⚡ devx

Supercharged local dev environment — Podman + Cloudflare Tunnels + Tailscale in one CLI

devx provisions a customized Fedora CoreOS VM via Podman Machine and automatically configures Cloudflare Tunnels (instant public HTTPS) and Tailscale (zero-trust corporate network access) — all from a single command.

The Problem

Local development is plagued by recurring friction:

1. "It works on my machine" — Inconsistent host OS configs, file watcher limits, kernel parameters
2. Accessing internal services — Developers need corporate APIs/databases without routing everything through a slow VPN
3. Webhooks & sharing — Testing Stripe/GitHub webhooks or sharing a prototype requires sketchy ngrok setups

The Solution

devx vm init    # One command. Done.

You get a fully-configured Fedora CoreOS VM with:

• 🌐 Instant public HTTPS — Your machine gets your-name.ipv1337.dev automatically
• 🔒 Zero-trust corporate access — The VM joins your Tailnet transparently
• 🚀 ngrok-like port exposure — devx tunnel expose 3000 gives you a public URL in seconds
• 🏗️ Host-level isolation — Pre-tuned inotify limits, rootful containers, dedicated kernel

Installation

From Releases (recommended)

Download the latest binary from GitHub Releases:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -sL https://github.com/VitruvianSoftware/devx/releases/latest/download/devx_darwin_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv devx /usr/local/bin/

# macOS (Intel)
curl -sL https://github.com/VitruvianSoftware/devx/releases/latest/download/devx_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv devx /usr/local/bin/

# Linux (amd64)
curl -sL https://github.com/VitruvianSoftware/devx/releases/latest/download/devx_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv devx /usr/local/bin/

From Source

go install github.com/VitruvianSoftware/devx@latest

Prerequisites

These tools must be installed before running devx vm init:

Quick Start

# 1. Authenticate with Cloudflare (one-time)
cloudflared login

# 2. Provision your dev environment
devx vm init

# 3. Run something and expose it
devx exec podman run -d -p 8080:80 docker.io/nginx
# Visit https://your-name.ipv1337.dev — it's live!

# 4. Expose any local port instantly (like ngrok)
devx tunnel expose 3000 --name myapp
# → https://myapp.your-name.ipv1337.dev

Architecture

flowchart TB
    subgraph devlaptop["Developer's Mac"]
        direction TB
        Code[VS Code / Terminal] --> |podman run| UserContainers

        subgraph podmanvm["Podman Machine (Fedora CoreOS)"]
            subgraph daemons["Systemd Controlled"]
                TS[Tailscale Daemon]
                CF[Cloudflared Tunnel]
            end

            subgraph UserContainers["Developer's Apps"]
                App["API / Web App<br/>Port 8080"]
                DB[(Local DB)]
            end

            CF -->|Forwards Ingress| App
            TS -->|Exposes Subnets| App
        end
    end

    subgraph internet["Public Web"]
        CFEdge((Cloudflare Edge))
        PublicURL["https://developer.ipv1337.dev"]
        ExternalUser((External User / Webhook))

        ExternalUser --> PublicURL
        PublicURL --> CFEdge
    end

    subgraph tailnet["Internal Network (Corporate Tailnet)"]
        StagingDB[(Staging Database)]
        InternalAPI[Internal Microservices]
    end

    CFEdge <-->|Secure Encrypted Tunnel| CF
    TS <-->|Zero-Trust VPN Overlay| tailnet

    classDef vm fill:#f0f4f8,stroke:#0288d1,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef daemon fill:#e1f5fe,stroke:#0277bd,stroke-width:1px;
    classDef container fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#2e7d32,stroke-width:1px;

    class podmanvm vm;
    class TS,CF daemon;
    class App,DB container;

CLI Reference

devx — Supercharged local dev environment

Commands:
  up          Provision databases and expose ports defined in devx.yaml
  vm          Manage the local development VM
  tunnel      Manage Cloudflare tunnels and port exposure
  shell       Launch a dev container from devcontainer.json
  db          Manage local development databases
  config      Manage devx configuration and credentials
  exec        Run low-level infrastructure tools directly
  version     Print the devx version

🗄️ Database Provisioning (devx db)

Spin up local databases in one command with persistent volumes. No Docker Compose files, no YAML — just devx db spawn.

