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Binboi Docs/Getting Started/Introduction

Introduction

Binboi is a self-hosted tunneling tool that exposes your local services to the internet via secure public URLs. Think of it as your own private ngrok — one you run on your infrastructure, under your control.

What is Binboi?

When you run a web server locally on localhost:3000, only your machine can reach it. Binboi creates an encrypted tunnel from a public URL on the internet to your local port, so teammates, external APIs, and webhook providers can all reach your service instantly — no firewall changes, no static IP, no deployment required.

Binboi is designed for developers who want:

  • Full ownership — host the server yourself, your data never touches a third party
  • HTTPS by default — every tunnel gets a valid TLS certificate automatically
  • Team access — share stable subdomains with your team during development
  • Webhook debugging — inspect and replay incoming HTTP requests in real time

How It Works

Your Machine                 Binboi Server              Public Internet
─────────────               ─────────────────          ─────────────────
localhost:3000  ──tunnel──▶  binboi.example.com  ◀────  https://abc.binboi.dev
  1. The Binboi CLI opens a persistent, encrypted connection to your Binboi server.
  2. The server assigns a public subdomain (e.g. abc.binboi.dev) to that connection.
  3. Incoming HTTPS requests are forwarded through the tunnel to your local port.
  4. Responses travel back through the same tunnel to the caller.

The tunnel uses a multiplexed TCP connection under the hood, so there is no polling — latency is near real-time.

Key Features

  • HTTP & HTTPS tunnels — expose any HTTP service with automatic TLS termination
  • TCP tunnels — forward raw TCP traffic for databases, SSH, game servers, and more
  • Request inspector — view headers, bodies, and response codes for every request
  • Webhook replayer — re-send any captured request without triggering the original source
  • Custom subdomains — use reserved names like myapp.binboi.dev across sessions
  • Multiple regions — route traffic through the region closest to your users
  • CLI + SDKs — first-class support for JavaScript, Python, and Rust

Self-Hosted vs. Managed

Binboi is built to be self-hosted. You run the Binboi server process on any VPS or cloud instance with a public IP. Your team then authenticates against your server, and all tunnel traffic stays within your infrastructure.

If you just want to get started quickly without running your own server, see the Provider guide for setup instructions.

Next Steps