⌁ DOCS
Get a tunnel up in under a minute
Install the CLI, paste in an API key, point it at your local server. Everything else — MCP framing, the live inspector, per-minute billing — is on by default.
Free 60 min/wk · Developer $1/mo (500 HTTP + 250 MCP min) · overage $0.001 / $0.002 per min · USD billing
Install the CLI
macOS and Linux are supported. The one-liner downloads the latest release from GitHub and drops the tapinto binary into /usr/local/bin.
Get an API key
Sign in to the dashboard with GitHub, then mint a key from Settings → API keys. Keys start with tk_ and can be revoked any time.
Authenticate the CLI
Paste the key into the CLI once — it's saved per-machine and reused for every tunnel.
tapinto login --key tk_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxOr skip login and export TAPINTO_API_KEY in your shell, or pass --bearer per invocation.
Open a tunnel
Point the CLI at any local URL. With --inspect, it opens the live MCP traffic inspector in your terminal.
tapinto https://localhost:8080 --inspectThe command prints a stable https://<slug>.tapinto.it URL. Paste it into Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, or any other MCP client — see per-client config snippets →
Inspect, record, replay
The edge parses MCP JSON-RPC and streams a normalized event for every tool call, resource read, and prompt fetch. Capture a session and replay it later to reproduce a bug deterministically.
tapinto https://localhost:8080 --record session.jsonl
tapinto https://localhost:8080 --replay session.jsonlCommands
| COMMAND | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| tapinto [URL] | Open a tunnel onto a local URL (e.g. https://localhost:8080) |
| tapinto login | Authenticate with Tapinto using an API key |
| tapinto logout | Forget the saved API key |
| tapinto status | Show active tunnels |
| tapinto stop [id] | Stop one or all tunnels |
| tapinto logs | Show recent MCP traffic |
| tapinto usage | Show current billing-period usage |
| tapinto config | Get/set CLI configuration values |
Flags
| FLAG | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| --inspect | Open the live MCP traffic inspector in your browser |
| --strict | Enable MCP compliance linting (warns on protocol drift) |
| --record <file> | Record the MCP session to a file for later replay |
| --replay <file> | Replay a recorded session against the tunnel |
| --auth token[=value] | Inject auth at the edge so the tunnel is not publicly callable |
| --share <emails> | Comma-separated email allowlist for auth-gated tunnels |
| --name <slug> | Custom subdomain for the tunnel (subject to availability) |
| --bearer <token> | API key for this invocation (defaults to $TAPINTO_API_KEY) |
Learn more
- How to set up an HTTP tunnel — expose any local HTTP server
- How to set up an MCP tunnel — with JSON-RPC inspection
- Connect an AI client — Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, Continue, VS Code
tapinto mcp— let AI manage tunnels- Tunnel vs MCP toolkit (pricing)
- What is an MCP tunnel? (background)
- Compare with ngrok / Cloudflare Tunnel / localtunnel