certs: Let's Encrypt via Certbot + Cloudflare DNS challenge

1 — Install dependencies

apt update && apt install -y \
  pkg-config libssl-dev curl git \
  certbot python3-certbot-dns-cloudflare

Install Rust (as the build user, not root):

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

2 — Build release binaries

git clone https://github.com/joaoh82/rustunnel.git
cd rustunnel
cargo build --release -p rustunnel-server -p rustunnel-client

Binaries will be at:

• target/release/rustunnel-server
• target/release/rustunnel

3 — Create system user and directories

useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin rustunnel

mkdir -p /etc/rustunnel /var/lib/rustunnel
chown rustunnel:rustunnel /var/lib/rustunnel
chmod 750 /var/lib/rustunnel

4 — Install the server binary

install -Dm755 target/release/rustunnel-server /usr/local/bin/rustunnel-server

# Optionally install the client system-wide
install -Dm755 target/release/rustunnel /usr/local/bin/rustunnel

Or use the Makefile target (runs build + install + systemd setup):

sudo make deploy

5 — Set up PostgreSQL

rustunnel requires PostgreSQL for shared state (tokens, tunnel history, audit log).

apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib

# Start and enable the service
systemctl enable --now postgresql

Create a dedicated database and user:

sudo -u postgres psql <<'SQL'
CREATE USER rustunnel WITH PASSWORD 'CHANGE_ME';
CREATE DATABASE rustunnel OWNER rustunnel;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE rustunnel TO rustunnel;
SQL

Tip: For managed PostgreSQL (e.g. AWS RDS, DigitalOcean Managed Database, Supabase) skip the apt install step above and just note the connection URL for the config in the next step.

Schema migrations run automatically when the server starts — no manual SQL needed.

6 — Create the server config file

Create /etc/rustunnel/server.toml with the content below. Replace your-admin-token-here with a strong random secret (e.g. openssl rand -hex 32).

# /etc/rustunnel/server.toml

[server]
# Primary domain — must match your wildcard DNS record.
domain       = "edge.rustunnel.com"

# Ports for incoming tunnel traffic (requires CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE or root).
http_port    = 80
https_port   = 443

# Control-plane WebSocket port — clients connect here.
control_port = 4040

# Dashboard UI and REST API port.
dashboard_port = 8443

# Allowed CORS origin for the dashboard UI.
# Set to the URL where you serve the dashboard-ui (e.g. http://localhost:3000 for local dev).
dashboard_origin = "http://localhost:3000"

# ── TLS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[tls]
# Paths written by Certbot (see step 6).
cert_path = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/fullchain.pem"
key_path  = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/privkey.pem"

# Set acme_enabled = true only if you want rustunnel to manage certs itself
# via the ACME protocol (requires Cloudflare credentials below).
# When using Certbot (recommended), leave this false.
acme_enabled = false

# ── Auth ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[auth]
# Strong random secret — used both as the admin token and for client auth.
# Generate: openssl rand -hex 32
admin_token  = "your-admin-token-here"
require_auth = true
# Failed auth attempts per source IP per minute before rejection (0 = off).
max_failed_auth_per_minute = 10

# ── Database ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[database]
# PostgreSQL connection URL — the database and user must exist before starting
# the server (see the PostgreSQL setup step above).  Schema migrations run
# automatically on first start.
url = "postgresql://rustunnel:CHANGE_ME@localhost:5432/rustunnel"

# Per-region SQLite file for captured HTTP request bodies.
# The directory must be writable by the rustunnel user.
captured_path = "/var/lib/rustunnel/captured.db"

# ── Logging ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[logging]
level  = "info"
format = "json"

# Optional: write an append-only audit log (JSON-lines) for auth attempts,
# tunnel registrations, token creation/deletion, and admin actions.
# Omit or comment out to disable.
audit_log_path = "/var/lib/rustunnel/audit.log"

# ── Limits ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[limits]
# Maximum tunnels a single authenticated session may register.
max_tunnels_per_session = 10

# Maximum simultaneous proxied connections per tunnel (semaphore).
max_connections_per_tunnel = 100

# Per-tunnel request rate limit (requests/second).
rate_limit_rps = 100

# Per-source-IP rate limit (requests/second). Set to 0 to disable.
ip_rate_limit_rps = 100

# Maximum size of a proxied HTTP request body (bytes). Default: 10 MB.
request_body_max_bytes = 10485760

# Inclusive port range reserved for TCP tunnels.
# Each active TCP tunnel consumes one port from this range.
tcp_port_range = [20000, 20099]

# Inclusive port range reserved for UDP tunnels.
# Each active UDP tunnel consumes one port from this range.
# Must not overlap with tcp_port_range. Set to [0, 0] to disable UDP tunnels.
udp_port_range = [20100, 20199]

Secure the file:

chown root:rustunnel /etc/rustunnel/server.toml
chmod 640 /etc/rustunnel/server.toml

7 — TLS certificates (Let's Encrypt + Cloudflare)