Supported engines:

# Spawn a PostgreSQL database — ready in seconds
devx db spawn postgres
# → postgresql://devx:devx@localhost:5432/devx

# Spawn Redis on a custom port
devx db spawn redis --port 6380

# Spawn MySQL using Docker instead of Podman
devx db spawn mysql --runtime docker

# List all running databases
devx db list

# Remove a database but keep its data volume for later
devx db rm postgres --keep-volume

# Fully remove a database and its data
devx db rm mongo

Data is stored in named volumes (devx-data-<engine>) so it survives container restarts and rebuilds. Containers are configured with --restart unless-stopped for automatic recovery.

🐳 Dev Containers (devx shell)

Drop into a fully isolated development environment powered by your project's devcontainer.json — no VS Code required.

devx shell reads your existing devcontainer.json, pulls the specified container image, mounts your local workspace, applies environment variables, forwards ports, runs post-create commands, and drops you into an interactive shell.

Supported devcontainer.json locations:

• .devcontainer/devcontainer.json (standard)
• .devcontainer.json (root level)
• .devcontainer/<name>/devcontainer.json (named configs)

# Launch a dev shell using your project's devcontainer.json
devx shell

# Use Docker instead of Podman as the container runtime
devx shell --runtime docker

Example devcontainer.json:

{
  "name": "Go Dev Environment",
  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/go:1.22",
  "remoteUser": "vscode",
  "workspaceFolder": "/workspace",
  "containerEnv": {
    "GOPATH": "/home/vscode/go"
  },
  "postCreateCommand": "go mod tidy",
  "forwardPorts": [8080, 3000]
}

Running devx shell in a project with the above config will:

1. Pull the Go 1.22 dev container image
2. Mount your project at /workspace
3. Auto-mount the devx binary into the container at /usr/local/bin/devx
4. Mount your ~/.cloudflared credentials so tunnel commands work inside the container
5. Share the host network so exposed tunnels are accessible
6. Set GOPATH inside the container
7. Expose ports 8080 and 3000 on your host
8. Run go mod tidy on first launch
9. Drop you into an interactive shell as the vscode user

This means you can run devx tunnel expose 8080 from inside the dev container — the full CLI travels with you.

VM Management (devx vm)

🔌 Backend Pluggability (--provider)

devx is not locked to Podman. Use whatever virtualization backend you prefer by passing the --provider flag on any devx vm subcommand.

Supported providers:

# Initialize with Docker Desktop
devx vm init --provider docker

# Check status using OrbStack
devx vm status --provider orbstack

# SSH into the OrbStack VM
devx vm ssh --provider orbstack

# Teardown a Docker-backed environment
devx vm teardown --provider docker

🔋 Automated Scaling & Deep Sleep

VMs can reserve RAM and CPU constantly, draining Macbook batteries when sitting idle. devx natively manages deep sleep for Podman environments natively (Docker and Orbstack handle this directly via macOS).

Run the background daemon to automatically put the machine to sleep when 0 containers are active:

devx vm sleep-watch --interval 60

devx features seamless JIT (Just-In-Time) VM wake-ups. If your VM goes to sleep, simply run devx up, devx expose, devx shell, or devx db spawn. The CLI detects the dormant VM and instantly wakes it up before executing your commands.

You can also dynamically resize a Podman machine without having to rebuild the developer context:

devx vm resize --cpus 4 --memory 8192

Tunnel & Port Exposure (devx tunnel)

🗂️ Multi-Port Mapping (devx.yaml)

Manage complex projects that require multiple services (like a backend API, a frontend web app, and a webhook consumer) simultaneously via a unified single file.

Just create a devx.yaml in your project root:

name: my-project
tunnels:
  - name: api
    port: 8080
    basic_auth: "admin:pass"
  - name: web
    port: 3000

Then run devx up. Your local databases will be securely spawned and your defined services will automatically map under contiguous domains like api-my-project-you.ipv1337.dev via a singular, highly efficient Cloudflare connection.

