## inlets is a Cloud Native Tunnel written in Go
Expose your local endpoints to the Internet or to another network, traversing firewalls, proxies, and NAT.
[](https://travis-ci.com/inlets/inlets)
[](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
[](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/inlets/inlets)
[](http://godoc.org/github.com/inlets/inlets)
[Follow @inletsdev on Twitter](https://twitter.com/inletsdev)
[English](./README.md) | [中文文档](./README_CN.md)
## Intro
inlets® combines a reverse proxy and websocket tunnels to expose your internal and development endpoints to the public Internet via an exit-server. An exit-server may be a 5-10 USD VPS or any other computer with an IPv4 IP address. You can also tunnel services without exposing them on the Internet, making inlets a suitable replacement for a VPN.
Why do we need this project? Similar tools such as [ngrok](https://ngrok.com/) or [Argo Tunnel](https://developers.cloudflare.com/argo-tunnel/) from [Cloudflare](https://www.cloudflare.com/) are closed-source, have limits built-in, can work out expensive, and have limited support for arm/arm64. Ngrok is also often banned by corporate firewall policies meaning it can be unusable. Other open-source tunnel tools are designed to only set up a single static tunnel. inlets aims to dynamically bind and discover your local services to DNS entries with automated TLS certificates to a public IP address over a websocket tunnel.
When combined with SSL - inlets can be used with any corporate HTTP proxy which supports `CONNECT`.
*Conceptual diagram for inlets*
## Built for developers by developers
## License & terms
**Important**
Developers wishing to use inlets within a corporate network are advised to seek approval from their administrators or management before using the tool. By downloading, using, or distributing inlets, you agree to the [LICENSE](./LICENSE) terms & conditions. No warranty or liability is provided.
### Backlog & goals
#### Completed
* automatically create endpoints on exit-server based upon client definitions
* multiplex sites on same port and websocket through the use of DNS / host entries
* link encryption using SSL over websockets (`wss://`)
* authentication for server and client
* automatic reconnect
* native multi-arch with ARMHF/ARM64 support
* Dockerfile and Kubernetes YAML files
* discover and implement `Service` type of `LoadBalancer` for Kubernetes - [inlets-operator](https://github.com/inlets/inlets-operator)
* tunnelling websockets
* [get a logo for the project](https://github.com/inlets/inlets/issues/46)
* TLS certificates when used with a reverse proxy, or inlets PRO
#### inlets PRO
The following features / use-cases are covered by [inlets PRO](https://inlets.dev):
* Tunnel L4 TCP traffic such as websockets, databases, reverse proxies, remote desktop and SSH
* Expose multiple ports from the same client - i.e. 80 and 443
* Run a reverse proxy or Kubernetes IngressController directly on your host
* Automated TLS for the control-plane
* Commercial services & support
* Documentation, blog posts, tutorials and videos
### Status
Unlike HTTP 1.1 which follows a synchronous request/response model websockets use an asynchronous pub/sub model for sending and receiving messages. This presents a challenge for tunneling a *synchronous protocol* over an *asynchronous bus*.
inlets 2.0 introduces performance enhancements and leverages parts of the Kubernetes and Rancher API. It uses the same tunnelling packages that enable node-to-node communication in [Rancher's k3s project](https://k3s.io). It is suitable for development and may be useful in production. Before deploying `inlets` into production, it is advised that you do adequate testing.
Feel free to open issues if you have comments, suggestions or contributions.
* The tunnel link is secured via `--token` flag using a shared secret
* The default configuration uses websockets without SSL `ws://`, but to enable encryption you could enable SSL `wss://`
* A timeout for requests can be configured via args on the server
* ~~The upstream URL has to be configured on both server and client until a discovery or service advertisement mechanism is added~~ The client can advertise upstream URLs, which it can serve
* The tunnel transport is wrapped by default which strips CORS headers from responses, but you can disable it with the `--disable-transport-wrapping` flag on the server
### inlets projects
inlets is a Cloud Native Tunnel and is [listed on the Cloud Native Landscape](https://landscape.cncf.io/category=service-proxy&format=card-mode&grouping=category&sort=stars) under *Service Proxies*.
