towonel

Self-hosted tunnel for exposing HTTP(S) services behind NAT, CGNAT, or dynamic IPs without opening inbound ports.

Status: alpha. Functional and covered by integration tests. Wire format and APIs may change between 0.0.x releases.

Quick start

You need:

• A public VPS for the hub (ports 80, 443, 8443 open).
• A machine that can reach your service for the agent (homelab, k8s, VM).
• A DNS record pointing your hostname at the VPS.

1. Run the hub

On the VPS:

docker pull git.erwanleboucher.dev/eleboucher/towonel-node:latest
docker run -d --name towonel \
  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -p 8443:8443 \
  -v towonel-data:/var/lib/towonel \
  -e TOWONEL_IDENTITY_KEY_PATH=/var/lib/towonel/node.key \
  -e TOWONEL_HUB_OPERATOR_API_KEY_PATH=/var/lib/towonel/operator.key \
  -e TOWONEL_HUB_DB_DSN=/var/lib/towonel/hub.db \
  git.erwanleboucher.dev/eleboucher/towonel-node:latest

node.key and operator.key are generated on first boot. Keep operator.key — it authenticates all admin commands.

2. Create an invite

docker exec towonel towonel invite create \
  --name alice \
  --hostnames 'app.alice.example.eu,*.alice.example.eu'
# tt_inv_2_<token>

The token carries the tenant identity and is the only secret the agent needs. Default expiry is never; pass --expires 48h for a short-lived credential.

3. Run the agent

On the machine that can reach your service:

docker run -d --name towonel-agent \
  --network host \
  -e TOWONEL_INVITE_TOKEN=tt_inv_2_... \
  -e TOWONEL_AGENT_SERVICES='[
    {"hostname":"app.alice.example.eu","origin":"127.0.0.1:8443"}
  ]' \
  git.erwanleboucher.dev/eleboucher/towonel-agent:latest

4. Point DNS

dig +short app.alice.example.eu   # should resolve to the VPS IP
curl https://app.alice.example.eu

Add more services by extending TOWONEL_AGENT_SERVICES. Add replicas by running the agent container N times. Add regions by inviting another VPS as an edge node (see Edge nodes).

TLS modes

Mode is chosen per hostname.

Passthrough (default). The edge reads SNI and forwards raw TLS to the origin. The origin holds the cert. The edge sees neither keys nor plaintext. ACME challenges work through the tunnel.

Terminate. The edge issues an on-demand Let's Encrypt cert for the hostname and forwards plaintext to the agent.

• HTTP-01 issuance is triggered on first request, cached, renewed lazily.
• Requires inbound :80 on the edge for challenges.
• Wildcards issue per exact subdomain. Subject to Let's Encrypt rate limits (50 certs/week/registered domain).
• Failures back off exponentially, then enter a 5-minute cooldown per hostname.

Pin a mode in the service entry:

{
  "hostname": "app.alice.example.eu",
  "origin": "127.0.0.1:8080",
  "tls_mode": { "mode": "terminate" }
}

Passthrough behind Envoy / Envoy Gateway

Heads up. In passthrough mode the agent prepends a PROXY protocol v2 header to every connection so the origin can recover the real client IP. Envoy will reject the connection (or treat the header bytes as request bytes) unless you tell it to accept PROXY protocol.

For Envoy Gateway, attach a ClientTrafficPolicy to the listener:

apiVersion: gateway.envoyproxy.io/v1alpha1
kind: ClientTrafficPolicy
metadata:
  name: envoy
spec:
  proxyProtocol:
    optional: true

For raw Envoy, enable the envoy.filters.listener.proxy_protocol listener filter on the inbound listener.

If you don't want PROXY protocol at all (e.g. the origin doesn't speak it and you don't care about client IP), set it explicitly on the service:

{ "hostname": "app.example.eu", "origin": "127.0.0.1:8443", "proxy_protocol": "none" }

Raw TCP services

Forward arbitrary TCP ports — SSH, Prometheus remote-write, databases, anything that isn't TLS-with-SNI — alongside the regular HTTPS routes.

The agent declares the listen port; the edge picks it up automatically. The VPS admin doesn't add anything per service.

TOWONEL_AGENT_TCP_SERVICES='[
  {"name":"forgejo-ssh", "origin":"forgejo:22",            "listen_port":2222},
  {"name":"prom-write",  "origin":"victoriametrics:8428",  "listen_port":9090}
]'

After the agent restarts the edge binds the new ports within a few seconds. Re-publishing the same name with a different listen_port moves the binding. Removing a binding from the env does not retire it — bindings are append-only across agent restarts so a second agent under the same tenant can't accidentally erase the first agent's work. Retire a binding via towonel admin tenant leave (releases everything this tenant owns).

