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Set up a tunnel locally

Follow this step-by-step guide to get your first tunnel up and running using the CLI.

​​ Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you:

​​ 1. Download and install cloudflared

Windows

First, download cloudflared on your machine. Visit the downloads page to find the right package for your OS.

Next, rename the executable to cloudflared.exe, and then open PowerShell. Change directory to your Downloads folder and run .\cloudflared.exe --version. It should output the version of cloudflared. Note that cloudflared.exe could be cloudflared-windows-amd64.exe or cloudflared-windows-386.exe if you haven’t renamed it.

Replace the path in the example with the specifics of your Downloads directory:

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\cloudflared-stable-windows-amd64> .\cloudflared.exe --version
macOS

The first step to creating a tunnel is to download and install cloudflared on your machine.

$ brew install cloudflare/cloudflare/cloudflared

Alternatively, you can download the latest Darwin amd64 release directly.

Linux

First, download cloudflared on your machine. Visit the downloads page to find the right package for your OS.

Next, install cloudflared.

​​ .deb install

Use the deb package manager to install cloudflared on compatible machines. amd64 / x86-64 is used in this example.

$ wget -q https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb && dpkg -i cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb

​​ ​.rpm install

Use the rpm package manager to install cloudflared on compatible machines. amd64 / x86-64 is used in this example.

$ wget -q https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-x86_64.rpm
Build from source

You can also build the latest version of cloudflared from source with the following steps.

$ git clone https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared.git

$ cd cloudflared

$ make cloudflared

$ go install github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/cmd/cloudflared

Depending on where you installed cloudflared, you can move it to a known path as well.

mv /root/cloudflared/cloudflared /usr/bin/cloudflared

​​ 2. Authenticate cloudflared

$ cloudflared tunnel login

Running this command will:

  • Open a browser window and prompt you to log in to your Cloudflare account. After logging in to your account, select your hostname.
  • Generate an account certificate, the cert.pem file, in the default cloudflared directory.

​​ 3. Create a tunnel and give it a name

$ cloudflared tunnel create <NAME>

Running this command will:

From the output of the command, take note of the tunnel’s UUID and the path to your tunnel’s credentials file.

Confirm that the tunnel has been successfully created by running:

$ cloudflared tunnel list

​​ 4. Create a configuration file

Create a configuration file in your .cloudflared directory using any text editor. This file will configure the tunnel to route traffic from a given origin to the hostname of your choice.

Add the following fields to the file:

If you are connecting an application

url: http://localhost:8000
tunnel: <Tunnel-UUID>
credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/<Tunnel-UUID>.json

If you are connecting a network

tunnel: <Tunnel-UUID>
credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/<Tunnel-UUID>.json
warp-routing:
  enabled: true

Confirm that the configuration file has been successfully created by running:

$ cat config.yml

​​ 5. Start routing traffic

Now assign a CNAME record that points traffic to your tunnel subdomain.

If you are connecting an application

$ cloudflared tunnel route dns <UUID or NAME> <hostname>

If you are connecting a network

Add the IP/CIDR you would like to be routed through the tunnel.

$ cloudflared tunnel route ip add <IP/CIDR> <UUID or NAME>

You can confirm that the route has been successfully established by running:

$ cloudflared tunnel route ip show

​​ 6. Run the tunnel

Run the tunnel to proxy incoming traffic from the tunnel to any number of services running locally on your origin.

$ cloudflared tunnel run <UUID or NAME>

If your configuration file has a custom name or is not in the .cloudflared directory, add the --config flag and specify the path.

$ cloudflared tunnel --config /path/your-config-file.yaml run

​​ 7. Check the tunnel

Your tunnel configuration is complete! If you want to get information on the tunnel you just created, you can run:

$ cloudflared tunnel info