* [inlets PRO](https://inlets.dev) - Cloud Native Tunnel - TCP, HTTP & websockets with automated TLS encryption
* [inlets-operator](https://github.com/inlets/inlets-operator) - Public IPs for your private Kubernetes Services and CRD
* [inletsctl](https://github.com/inlets/inletsctl) - The fastest way to create self-hosted exit-servers
* [inlets](https://github.com/inlets/inlets) - Cloud Native Tunnel for HTTP only - configure TLS separately, not available for inletsctl or inlets-operator
## Get inlets
You can install the CLI with a `curl` utility script, `brew` or by downloading the binary from the releases page. Once installed you'll get the `inlets` command.
### Install the CLI
> Note: `inlets` is made available free-of-charge, but you can support its ongoing development and sign up for updates through [GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/alexellis/) 💪
Utility script with `curl`:
```bash
# Install to local directory
curl -sLS https://get.inlets.dev | sh
# Install to /usr/local/bin/
curl -sLS https://get.inlets.dev | sudo sh
```
Via `brew`:
```bash
brew install inlets
```
> Note: the `brew` distribution is maintained by the brew team, so it may lag a little behind the GitHub release.
Binaries are made available on the [releases page](https://github.com/inlets/inlets/releases) for Linux (x86_64, armhf & arm64), Windows (experimental), and for Darwin (MacOS). You will also find SHA checksums available if you want to verify your download.
Windows users are encouraged to use [git bash](https://git-scm.com/downloads) to install the inlets binary.
## Using inlets
### Video demo
Using inlets I was able to set up a public endpoint (with a custom domain name) for my JavaScript & Webpack [Create React App](https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app).
[](https://youtu.be/jrAqqe8N3q4)
### Quickstart tutorial
You can run inlets between any two computers with connectivity, these could be containers, VMs, bare metal or even "loop-back" on your own laptop.
Try the [quickstart tutorial now](./docs/quickstart.md) on your local computer.
### Documentation & tutorials
inlets and inlets PRO now has a dedicated documentation site:
Official docs: [docs.inlets.dev](https://docs.inlets.dev)
* Docs: [Quickstart tutorial on your laptop](./docs/quickstart.md)
* Docs: [Inlets & Kubernetes recipes](./docs/kubernetes.md)
* Tutorial: [Get a LoadBalancer for your private Kubernetes cluster with inlets-operator](https://blog.alexellis.io/ingress-for-your-local-kubernetes-cluster/)
See also: [advanced usage of inlets including Docker, Kubernetes, multiple-services, and binding to private IPs](./docs/advanced.md)
### What are people saying about inlets?
Read community tutorials, the launch posts on Hacker News, and send a PR if you have written about inlets or inlets PRO:
* [Community and tutorials page](docs/community.md)
> You can share about inlets using `@inletsdev`, `#inletsdev`, and `https://inlets.dev`.
### Using inlets at work or in production?
See [ADOPTERS.md](./ADOPTERS.md) for what companies are doing with inlets today.
### SWAG and merchandise
Head over to the new [OpenFaaS Ltd SWAG store](https://store.openfaas.com/) to get your very own branded inlets hoodie, t-shirt and mug.
### Development
See [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md)
#### Other Kubernetes port-forwarding tooling
* [`kubectl port-forward`](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/port-forward-access-application-cluster/) - built into the Kubernetes CLI, forwards a single port to the local computer.
* [kubefwd](https://github.com/txn2/kubefwd) - Kubernetes utility to port-forward multiple services to your local computer.
* [kurun](https://github.com/banzaicloud/kurun) - Run main.go in Kubernetes with one command, also port-forward your app into Kubernetes.
inlets® is a registered trademark of OpenFaaS Ltd. All rights reserved, registered company in the UK: 11076587