Setting Up Your First Binboi Tunnel

Binboi gives your local server a public HTTPS URL in seconds. This guide walks through installing the CLI, logging in, and opening a tunnel — then covers a few habits that make tunneling feel native to your dev workflow.

Prerequisites

A machine running macOS, Linux, or Windows WSL2
A local HTTP server on any port (a next dev or go run process works fine)
A free Binboi account — sign up at binboi.dev

Install the CLI

Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew install miransas/tap/binboi

Go install

go install github.com/miransas/binboi/cmd/binboi@latest

Verify the installation

binboi version
# binboi v0.5.0 (darwin/arm64)

Authenticate

Run binboi login to connect the CLI to your account. It will open your browser and store a token in ~/.binboi/config.json.

binboi login
# Opening https://binboi.dev/cli-auth…
# Logged in as sardor@example.com ✓

Tokens are scoped to your account. Rotate them from the dashboard under Access Tokens if a machine is lost or decommissioned.

Open Your First Tunnel

Forward port 3000 to the internet:

binboi http 3000

Within a second you'll see output like:

Tunnel started
  Public URL  → https://sardor.binboi.dev
  Local port  → http://localhost:3000
  Protocol    → HTTP/2
  Status      → connected

Any request to https://sardor.binboi.dev is forwarded to localhost:3000. Headers are preserved, including X-Forwarded-For, X-Real-IP, and the original Host.

Stable Subdomain

By default, Binboi assigns a stable subdomain based on your username. If you need a custom one per project, use --name:

binboi http 3000 --name payments-service
# https://payments-service.binboi.dev

Name tunnels after the service they expose — not the port — so the URL is readable in logs and Slack notifications.

Inspect Traffic

Every active tunnel has a request log in the dashboard. Open it to see:

Full request headers and body
Response status and latency
A replay button that resends the exact request to your local server

This is especially useful when debugging webhooks: you can capture a live delivery and replay it until your handler is correct.

Tips for Production

Match production TLS exactly. Pair binboi http with a local HTTPS proxy (mkcert + caddy reverse-proxy) to test TLS termination, HSTS headers, and cookie Secure flags locally.

One token per machine. Create a dedicated token for each developer machine rather than sharing one. Revoking a single machine doesn't disrupt others.

Keep the tunnel URL stable across restarts. Binboi reconnects on the same subdomain after a network drop. If your process manager restarts the tunnel, the URL stays the same — no need to update webhook configs.

With the tunnel running, you're ready to start receiving live webhook deliveries, testing OAuth callbacks, and demoing work in progress without a deploy.