Javascript SDK for ngrok

ngrok-javascript is the official Node.js SDK for ngrok that requires no binaries. Quickly enable secure production-ready connectivity to your applications and services directly from your code.

ngrok is a globally distributed gateway that provides secure connectivity for applications and services running in any environment.

Installation

Using npm:

npm install @ngrok/ngrok

Using yarn:

yarn add @ngrok/ngrok

Using pnpm:

pnpm add @ngrok/ngrok

Quickstart

1. Install @ngrok/ngrok

2. Export your authtoken from the ngrok dashboard as NGROK_AUTHTOKEN in your terminal

3. Add the following code to your application to establish connectivity via the forward method through port 8080 over localhost:

   // Require ngrok javascript sdk
   const ngrok = require("@ngrok/ngrok");
   // import ngrok from '@ngrok/ngrok' // if inside a module
   
   (async function() {
     // Establish connectivity
     const listener = await ngrok.forward({ addr: 8080, authtoken_from_env: true });
   
     // Output ngrok url to console
     console.log(`Ingress established at: ${listener.url()}`);
   })();
   
   process.stdin.resume();

That's it! Your application should now be available through the url output in your terminal.

Note You can find more examples in the examples directory.

Documentation

A quickstart guide and a full API reference are included in the ngrok-javascript documentation.

Authorization

To use ngrok you'll need an authtoken. To obtain one, sign up for free at ngrok.com and retrieve it from the authtoken page of your ngrok dashboard. Once you have copied your authtoken, you can reference it in several ways.

You can set it in the NGROK_AUTHTOKEN environment variable and pass authtoken_from_env: true to the forward method:

await ngrok.forward({ authtoken_from_env: true, ... });

Or pass the authtoken directly to the forward method:

await ngrok.forward({ authtoken: token, ... });

Or set it for all connections with the authtoken method:

await ngrok.authtoken(token);

Connection

The forward method is the easiest way to start an ngrok session and establish a listener to a specified address. The forward method returns a promise that resolves to the public URL of the listener.

With no arguments the forward method will start an HTTP listener to localhost port 80:

const ngrok = require("@ngrok/ngrok");
// import ngrok from '@ngrok/ngrok' // if inside a module

(async function() {
  console.log( (await ngrok.forward()).url() );
})();

You can pass the port number to forward on localhost:

const listener = await ngrok.forward(4242);

Or you can specify the host and port via a string:

const listener = await ngrok.forward("localhost:4242");

More options can be passed to the forward method to customize the connection:

const listener = await ngrok.forward({ addr: 8080, basic_auth: "ngrok:online1line" });
const listener = await ngrok.forward({ addr: 8080, oauth_provider: "google", oauth_allow_domains: "example.com" });

The (optional) proto parameter is the listener type, which defaults to http. To create a TCP listener:

const listener = await ngrok.forward({ proto: 'tcp', addr: 25565 });

See Full Configuration for the list of possible configuration options.

Disconnection

The close method on a listener will shut it down, and also stop the ngrok session if it is no longer needed. This method returns a promise that resolves when the listener is closed.

const listener = await ngrok.getListenerByUrl(url);
await listener.close();

Or use the disconnect method with the url() of the listener to close (or id() for a Labeled Listener):

await ngrok.disconnect(listener.url());

Or omit the url() to close all listeners:

await ngrok.disconnect();

Listing Listeners

To list all current non-closed listeners use the listeners method:

const listeners = await ngrok.listeners();

Builders

For more control over Sessions and Listeners, the builder classes can be used.

A minimal example using the builder class looks like the following:

async function create_listener() {
  const session = await new ngrok.NgrokSessionBuilder().authtokenFromEnv().connect();
  const listener = await session.httpEndpoint().listen();
  console.log("Ingress established at:", listener.url());
  listener.forward("localhost:8081");
}

See here for a Full Configuration Example

TLS Backends

As of version 0.7.0 there is backend TLS connection support, validated by a filepath specified in the SSL_CERT_FILE environment variable, or falling back to the host OS installed trusted certificate authorities. So it is now possible to do this to forward:

await ngrok.forward({ addr: "https://127.0.0.1:3000", authtoken_from_env: true });

If the service is using certs not trusted by the OS, such as self-signed certificates, add an environment variable like this before running: SSL_CERT_FILE=/path/to/ca.crt. There is also a verify_upstream_tls: false option to disable certification verification.

Async Programming

All methods return a Promise and are suitable for use in asynchronous programming. You can use callback chaining with .then() and .catch() syntax or the await keyword to wait for completion of an API call.

