Cloudflare Quick Tunnels put localhost online with a single command

Cloudflare has introduced Quick Tunnels, a service that creates a public, encrypted URL for anything running on your machine with one command. No account, DNS records or open ports are required: you run cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8000.

The service then appears at an address in the style of https://quiet-marble-otter.trycloudflare.com. According to the project page, start-up takes seconds, with no sign-up, configuration file or DNS propagation to wait for.

What comes by default

Quick Tunnels run on Cloudflare's network: HTTPS is automatic, edge DDoS protection applies, and the URL is globally reachable without exposing your IP address. The tool is aimed at development loops — sharing previews, receiving webhooks, running browser tests or giving a coding agent a real endpoint.

Outbound-only architecture

cloudflared opens an encrypted connection to the nearest Cloudflare location, and requests travel back through that connection. Your router never accepts inbound traffic, so no ports are opened and no firewall rules change. The tunnel ends with the process, which makes it ephemeral by design.

Agent-ready output

When a script or a coding agent needs to read the result, the command accepts --output json. The tunnel behaves exactly the same way; the output is simply machine-readable, reporting the URL, the Cloudflare location (for example lhr01) and the protocol used (quic).

Getting started

Three steps are enough: install cloudflared through your package manager — brew install cloudflared on macOS — with no Cloudflare account needed; start your local server on the port you already use; then open the tunnel and share the generated URL. Full instructions are in Cloudflare's documentation.