PNode Launcher

start-pnode is the legacy package name for Tunyl.

It continues to work against the current tunyl.com platform, but new integrations should prefer tunyl.

PNode allows you to securely expose local web applications, APIs, or development servers to the Internet.

It creates an encrypted tunnel from a public domain to your local machine using a lightweight agent — no firewall rules, NAT configuration, or VPS required.

PNode is well suited for:

• local backend APIs
• frontend development servers
• resource-intensive workloads (AI models, ML inference, etc.)

How it works

You run a local agent that forwards traffic from a public domain to a port on your machine.

PNode supports two modes:

• Anonymous mode — no account, temporary domain
• Authorized mode — fixed domain tied to your project

Anonymous Mode

Anonymous mode requires no registration and no credentials.

npx start-pnode@latest --port 3000

• A temporary domain like tmp-abc123.tunyl.com is assigned automatically
• The domain is valid for 12 hours
• The port must be explicitly specified

Authorized Mode

Authorized mode uses a single Agent Token generated for your project.

The token identifies the project and grants access to its fixed domain.

export AGENT_TOKEN=your-agent-token
export LOCAL_PORT=3000

npx start-pnode@latest

Or using CLI arguments:

npx start-pnode@latest --token your-agent-token --port 3000

Authorized mode provides:

• a fixed public domain (e.g. yourname.tunyl.com)
• higher usage limits
• optional frontend / backend separation

Using in your apps

import { Tunnel } from 'start-pnode';
import { createServer, IncomingMessage, ServerResponse } from 'http';

const port = 3000;

const server = createServer((req: IncomingMessage, res: ServerResponse) => {
  res.end('Hello world!');
});

server.listen(port, '127.0.0.1', () => {
  const proxy = new Tunnel({
    agentAccessToken: '<YOUR_TOKEN>',
    localPort: port,
  });
  proxy.start();
  proxy.on('stopped', () => server.close());
});

Environment Variables

Anonymous Mode

No variables required.

Optional:

• LOCAL_PORT — local forwarded port

Authorized Mode

• AGENT_TOKEN — project access token
• LOCAL_PORT — local forwarded port

CLI Options

Options:
  --token <token>   Agent token (env: AGENT_TOKEN)
  --port <port>     Local forwarded port (env: LOCAL_PORT)
  --host <host>     Local forwarded host (default: "localhost", env: LOCAL_HOST)
  -t, --test        Test mode
  -h, --help        Display help

Example

Expose a local API running on port 5000:

node server.js --port 5000

npx start-pnode@latest --port 5000

Or with a project token:

export AGENT_TOKEN=...
npx start-pnode@latest --port 5000

Security

All traffic between the agent and Tunyl servers is encrypted. Only users with a valid Agent Token can start authorized tunnels.

Links

• Website: https://tunyl.com
• Documentation: https://tunyl.com/docs