Create the Cloudflare credentials file:

cat > /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini <<'EOF'
# Cloudflare API token with DNS:Edit permission for the zone.
dns_cloudflare_api_token = YOUR_CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN
EOF

chmod 600 /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini

Request a certificate covering the bare domain and the wildcard (required for HTTP subdomain tunnels):

certbot certonly \
  --dns-cloudflare \
  --dns-cloudflare-credentials /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini \
  -d "edge.rustunnel.com" \
  -d "*.edge.rustunnel.com" \
  --agree-tos \
  --email your@email.com

Certbot writes the certificate to:

/etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/fullchain.pem
/etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/privkey.pem

These paths are already set in the config above. Certbot sets up automatic renewal via a systemd timer.

rustunnel reads TLS certificates from disk at startup, so it must be restarted after each renewal. Add a Certbot deploy hook to do this automatically:

cat > /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/deploy/restart-rustunnel.sh <<'EOF'
#!/bin/sh
systemctl restart rustunnel.service
EOF
chmod +x /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/deploy/restart-rustunnel.sh

Allow the rustunnel service user to read the certificates:

# Grant read access to the live/ and archive/ directories
chmod 755 /etc/letsencrypt/{live,archive}
chmod 640 /etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/*.pem
chgrp rustunnel /etc/letsencrypt/live/edge.rustunnel.com/*.pem
chgrp rustunnel /etc/letsencrypt/archive/edge.rustunnel.com/*.pem
chmod 640 /etc/letsencrypt/archive/edge.rustunnel.com/*.pem

8 — Set up systemd service

# Copy the unit file from the repository
install -Dm644 deploy/rustunnel.service /etc/systemd/system/rustunnel.service

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now rustunnel.service

# Check it started
systemctl status rustunnel.service
journalctl -u rustunnel.service -f

9 — Open firewall ports

ufw allow 80/tcp   comment "rustunnel HTTP edge"
ufw allow 443/tcp  comment "rustunnel HTTPS edge"
ufw allow 4040/tcp comment "rustunnel control plane"
ufw allow 8443/tcp comment "rustunnel dashboard"
ufw allow 9090/tcp comment "rustunnel Prometheus metrics"

# TCP tunnel port range (must match tcp_port_range in server.toml)
ufw allow 20000:20099/tcp comment "rustunnel TCP tunnels"

# UDP tunnel port range (must match udp_port_range in server.toml)
ufw allow 20100:20199/udp comment "rustunnel UDP tunnels"

10 — Verify the server is running

# Health check — use dashboard_port from server.toml (default 8443 in production)
curl http://localhost:8443/api/status

# Confirm which ports the process is actually bound to
ss -tlnp | grep rustunnel-serve

# Startup banner is visible in the logs
journalctl -u rustunnel.service --no-pager | tail -30

# Prometheus metrics
curl -s http://localhost:9090/metrics

Port reminder: port 4040 is the control-plane WebSocket (clients connect here), not the dashboard. Hitting it with plain HTTP returns HTTP/0.9 which is expected. The dashboard is on dashboard_port — check your server.toml if unsure.

Updating the server

Pull the latest code, rebuild, install, and restart in one command:

cd ~/rustunnel && sudo make update-server

This runs git pull → cargo build --release → install → systemctl restart → systemctl status.

---

Docker deployment

A full Docker guide covering both local development (self-signed cert) and production VPS (Let's Encrypt) is available in docs/docker-deployment.md.

Pull the published image

Multi-arch images (linux/amd64 + linux/arm64) are published to GitHub Container Registry on every stable release — no build required:

# Latest stable, or pin a version (e.g. :0.8.1)
docker pull ghcr.io/joaoh82/rustunnel-server:latest

# Run it with your server config mounted at /etc/rustunnel/server.toml
docker run --rm \
  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -p 4040:4040 -p 8443:8443 \
  -v "$PWD/deploy/server.toml:/etc/rustunnel/server.toml:ro" \
  ghcr.io/joaoh82/rustunnel-server:latest

Quick reference (build from source)

# Build the image locally (includes Next.js dashboard + Rust server)
make docker-build

# Build and push a multi-arch image to GHCR (maintainers; needs buildx + ghcr login)
make docker-push

# Local development (self-signed cert, no auth required)
docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.local.yml up

# Production VPS (requires deploy/server.toml to be configured first)
make docker-run

# Production + Prometheus + Grafana monitoring stack
make docker-run-monitoring

# Tail server logs
make docker-logs

# Stop everything
make docker-stop

Files

File	Purpose
deploy/Dockerfile	Multi-stage build: Node.js UI → Rust server → slim runtime
deploy/docker-compose.yml	Production compose file
deploy/docker-compose.local.yml	Local development compose file
deploy/server.toml	Production server config template
deploy/server.local.toml	Local development server config
deploy/prometheus.yml	Prometheus scrape config

---

Client configuration

Installation

Option 1 — Homebrew (macOS and Linux, recommended)

brew tap joaoh82/rustunnel
brew install rustunnel

Homebrew installs pre-built binaries — no Rust toolchain required. The formula is updated automatically on every release. This installs both rustunnel (the CLI client) and rustunnel-mcp (the MCP server for AI agent integration).

Option 2 — Pre-built binary

Download the archive for your platform from the latest GitHub Release, extract it, and move the rustunnel binary to a directory on your $PATH: