PortPrism

Share your local dev server with anyone, instantly. Point PortPrism at a local port and you get a clean, branded HTTPS URL that anyone can open in a browser — no account, no config, and nothing for your viewers to install.

npx portprism 3000

• 🔗 Instant public URL for any local HTTP server
• 🖥️ Branded viewer — recipients see your app, not a tunnel warning page
• 🔒 TLS end-to-end; optional password protection (Pro)
• 🔁 Auto-reconnect — brief network drops recover on the same URL
• 📱 QR code for quick mobile testing (--qr)
• 🔎 Request inspector (--inspect) — a local ledger of tunnelled HTTP traffic for webhook/API debugging
• 🤖 MCP server so AI agents can launch and manage tunnels
• ⚙️ --json NDJSON output for scripts and CI

Requires Node.js 18+. Free links last 2 hours; PortPrism Pro adds persistent links, password protection, custom subdomains, and analytics.

Quick start

Start your app (any stack, any port), then in a second terminal:

npx portprism 3000

╭─────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│  PortPrism · My App                          │
│  Share URL   https://viewer.portprism.io/v/ab3k │
│  Local       http://localhost:3000           │
│  Expires     1h 59m                          │
│  Status      ● Connected                     │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Send the viewer.portprism.io/v/… URL to anyone. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Installation

# No install — always the latest (recommended)
npx portprism <target>

# Or install globally
npm install -g portprism
portprism <target>

Usage

npx portprism [options] <target>

<target> is a port (forwarded to localhost) or a host:port pair:

npx portprism 3000                  # → localhost:3000
npx portprism my-app.local:8080     # → custom host
npx portprism 127.0.0.1:5000        # → specific address

Options

| Flag | Description | | ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | --name <label> | App name shown in the viewer and CLI box | | --desc <text> | One-line description shown in the viewer | | --password <pw> | Require a password to view the link (Pro) | | --qr | Print the share URL as a scannable QR code | | --qr-invert | Swap the QR's black/white cells for light terminals | | --json | Emit machine-readable NDJSON events instead of the box (scripts/CI) | | --inspect | Serve a local request inspector at http://localhost:4040 | | --inspect-port <port> | Port for the request inspector (default 4040) | | --no-open | Don't auto-open the viewer URL in your browser | | --no-screenshot | Skip the automatic preview screenshot | | --relay <url> | Override the relay WebSocket URL (self-hosting) | | --help | Show all options |

Account commands

portprism login       # sign in with a magic-link / one-time code
portprism logout      # remove saved credentials
portprism whoami      # show the current account and plan
portprism upgrade     # open the Pro checkout in your browser
portprism referral    # show your referral link for bonus tunnel-time
portprism config      # open ~/.portprism/config.json in $EDITOR

Request inspector (--inspect)

Add --inspect to open a live, self-hosted traffic ledger at http://localhost:4040 — every HTTP request forwarded through your tunnel is listed chronologically with its headers, query parameters, and decoded request/response bodies, updating live over Server-Sent Events. Ideal for debugging webhooks and API callbacks. It runs on Node's built-in HTTP server (no extra install) and keeps the last 200 requests in memory.

AI agents (MCP)

PortPrism speaks the Model Context Protocol:

• Local: the portprism-mcp stdio server lets an agent start_tunnel / stop_tunnel / list_tunnels / get_tunnel_status.
• Remote: https://mcp.portprism.io/mcp lets web connectors manage your live tunnels (Bearer-token auth).

Privacy & your data

PortPrism is designed to move your app's traffic, not to read it.

• Encrypted end-to-end. All traffic between the viewer's browser, the PortPrism relay, and your machine travels over TLS (HTTPS / WSS).
• Transparent proxy. The relay forwards bytes between the viewer and your local app. It does not read, modify, or store the content of the requests and responses passing through your tunnel — your application data never lands in our database.
• What is stored (for signed-in users): your email and auth token (for login), session metadata (app name, token, expiry, view/request counts for Pro analytics), and billing records via Stripe (we never see card numbers).
• Anonymous use: free tunnels need no account. A one-way hashed device fingerprint is used only to enforce the free-plan time quota.
• Links are public by default — anyone with the URL can view your app. For sensitive tools use --password (Pro) so only people with the password can open it.
• Consent: on first run the CLI asks you to accept the Privacy Policy once (stored in ~/.portprism/consent.json). In --json mode it won't prompt — it exits with an error event instead.

Full policy: https://portprism.io/privacy-policy.html

Docs: https://portprism.io/install.html · FAQ: https://portprism.io/docs/faq.html · License: MIT