Preview URLs

At the end of this page, your app runs in a machine and anyone you send the link to can open it: a reviewer, a phone, or a webhook sender. A published port gets an HTTPS URL. A private port opens only with the link that carries its token.

Start the dev server

The commands below use my-app and npm run dev as stand-ins for your own app’s folder and start command.

instabox create --name dev
cd my-app && instabox push dev .                                   # into /data/home/my-app
instabox exec --background dev --cwd /data/home/my-app -- npm run dev   # serves on port 3000

push reports how many files it pushed to dev:/data/home/my-app. exec --background prints the job’s ID and the instabox jobs logs command that follows it.--background keeps the server running after the command returns. With a plain exec, start the server with nohup ./server >server.log 2>&1 &, and redirect both stdout and stderr.

Publish the port

instabox port publish dev 3000 --name 'Web app'   # public: anyone with the URL
instabox port publish dev 3000 --private          # only the printed ?_token= link opens it

The command prints the URL, https://<port>-<machine id without m_>.<domain>/. For a private port it prints the link with ?_token= instead.

A public URL is not a secret. Anyone can reach the whole service until you unpublish it.

Share the link

Send the printed URL. A browser that opens a private link gets a cookie and goes on to the plain URL, WebSockets included. Scripts send Authorization: Bearer ibp_... instead. Everyone else gets 401.

Rotate or remove the link

instabox port ls dev
instabox port publish dev 3000 --private --rotate-token   # a new link; the old one stops working
instabox port unpublish dev 3000

port ls shows each published port with its access and URL.

A visit wakes a machine that paused itself for being idle. The request waits for the machine to resume. A machine you paused or stopped stays offline at the same URL until you resume or start it. After a stop, start your server again.

An agent inside the machine publishes ports with instabox-port. Where instabox-port is missing, instabox port setup dev installs it.

instabox-port publish 3000 --name 'Web app'
instabox-port serve ./report --port 8080      # serve a folder with an index.html

Only for you: port-forward

instabox port-forward dev 8080:3000 makes port 3000 reachable at http://127.0.0.1:8080 on your computer until Ctrl-C, with no URL at all. It reaches any TCP service.

Limits

A machine has up to 16 published ports. A response header may be up to 24 KiB. A larger one gets the platform’s 502 page. Requests to a private port without its token never wake the machine.

Public and private ports

Public, private, and raw TCP ports in full.

Auto-pause and max-run

When a machine pauses and what wakes it.

Get started

Use cases

Machines

Access

Security

Account

Reference

Public and private ports

Auto-pause and max-run