README.md

Self-Hosting Expose with Docker Compose

Deploy your own private tunnel relay on any VPS (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS Lightsail, etc.) in under 60 seconds.

[ Developer Laptop ] ─── TCP :7890 ───────────────────────► [ expose-server :7890 ]
                                                                     ▲
[ Public Visitor   ] ─── HTTPS :443 ──► [ Caddy ] ── :8080 ──────────┘

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1. Prerequisites & DNS Setup

To route dynamic subdomains (cool-tiger-42.tunnel.yourdomain.com) to your server, add two DNS A records pointing to your VPS IP:

Type	Name / Host	Value	Purpose
A	tunnel	<YOUR_VPS_IP>	Base server address
A	*.tunnel	<YOUR_VPS_IP>	Wildcard for all dynamic client tunnels

Tip (Free Wildcard HTTPS): If your domain uses Cloudflare, set the proxy status to Proxied (Orange Cloud) for both records. Cloudflare will automatically terminate wildcard SSL at their edge with zero API keys or rate limits.

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2. Quickstart

Step 1: Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/kernelshard/expose.git
cd expose/deploy

Step 2: Configure Environment

Copy the example environment file and set your domain:

cp .env.example .env
nano .env

Set DOMAIN to match your relay address:

DOMAIN=tunnel.yourdomain.com
CONTROL_PORT=7890

Step 3: Start the Stack

docker compose up -d

Check server logs:

docker compose logs -f expose-server

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3. Connecting From Your Laptop

Now start a tunnel pointing to your self-hosted server:

expose tunnel 3000 --server=tunnel.yourdomain.com:7890

You'll get an instant, secure public URL:

🚀 Tunnel started!
✓ Public URL: https://cool-tiger-42.tunnel.yourdomain.com
✓ Forwarding to: http://localhost:3000

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4. Standalone Deployment (Existing Reverse Proxy)

If you already have Nginx, Traefik, or Caddy running on your server, you can run expose-server standalone:

docker compose up -d expose-server

Then point your existing reverse proxy to localhost:8080 and forward the Host header.