LocalHook

Local webhook testing tool. Like webhook.site, but on your machine.

Send webhooks to localhost instead of a third-party service. Inspect request details, headers, and body in a real-time dashboard. Optionally forward the incoming webhook to your application.

Features

• Public HTTPS Tunnel -- built-in support for HTTPS tunnel via Tailscale or Cloudflare
• Real-time -- requests appear instantly via Server-Sent Events, no refresh needed
• All HTTP methods -- GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
• Request inspection -- method, URL, headers, query parameters, body
• Request forwarding -- optionally forward incoming requests to your own application
• JSON formatting -- auto-detects and pretty-prints JSON with syntax highlighting
• Zero config -- no database, no build step, no accounts
• Terminal logging -- see requests in your terminal without opening the dashboard

Quick Start

npx @cmer/localhook

Then send requests to http://localhost:3000/any-path (or the public URL) and watch them appear in the dashboard.

Usage

# Default port 3000
npx @cmer/localhook

# Custom port
npx @cmer/localhook --port 8080

# Expose via Tailscale Funnel
npx @cmer/localhook --tailscale

# Expose via Cloudflare Quick Tunnel (no account required)
npx @cmer/localhook --cloudflare

# Custom port with Tailscale
npx @cmer/localhook --port 8080 --tailscale

# Allow dashboard access from the public URL (password-protected)
npx @cmer/localhook --tailscale --allow-remote-access --password mysecret

# Forward webhooks to your local app
npx @cmer/localhook --forward-to http://localhost:4444

# Forward with a base path
npx @cmer/localhook --forward-to http://localhost:4444/api/webhooks

| Flag | Short | Description | |---|---|---| | --port <port> | -p | Port to listen on (default: 3000) | | --tailscale | | Start Tailscale Funnel for a public HTTPS URL | | --cloudflare | | Start Cloudflare Quick Tunnel for a public HTTPS URL | | --allow-remote-access | | Allow dashboard/API access from non-localhost (e.g. via tunnel) | | --password <value> | | Require HTTP Basic Auth for remote dashboard/API access (localhost is never challenged) | | --data-file <path> | | Path to data file (default: ~/.localhook/data.json) | | --forward-to <url> | | Forward incoming webhooks to a local app (preserves method, path, headers, body) | | --help | -h | Show help |

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to see the dashboard.

Any HTTP request to any path (except /) gets captured:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/webhook \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"event": "user.created", "user_id": "123"}'

Webhook Forwarding

Use --forward-to to forward incoming webhooks to your local application while still capturing them in the dashboard:

npx @cmer/localhook --forward-to http://localhost:4444

Every captured webhook is forwarded synchronously — your app receives the original HTTP method, path, query string, headers (including signature headers like x-stripe-signature), and body. The caller (e.g. Stripe) receives your app's actual response, so retries work correctly on 5xx errors.

You can also specify a base path that gets prepended to the webhook path:

# Webhook to /events → forwarded to http://localhost:4444/api/webhooks/events
npx @cmer/localhook --forward-to http://localhost:4444/api/webhooks

The dashboard shows forwarding results: status code, duration, and response body for each request. If the target is unreachable, the caller receives a 502 and the error is displayed in the dashboard.

Combine with a tunnel for end-to-end webhook testing:

npx @cmer/localhook --cloudflare --forward-to http://localhost:4444

Testing with External Services

If you need to receive webhooks from external services like Stripe, GitHub, or Shopify, they need a public URL to send requests to.

Tailscale Funnel (built-in)

My favorite. Use the --tailscale flag to automatically start Tailscale Funnel alongside LocalHook:

npx @cmer/localhook --tailscale

This gives you a public HTTPS URL like https://myhost.tail1234.ts.net. Use that as your webhook URL in Stripe, GitHub, etc.

Requires Tailscale to be installed with Funnel enabled.

Cloudflare Quick Tunnel (built-in)

Use the --cloudflare flag to start a Cloudflare Quick Tunnel — no account or login required:

npx @cmer/localhook --cloudflare

This gives you a public HTTPS URL like https://random-words.trycloudflare.com. Use that as your webhook URL in Stripe, GitHub, etc.

Requires cloudflared to be installed. The URL changes each time you restart.

Note: --tailscale and --cloudflare are mutually exclusive — use one or the other.

Note: The dashboard is always restricted to localhost by default. Requests through reverse proxies (Tailscale Funnel, ngrok, Cloudflare Tunnel, etc.) are automatically detected and blocked from accessing the dashboard. Use --allow-remote-access to override this, and --password to require authentication for remote access.

Other tunneling services

You can also use any other tunneling service manually, such as ngrok.

REST API

LocalHook has a REST API for programmatic access to captured webhooks. See API.md for full documentation with example requests.

How It Works

LocalHook runs a single Express server. GET / serves the dashboard. Every other request is captured as a webhook and broadcast to the dashboard via SSE.

Data is stored in ~/.localhook/data.json by default (max 500 entries). Use --data-file to override.

License

MIT