Public URL Tunneling

Create a public tunnel to expose your local mock server to the internet. This is useful for testing webhooks from external services, sharing your mocks with teammates, or testing mobile apps against your local server.

Supported Providers¶

API Dev Studio supports two tunnel providers:

Provider	Setup	Authentication
Cloudflared	Auto-download available	No account required
Ngrok	Manual install	Account required

Starting a Tunnel¶

Select your project and make sure the server is running
Click the Create Public Tunnel button
Choose your provider (Cloudflared or Ngrok)
Confirm to start the tunnel
Copy the public URL from the dialog

Your mock server is now accessible at a public URL like https://random-name.trycloudflare.com.

Cloudflared (Recommended)¶

Cloudflared is the default tunnel provider. It requires no account or authentication.

Auto-Download¶

If Cloudflared is not installed on your system, API Dev Studio will offer to download it automatically:

Click the Create Public Tunnel button
If Cloudflared is not detected, click Download Cloudflared
The binary is downloaded to your app data directory
Start the tunnel as normal

Manual Install¶

You can also install Cloudflared manually:

Windows:

winget install Cloudflare.cloudflared

macOS:

brew install cloudflared

Linux:

sudo apt install cloudflared
# or download from https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases

Ngrok¶

Ngrok requires an account and auth token.

Setup¶

Create an account at ngrok.com
Install Ngrok and authenticate:
```
ngrok config add-authtoken YOUR_TOKEN
```
Select Ngrok as your tunnel provider in API Dev Studio

Stopping a Tunnel¶

Click the tunnel button (which shows the active tunnel status when running)
Click Stop Tunnel

Tunnels are automatically stopped when you stop the project server or close the app.

Use Cases¶

Testing Webhooks¶

Many external services (Stripe, GitHub, Slack) need to send webhooks to a publicly accessible URL. Use a tunnel to receive webhooks on your local machine:

Create a webhook endpoint in your project
Start a tunnel
Copy the public URL
Configure the external service to send webhooks to https://your-tunnel-url.com/webhooks/stripe

Share your mock API with a teammate for testing:

Start a tunnel
Send the public URL to your teammate
They can make requests against your mocks from their machine

Mobile Testing¶

Test your mobile app against local mocks:

Start a tunnel
Configure your mobile app to use the public URL
Test without needing your phone on the same network

Troubleshooting¶

Tunnel Won't Start¶

Check: 1. Your server is running (tunnel requires an active server) 2. You have internet connectivity 3. The tunnel binary is installed and accessible

Cloudflared Not Detected¶

If API Dev Studio cannot find Cloudflared: 1. Try the auto-download option 2. Or install it manually and ensure it is in your system PATH 3. Restart API Dev Studio after installation

Ngrok Authentication Error¶

Make sure your Ngrok auth token is configured:

ngrok config add-authtoken YOUR_TOKEN

Public URL Not Accessible¶

Check that the tunnel status shows "Connected"
Try the URL in an incognito browser window
Some corporate networks may block tunnel traffic