# devx.yaml
name: "demo-app"

databases:
  - engine: postgres
    port: 5432
  - engine: redis

tunnels:
  - name: api
    port: 8080
    basic_auth: "admin:supersecret"
  - name: web
    port: 3000
    throttle: "3g" # Simulate mobile conditions (adds latency and lowers bandwidth)

🔒 Built-in Authentication (--basic-auth)

Exposing local ports to the public internet securely shouldn't require premium subscriptions to external services. devx comes with a highly-performant built-in reverse proxy in Go.

Simply pass the --basic-auth flag to instantly protect your active development environment with encrypted basic authentication at the edge proxy layer.

# Expose your Next.js app but require credentials
devx tunnel expose 3000 --basic-auth "admin:supersecret"

# Inspect webhooks while restricting access
devx tunnel inspect 8080 --name stripe-test --basic-auth "webhook:testing123"

🐢 Network Simulation (--throttle)

Testing how your local app handles high latency, dropped packets, or 3G network speeds is usually tedious. devx includes a cross-platform (Podman, Docker, OrbStack) network simulator proxy natively built-in.

Pass the --throttle flag to artificially shape incoming Edge traffic so you can test real-world scenarios for frontend and mobile endpoints.

Supported Profiles:

• 3g: Adds 200ms latency, 50ms jitter, speeds ~2 Mbps
• edge: Adds 400ms latency, 100ms jitter, speeds ~400 kbps
• slow: Adds 500ms latency, 200ms jitter, 5% packet loss, speeds ~80 kbps

# Expose your frontend app simulating a slow 3G cellular network
devx tunnel expose 3000 --throttle 3g

🌍 Custom Domain Support (BYOD)

Want to use your own company domain instead of the free .ipv1337.dev sandbox? Any devx tunnel command supports the --domain override!

As long as you are logged into a Cloudflare account that owns the zone, Cloudflared will dynamically configure the requested DNS edge dynamically.

# Provision a branded tunnel endpoint on your own custom domain
devx tunnel expose 8000 --domain mycompany.dev --name api
# → https://api.mycompany.dev

# To force devx to map tunnels under your own domain instead of `.ipv1337.dev`:

```bash
devx up --domain mycompany.dev

Configuration (devx config)

🔍 Request Inspector (devx tunnel inspect)

A free, open-source replacement for ngrok's paid web inspector. Captures every HTTP request and response flowing through your tunnel in a live terminal UI.

# Inspect traffic to a local app (local-only, no tunnel)
devx tunnel inspect 8080

# Inspect AND expose via Cloudflare tunnel
devx tunnel inspect 3000 --expose

# With a static subdomain
devx tunnel inspect 8080 --name myapi

Features:

• 📋 Live scrollable request list with method, path, status, and duration
• 🔎 Detailed view showing full request/response headers and bodies
• 🔁 One-key replay (r) to resend any captured request
• 🏷️ Replay tagging so you can compare original vs replayed responses
• 🧹 Clear captured requests with c

Low-Level Tools (devx exec)

Pass-through wrappers that forward arguments directly to the underlying tools:

Global Secret Sync & .env Management

Sharing .env files securely across a team is typically a massive pain resulting in Slack DMs and out-of-sync environments.

devx natively integrates with 1Password CLI, Bitwarden, and GCP Secret Manager so you never have to store plaintext secrets on your Macbook's disk.

Add an env: list to your devx.yaml. You can mix and match providers:

env:
  - 1password://dev/my-app/env
  - gcp://projects/my-org/secrets/my-prod/versions/latest
  - bitwarden://my-app-env
  - file://.env.local

JIT Memory Injection

When you launch the local topological environment (devx shell), devx will automatically reach out, fetch the secrets securely, and inject them straight into the container's isolated memory using -e, completely skipping physical dot files!

Extracting Secrets (config pull)

If you need to extract the secrets directly into your local terminal environment to run native tools like go test, use:

eval $(devx config pull)

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your Cloudflare tunnel token and hostname

See `.env.example` for all available configuration options.

## Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please read our [Contributing Guide](CONTRIBUTING.md) for details on:

- Development setup
- Code style and conventions
- Pull request process
- Commit message format

## License

[MIT](LICENSE) © VitruvianSoftware