hostc

Share a Vite or Next.js dev server

Send someone a link to your running dev server, with no config changes. Hot reload reaches them too.

How to do it

npx hostc@latest 5173

Use your dev server's port: Vite defaults to 5173, Next.js to 3000. Then send the printed URL.

Why it needs no configuration

Dev servers refuse requests from names they don't know. Vite has server.allowedHosts and Next.js has allowedDevOrigins, and many tunnels make you add their domain to one of them.

hostc rewrites the Host, Origin and Referer headers on the way in, so to your dev server each request looks local. Redirects to localhost are rewritten back to the public URL. WebSockets pass straight through, which is what hot reload runs on.

Good to know

  • Your app sees localhost as its host. Links it builds from the request, such as OAuth callback URLs, point at localhost.
  • Anyone with the URL reaches your server, so stop hostc with Ctrl+C when you are done.

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