Overview

Public URLs allows local apps or websites to be accessible on the public internet.

Also known as tunnels, they're useful when you want to test apps in a real-world setting, test webhooks, run OAuth flows, or share work in progress with clients, stakeholders, or anyone outside your local network.

Creating a Public URL

With a single click in the desktop app you can attach a Public URL to any service. If you already have a local domain like api.myapp.local, the Public URL appears as api-myapp-12.localcan.dev and routes directly to your local app.

Advanced features

• Traffic Inspection — monitor all incoming HTTP requests to your Public URLs in real time. Helpful for debugging webhooks, analysing API calls, and troubleshooting integrations.
• Host Header Customization — rewrite the Host header before requests reach your local app. Useful when testing domain-specific features or multi-tenant apps. See Configuration → Headers.
• Basic Authentication — protect a Public URL with one or more username/password pairs. See Configuration → Basic auth.

Pausing and resuming

Public URLs have pause and resume. If you pause one, it goes offline but the URL stays reserved for up to 7 days. The menu items live next to each Public URL in the desktop app.

If you close LocalCan entirely, your Public URLs are still reserved. You can switch off your computer, return after a few days, and resume the same Public URLs.

Configure with YAML

Public URLs can also be defined directly in a project file:

name: My App
services:
  web:
    target: http://localhost:3000
    endpoints:
      - provider: localcan                 # will assign URL based on project/service names
      - provider: localcan
        url: my-app-prod-12.localcan.dev   # URL already assigned
      - provider: localcan
        url: preview.example.com           # pinned custom domain

Drop the file into ~/.localcan/projects/ and run localcan reload. See Configuration → Projects for the full schema.