rootflare

Your localhost, live on your own domain. Free. Forever.

Everyone who uses free Ngrok complains about how the URL keeps on changing.

You can configure Ngrok to be static or you can use rootflare (this NPM package) and map unlimited number of domains to your local ports.

npx rootflare start app.example.com 3000

That's all. The start is idempotent — re-run it anytime to make sure the domain is still mapped and running.

Your domains, your URLs. No random subdomains, no quotas, and no "Upgrade" screen.

What it does

Running start installs cloudflared if needed, creates the tunnel, routes your DNS, starts the daemon, and confirms the domain is live. Every step is also its own command below.

Prerequisites

1. Node ≥ 18.
2. A Cloudflare account with your own domain already linked. Tunnels serve your own domains: there are no throwaway URLs like some tunnel services. Buy a domain, then link it to cloudflare as in this video: https://youtu.be/QzC_usc5Pgs.
3. Your app running locally on the port you map (e.g. localhost:3000 serving a NextJS app).

start installs cloudflared for you and pauses for cloudflared tunnel login if you're not logged in yet.

Commands

| Command | What it does | | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | start <hostname> <port> | One-click: install → init → add → up → live (--dry-run prints the plan) | | install | Install cloudflared for your OS | | init <tunnel-name-or-id> | Set the tunnel (auto-creates it if missing) | | add <hostname> [port][/path][:https] | Map a domain (--dry-run prints the plan) | | remove <hostname> | Unmap a domain (--all clears the map) | | list [--json] | Map table + daemon status (--json for scripts) | | up [--foreground] [--dry-run] | Generate config + start the daemon | | down | Stop the daemon | | logs | Live-tail tunnel.log, colorized | | doctor | Preflight checks + install hints |

Bare rootflare (or --help) prints help with the banner. Exit codes: 0 ok, 1 runtime error, 2 usage.

The map file

~/.rootflare/domains is the single source of truth — hand-editable:

# <hostname>[/path][:port][:https] — port defaults to 3000
app.example.com:3000
app.example.com/api:8080
*.dev.example.com:3000
secure.example.com:3000:https

Edit the file and run rootflare up to apply.

Environment variables

| Variable | Effect | | ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | ROOTFLARE_HOME | Custom state directory instead of ~/.rootflare | | ROOTFLARE_CLOUDFLARED | Custom cloudflared binary path | | ROOTFLARE_COUNTDOWN | Seconds start waits for the tunnel to connect (default 5, 0 skips) | | ROOTFLARE_SKIP_VERIFY | Skip the pre-flight domain checks | | NO_COLOR | Disables colored output |

Not in v1

• tcp:// services (SSH, databases, …) — HTTP/HTTPS origins only.
• Autostart on boot.
• remove leaves the DNS CNAME in place (deleting it needs the Cloudflare API).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.