An open-source, zero-config CLI utility built with Node.js that allows developers to instantly preview their full-stack web applications on mobile devices using only their local network (LAN). It eliminates the need for external cloud tunnels (like ngrok), third-party VMs, or manual IP configuration.
When testing a web app on a physical mobile device, developers face two major friction points:
- Typing Long URLs: Manually looking up your machine's local IP address and typing
http://192.168.1.45:3000into a phone browser is tedious and annoying. - The "Localhost" Backend Broken Link: If your frontend code contains a reference to
http://localhost:5000/apifor backend requests, it will fail on your phone. This is because your phone interpretslocalhostas itself, not your computer. Changing your source code to hardcoded IPs every time you want to test on mobile is a terrible developer experience.
Lanview creates a temporary, intelligent bridge on your machine. When run, it executes three core steps completely locally:
The tool queries your operating system's network interfaces, filters out internal virtual addresses, and automatically extracts your computer's active LAN IPv4 address (e.g., 192.168.1.15).
It spins up a lightweight, local HTTP proxy gateway on port 8080. This gateway acts as a single point of traffic coordination:
- If a request is for static assets or the user interface, it forwards it to your Frontend (e.g., Vite/Next.js on port
3000). - If a request path starts with
/api, it intercepts it and forwards it to your Backend (e.g., Node/Express/Python on port5000).
This completely eliminates CORS issues and allows you to use relative fetch paths (like fetch('/api/data')) seamlessly across both desktop and mobile.
The tool converts the consolidated gateway URL into a scannable QR Matrix and renders it directly inside the developer's terminal using ANSI text blocks.
- Zero Cloud Dependency: 100% private and offline. Data never leaves your local Wi-Fi router. There are no data limits, third-party accounts, or external latency.
- Relative-Path Routing: Because both frontend and backend are multiplexed through a single local port (
8080), developers don't have to alter a single line of environmental variables or configuration files. - Environment Agnostic: Works with React, Vue, Svelte, Next.js, Vite, Express, Django, Laravel, or any other framework stack.
- WebSocket HMR support: Fully proxies WebSockets, keeping your Hot Module Replacement (HMR) connection active on mobile devices.
[ Mobile Phone ] (Connected to Wi-Fi)
│
│ (Scans QR -> Hits 192.168.1.XX:8080)
▼
[ Lanview Proxy ]
│
├─── (Default Path / ) ───► [ Local Frontend Server ] (Port 3000)
│
└─── (Path is /api/* ) ───► [ Local Backend API ] (Port 5000)
Install the package globally:
npm install -g lanviewOr run it directly with npx:
npx lanviewSince this package is in active development and yet to be published, you can install and run it from source:
-
Clone the repository and install dependencies:
git clone https://github.com/your-username/lanview.git cd lanview npm install -
Link the CLI command globally:
npm link
(This creates a global symlink so the
lanviewcommand can be run from any folder on your machine).
Simply run:
lanviewBy default, this will run a proxy gateway on port 8080 routing:
/api/*tohttp://localhost:5000- Everything else to
http://localhost:3000
You can customize the ports and paths via CLI options:
lanview --frontend 4000 --backend 8000 --gateway 9000 --api-prefix /graphqlOptions:
-f, --frontend <port>- Port of the frontend server (default:3000)-b, --backend <port>- Port of the backend server (default:5000)-g, --gateway <port>- Port of the proxy gateway (default:8080)-p, --api-prefix <path>- URL prefix to forward to the backend (default:/api,noneif no prefix)-h, --host <ip>- Manually specify your host IP instead of auto-discovery--help- Show help information