Error Handling

All asynchronous functions will throw an error on failure to set up a session or listener, which can be caught and dealt with using try/catch or then/catch statements:

new ngrok.NgrokSessionBuilder().authtokenFromEnv().connect()
    .then((session) => {
        session.httpEndpoint().listen()
            .then((tun) => {})
            .catch(err => console.log('listener setup error: ' + err))
    })
    .catch(err => console.log('session setup error: ' + err))
    .await;

Full Configuration

This example shows all the possible configuration items of ngrok.forward:

const listener = await ngrok.forward({
  // session configuration
  addr: `localhost:8080`, // or `8080` or `unix:${UNIX_SOCKET}`
  authtoken: "<authtoken>",
  authtoken_from_env: true,
  on_status_change: (addr, error) => {
    console.log(`disconnected, addr ${addr} error: ${error}`);
  },
  session_metadata: "Online in One Line",
  // advanced session connection configuration
  server_addr: "example.com:443",
  root_cas: "trusted",
  session_ca_cert: fs.readFileSync("ca.pem", "utf8"),  
  // listener configuration
  metadata: "example listener metadata from javascript",
  domain: "<domain>",
  proto: "http",
  proxy_proto: "", // One of: "", "1", "2"
  schemes: ["HTTPS"],
  labels: "edge:edghts_2G...",  // Along with proto="labeled"
  app_protocol: "http2",
  // module configuration
  basic_auth: ["ngrok:online1line"],
  circuit_breaker: 0.1,
  compression: true,
  allow_user_agent: "^mozilla.*",
  deny_user_agent: "^curl.*",
  ip_restriction_allow_cidrs: ["0.0.0.0/0"],
  ip_restriction_deny_cidrs: ["10.1.1.1/32"],
  crt: fs.readFileSync("crt.pem", "utf8"),
  key: fs.readFileSync("key.pem", "utf8"),
  mutual_tls_cas: [fs.readFileSync('ca.crt', 'utf8')],
  oauth_provider: "google",
  oauth_allow_domains: ["<domain>"],
  oauth_allow_emails: ["<email>"],
  oauth_scopes: ["<scope>"],
  oauth_client_id: "<id>",
  oauth_client_secret: "<secret>",
  oidc_issuer_url: "<url>",
  oidc_client_id: "<id>",
  oidc_client_secret: "<secret>",
  oidc_allow_domains: ["<domain>"],
  oidc_allow_emails: ["<email>"],
  oidc_scopes: ["<scope>"],
  traffic_policy: "<policy_json>",
  request_header_remove: ["X-Req-Nope"],
  response_header_remove: ["X-Res-Nope"],
  request_header_add: ["X-Req-Yup:true"],
  response_header_add: ["X-Res-Yup:true"],
  verify_upstream_tls: false,
  verify_webhook_provider: "twilio",
  verify_webhook_secret: "asdf",
  websocket_tcp_converter: true,
});

The Config interface also shows all the available options.

Examples

Degit can be used for cloning and running an example directory like this:

npx degit github:ngrok/ngrok-javascript/examples/<example> <folder-name>
cd <folder-name>
npm i

For example:

npx degit github:ngrok/ngrok-javascript/examples/express express && cd express && npm i

Frameworks

• AWS App Runner
• Express
• Fastify Example
• Hapi Example
• Koa Example
• Nest.js
• Next.js
• Remix
• Svelte
• Typescript
• Vue
• Winston (Logging)

Listeners

• ngrok.forward (minimal)
• ngrok.forward (full)
• HTTP (ngrok.listener)
• HTTP (SessionBuilder minimal)
• HTTP (SessionBuilder full)
• Labeled
• TCP
• TLS
• Windows Pipe

Platform Support

Pre-built binaries are provided on NPM for the following platforms:

OS	i686	x64	aarch64	arm
Windows	✓	✓	*
MacOS		✓	✓
Linux		✓	✓	✓
Linux musl		✓	✓
FreeBSD		✓
Android			✓	✓

Note ngrok-javascript, and ngrok-rust which it depends on, are open source, so it may be possible to build them for other platforms.

On Windows, ensure you have Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable installed.

• Windows-aarch64 will be supported after the next release of Ring.

Dependencies

• NAPI-RS, an excellent system to ease development and building of Rust plugins for NodeJS.

Changelog

Changes to ngrok-javascript are tracked under CHANGELOG.md.

Join the ngrok Community

• Check out our official docs
• Read about updates on our blog
• Open an issue or pull request
• Join our Slack community
• Follow us on X / Twitter (@ngrokHQ)
• Subscribe to our Youtube channel (@ngrokHQ)

License

This work is dual-licensed under Apache, Version 2.0 and MIT. You can choose between one of them if you use this work.

Contributions

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in ngrok-javascript by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.