localhost

localhost

Local development certs for LAN https services.

Localhost exposes local insecure http services as fully encrypted https available at svc.host

Install

Homebrew (auto updates)

brew install sprisa/tap/localhost   

NPM

npm i -g @sprisa/localhost
# or run directly
npx @sprisa/localhost 3000 -a

Golang Source
With Go (Any platform — doesn't auto update)

go install github.com/sprisa/localhost@latest

Usage

Serve the service at port 3000

localhost 3000

Navigate to the https service at https://local.svc.host:5050

Serve on all interfaces

localhost 3000 -a

Change the proxy port. Defaults to port 5050

localhost 3000 -p 3001

https://local.svc.host:3001

Show Help

localhost --help

Why?

1. Many Javascript APIs are only available in secure contexts (aka https). This makes local development harder than it should be.

• For example the Crypto API. This list of restricted APIs is only growing.
• Some browser contexts, like iOS Webviews, refuse to load insecure webpages.

2. Easier mobile development (React Native)

• iOS will not make api requests to insecure APIs (http) when the development app is running on a remote device.

3. Remote development debugging

• Localhost makes it easy to share your service on your Mesh Network IP.
• Remote development without needing to be on the same LAN network when using a mesh network like Priv Network or Tailscale

Whats is svc.host?

svc.host is a DNS server which replies with your local WAN IP. It allows the https (tls) certificates to be trusted by your browser.

Hostnames are in the form [ip-address].svc.host, with the IP's dot seperator (.) being replaced with a dash (-) instead.

dig 192-168-1-180.svc.host => 192.168.1.180
dig 10-10-10-10.svc.host => 10.10.10.10
dig local.svc.host => 127.0.0.1

Only private IP ranges are supported.

Inspiration

• localtls - https://github.com/Corollarium/localtls
• sslip.io - https://sslip.io/

Public Internet Tunnels

localhost is not a tunnel for the public internet. It connects any devices that are already on the same subnet, such as LAN or a mesh VPN. If you need an internet tunnel check out anderspitman/awesome-tunneling.