Each port is unique per tenant and across tenants: claiming a port already bound to a different service — yours or somebody else's — is rejected at submission time. Privileged ports (< 1024) are blocked by default — set TOWONEL_HUB_ALLOW_PRIVILEGED_PORTS=true on the hub to allow them.

Managing tenants and invites

Each invite is a tenant. Revoking an invite removes the tenant.

towonel invite create  --name bob --hostnames '*.bob.example.eu'
towonel invite list
towonel invite revoke  --id <invite-id>

towonel tenant remove  --tenant-id <hex>
towonel tenant leave   --key-path tenant.key --hub-url https://node.example.eu:8443

Tenants can manage their own hostnames without operator intervention:

towonel entry submit --op upsert-hostname --hostname new.alice.example.eu
towonel entry submit --op delete-hostname --hostname old.alice.example.eu
towonel entry list

On the hub host, --hub-url and --api-key default to the local listen address and operator.key. Pass them explicitly when running the CLI from another machine.

Edge nodes

Grow edge capacity by inviting additional VPS operators:

# on the hub -- non-expiring token by default, re-usable across restarts
towonel edge-invite create --name charlie-fra1

# on the new edge -- only this env var is required
TOWONEL_EDGE_INVITE_TOKEN=tt_edge_2_... towonel

The edge token deterministically derives the edge's iroh identity, so the new edge starts immediately with no redemption step and no persistent key file. Revoke via towonel edge-invite revoke --id <invite-id>.

Deployment

Docker Compose

docker compose up -d

See docker-compose.yml for the full stack and environment surface.

Configuration reference

All settings come from TOWONEL_* environment variables (flat names, single underscore). Lists may be passed as CSV or JSON; structured lists (tenants, services) require JSON.

Full examples live in examples/agent.env.example and examples/node.env.example.

Hub

Variable	Default	Description
TOWONEL_IDENTITY_KEY_PATH	node.key	Node identity key
TOWONEL_HUB_ENABLED	true	Enable the hub API
TOWONEL_INVITE_HASH_KEY		Key for hashing invite secrets (must be set for security)
TOWONEL_HUB_LISTEN_ADDR	0.0.0.0:8443	Hub API bind address
TOWONEL_HUB_PUBLIC_URL	derived	URL embedded in invite tokens
TOWONEL_HUB_OPERATOR_API_KEY_PATH	operator.key	Operator API key file
TOWONEL_HUB_DB_DRIVER	sqlite	sqlite or postgres
TOWONEL_HUB_DB_DSN	hub.db	Connection string
TOWONEL_HUB_DB_MAX_OPEN_CONNS	4 / 25	Pool size
TOWONEL_HUB_ALLOW_PRIVILEGED_PORTS	false	Allow tenants to claim TCP ports below 1024

Edge

Variable	Default	Description
TOWONEL_EDGE_ENABLED	true	Enable the edge listener
TOWONEL_EDGE_LISTEN_ADDR	0.0.0.0:443	TLS bind address
TOWONEL_EDGE_HEALTH_LISTEN_ADDR	0.0.0.0:9090	Health + metrics
TOWONEL_EDGE_HUB_URL		Remote hub (edge-only mode); TOWONEL_EDGE_HUB_URLS accepted as deprecated alias
TOWONEL_EDGE_PUBLIC_ADDRESSES		Addresses advertised to agents
TOWONEL_EDGE_TLS_ACME_EMAIL		Enables Let's Encrypt issuance
TOWONEL_EDGE_TLS_CERT_DIR	/data/certs	Cert cache directory
TOWONEL_EDGE_TLS_ACME_STAGING	false	Use Let's Encrypt staging
TOWONEL_EDGE_TLS_HTTP_LISTEN_ADDR	0.0.0.0:80	HTTP-01 responder

Agent

Variable	Description
TOWONEL_INVITE_TOKEN	Required. tt_inv_2_... token from the hub
TOWONEL_AGENT_SERVICES	JSON array of HTTPS services
TOWONEL_AGENT_TCP_SERVICES	JSON array of raw TCP services (see above)
TOWONEL_AGENT_TRUSTED_EDGES	Optional override for trusted edge IDs

Service shape:

{
  "hostname": "app.alice.example.eu",
  "origin": "127.0.0.1:8080",
  "origin_server_name": "optional SNI for the origin dial",
  "tls_mode": { "mode": "passthrough" },
  "proxy_protocol": "v2"
}

proxy_protocol defaults to v2 for passthrough services and none for terminated services.

CLI

Variable	Description
TOWONEL_HUB_URL	Default --hub-url
TOWONEL_OPERATOR_KEY	Default --api-key for operator commands

Install from source

cargo build --release -p towonel-node -p towonel-agent

Contributing

make check   # fmt + clippy + unit tests
make e2e     # full docker compose integration test

CI runs on Forgejo Actions (.forgejo/workflows/). Tagging v* triggers a release.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.