title | titleSuffix | description | author | ms.author | ms.topic | ms.service | ms.date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dev tunnels frequently asked questions (FAQ) |
Microsoft dev tunnels |
Frequently asked questions for dev tunnels. |
derekbekoe |
debekoe |
reference |
azure-dev-tunnels |
11/17/2023 |
This article answers some frequently asked questions about dev tunnels.
Dev tunnels allow developers to securely share local web services across the internet. There are many use cases including: sharing in-progress work without having to deploy an application; prototyping applications locally that need the ability to receive webhook notifications from other services; working with local web services during mobile development.
See how to request feedback or submit an issue here.
Dev tunnels are available cross-platform on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
See the dev tunnels limits here.
The default is after 30 days of no activity. You can set a custom expiration by appending --expiration 5d
to the create, host, or update command. Minimum that you can set is 1 hour (1h) and the maximum you can set is 30 days (30d). The custom expiration you set is after a period of inactivity, just like the default expiration. This means it isn't a fixed expiration time, but instead a sliding window that is automatically pushed out by any new activity. See examples here.
Yes. You can set time-limited anonymous access by running devtunnel access create TUNNELID -a --expiration 2h
after you've created a tunnel. Minimum that you can set is 1 hour (1h) and the maximum you can set is 30 days (30d). Once the access control expires, it is removed from the tunnel. If an access control is set to expire after the tunnel expires, the tunnel expiration takes precedence. Note, once you set the expiration for an access control you cannot modify it, unless you entirely reset your access controls on the tunnel. Additionally, this expiration is on a fixed window, so it checks the access control expiration against the time it was created.
Run devtunnel create
to create a persistent tunnel. If you run devtunnel host
without running devtunnel create
before that, the devtunnel host
command creates a temporary tunnel that is deleted once the connection is closed.
We'd recommend reusing the same dev tunnel when it's convenient, rather than creating a new one for every use. It's also slightly faster to get an existing dev tunnel compared to creating a new one. In addition, by reusing the same dev tunnel, the dev tunnel web forwarding URL can be stable instead of changing on every use.
No, anonymous users can't create dev tunnels. All creation of dev tunnels requires either a Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft, or GitHub account.
Tunnel IDs need to be provided for all operations that refer to a tunnel, so having the ability to choose your own tunnel ID adds convenience. We recommend choosing a tunnel ID that is easy to remember and type.
When using the devtunnel
CLI for the first time, you see a link to the dev tunnel license terms. You can also download our license terms here.