Caddyflare

readme.md

Caddyflare

Free ngrok alternative using Caddy and Cloudflare with your own domain.

Requirement

• Cloudflare account
• Domain managed by cloudflare
• Caddy installed on local machine

Preparation

Cloudflare Setup

1. Install cloudflared on local machine, reference
2. Login to cloudflare account and select domain.
3. create cloudflared config.yml

tunnel: [TUNNEL_ID]
credentials-file: [TUNNEL_CREDINTIALS_JSON_PATH]

ingress:
  - hostname: "*.example.com"
    service: http://localhost:8080
  - service: http_status:404

Caddy Setup

Refer to caddy documentation for installation docs. We will use Caddyfile config from Caddyflare which will be located at ~/.caddyflare/Caddyfile

Caddyflare Installation

curl -fsSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ariona/ed31b2ae215032139a9b80cda10fd0f4/raw/install.sh | bash

Start tunneling

Start your web project as usual, and write down the port used to be used on claddyflare later.

Run claddyflare

claddyflare start --project xyz.example.com --port 3000

caddyflare

#!/usr/bin/env node

const fs = require("fs");
const path = require("path");
const os = require("os");
const { execSync } = require("child_process");

// Paths
const BASE_DIR = path.join(os.homedir(), ".caddyflare");
const ROUTES_FILE = path.join(BASE_DIR, "routes.json");
const CADDYFILE = path.join(BASE_DIR, "Caddyfile");

// --------------------
// Helpers
// --------------------
function ensureDir() {
  if (!fs.existsSync(BASE_DIR)) {
    fs.mkdirSync(BASE_DIR, { recursive: true });
  }
}

function loadRoutes() {
  if (!fs.existsSync(ROUTES_FILE)) return {};
  return JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(ROUTES_FILE, "utf-8"));
}

function saveRoutes(routes) {
  fs.writeFileSync(ROUTES_FILE, JSON.stringify(routes, null, 2));
}

function generateCaddyfile(routes) {
  let content = `:8080 {\n`;

  for (const [host, port] of Object.entries(routes)) {
    const label = host.replace(/\./g, "-");
    content += `
  @${label} host ${host}
  reverse_proxy @${label} localhost:${port}
`;
  }

  content += `}\n`;
  fs.writeFileSync(CADDYFILE, content.trim() + "\n");
}

function reloadCaddy() {
  try {
    execSync(`caddy reload --config ${CADDYFILE}`, {
      stdio: "inherit",
    });
  } catch {
    console.error("❌ Failed to reload Caddy");
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

function openBrowser(url) {
  let cmd;

  if (process.platform === "darwin") {
    cmd = `open "${url}"`;
  } else if (process.platform === "win32") {
    cmd = `start "" "${url}"`;
  } else {
    cmd = `xdg-open "${url}"`;
  }

  try {
    execSync(cmd, { stdio: "ignore" });
  } catch {
    console.warn("⚠️ Could not open browser automatically");
  }
}

// --------------------
// CLI
// --------------------
const args = process.argv.slice(2);
const command = args[0];

if (command === "init") {
  ensureDir();

  if (!fs.existsSync(ROUTES_FILE)) {
    fs.writeFileSync(ROUTES_FILE, "{}\n");
  }

  if (!fs.existsSync(CADDYFILE)) {
    fs.writeFileSync(CADDYFILE, `:8080 {\n}\n`);
  }

  console.log("✅ caddyflare initialized");
  console.log(`- ${ROUTES_FILE}`);
  console.log(`- ${CADDYFILE}`);
  process.exit(0);
}

if (command === "start") {
  const projectIndex = args.indexOf("--project");
  const portIndex = args.indexOf("--port");

  if (projectIndex === -1 || portIndex === -1) {
    console.error("Usage: caddyflare start --project <domain> --port <port>");
    process.exit(1);
  }

  const project = args[projectIndex + 1];
  const port = parseInt(args[portIndex + 1], 10);

  if (!project || !port) {
    console.error("❌ Invalid project or port");
    process.exit(1);
  }

  ensureDir();

  const routes = loadRoutes();

  // Ensure port is unique
  for (const [host, usedPort] of Object.entries(routes)) {
    if (usedPort === port) {
      delete routes[host];
    }
  }

  routes[project] = port;

  saveRoutes(routes);
  generateCaddyfile(routes);
  reloadCaddy();

  const url = `https://${project}`;
  openBrowser(url);

  console.log(`✅ ${project} → localhost:${port}`);
  console.log(`🌐 Opened ${url}`);
  process.exit(0);
}

// --------------------
// Help
// --------------------
console.log(`
caddyflare commands:

  caddyflare init
  caddyflare start --project <domain> --port <port>
`);

install.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e

REPO_RAW_URL="https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ariona/ed31b2ae215032139a9b80cda10fd0f4/raw/caddyflare"
INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.local/bin"
BIN_PATH="$INSTALL_DIR/caddyflare"

echo "🚀 Installing caddyflare..."

# ----------------------------
# Downloader detection
# ----------------------------
if command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  DOWNLOADER="curl -fsSL"
elif command -v wget >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  DOWNLOADER="wget -qO-"
else
  echo "❌ Please install curl or wget first."
  exit 1
fi

# ----------------------------
# Install binary
# ----------------------------
mkdir -p "$INSTALL_DIR"

echo "📥 Downloading caddyflare..."
$DOWNLOADER "$REPO_RAW_URL" > "$BIN_PATH"

chmod +x "$BIN_PATH"

# ----------------------------
# Ensure PATH
# ----------------------------
PATH_UPDATED=false

if ! echo "$PATH" | grep -q "$INSTALL_DIR"; then
  if [ -n "$ZSH_VERSION" ]; then
    SHELL_RC="$HOME/.zshrc"
  elif [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
    SHELL_RC="$HOME/.bashrc"
  else
    SHELL_RC=""
  fi

  if [ -n "$SHELL_RC" ]; then
    {
      echo ""
      echo "# caddyflare"
      echo "export PATH=\"\$PATH:$INSTALL_DIR\""
    } >> "$SHELL_RC"

    PATH_UPDATED=true
    echo "🔧 Added $INSTALL_DIR to PATH in $SHELL_RC"
  else
    echo "⚠️ Please add $INSTALL_DIR to your PATH manually."
  fi
fi

# ----------------------------
# Run initialization
# ----------------------------
echo ""
echo "⚙️ Initializing caddyflare..."

# Use direct path to avoid PATH reload issues
if "$BIN_PATH" init; then
  echo "✅ caddyflare initialized"
else
  echo "⚠️ Initialization failed. You can run 'caddyflare init' manually."
fi

# ----------------------------
# Final message
# ----------------------------
echo ""
echo "🎉 Installation complete!"

if [ "$PATH_UPDATED" = true ]; then
  echo ""
  echo "ℹ️ Restart your terminal or run:"
  echo "   source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc"
fi

echo ""
echo "Next steps:"
echo "  caddyflare start --project example.dev --port 3000"