You know that feeling when you’re working on a local site and need to quickly share it with a client or test a webhook? Yeah, ngrok used to be my go-to, but then I discovered Cloudflare Tunnels. Problem is, the cloudflared CLI looked overwhelming and difficult to navigate.
After fumbling around with command-line flags and config files for a long time, I finally got fed up and decided to build something better. Meet Cloudflare Tunnel Buddy – a native macOS app that makes managing Cloudflare tunnels as easy as pressing a few buttons.
Why Not Cloudflared CLI?
Don’t get me wrong, Cloudflare Tunnels are amazing. Free, fast, and they come with all the security and performance benefits of Cloudflare’s network. But, I really don’t like complexity in CLI tools.
Here’s what I was dealing with:
- Remembering cloudflared commands
- Managing tunnel configs in random YAML files
- Constantly looking up the syntax for different service types
- No easy way to see what tunnels I had running
- Zero visibility into tunnels I’d created from other machines
I’m a visual person. I like GUIs. I want to click “Start Tunnel” not memorize cloudflared tunnel run –url http://localhost:3000 my-tunnel-name.
What I Built
Cloudflare Tunnel Buddy is a native macOS app that gives you a proper interface for managing your tunnels. Double-click the app, and it opens Terminal with a clean, interactive menu system. Here’s what it does…
The Basics
- Create tunnels with a guided setup (no more YAML editing)
- Start/stop tunnels with a simple menu
- List all your tunnels with their status
- Edit tunnel configs visually
- Remove tunnels when you’re done
The Cool Stuff
- Automatically discovers tunnels you created elsewhere (huge time-saver)
- Smart Ctrl+C handling – stops the tunnel but keeps the app running
- Works great with Local by Flywheel, XAMPP, MAMP, or any local dev setup
- Handles SSL certificates automatically (bye bye browser warnings)
- Custom orange tunnel icon because why not make it look good?
Building It Was Actually Fun
I went with Node.js because, honestly, it was the fastest way to get something working. The app uses:
- Commander.js for the CLI structure (even though you never see it)
- Inquirer.js for those nice interactive prompts
- A custom macOS app bundle so it feels like a real Mac app
The trickiest part was getting the app bundle right. Turns out macOS is pretty picky about Info.plist files and app signatures, but once you get it working, it’s smooth sailing.
I also spent way too much time on the icon. Drew a little orange tunnel design in Illustrator, converted it to .icns. Looks neat to me!
Real-World Usage
I’ve been using this thing daily for the past few weeks, and it’s genuinely changed how I work with tunnels. A few examples:
Client Demos: I’m working on a WordPress site in Local by Flywheel. Client wants to see progress. I open the app, create a tunnel pointing to https://my-site.local, and boom – they’ve got a live URL to check out.
Webhook Testing: Need to test Stripe webhooks locally? Start a tunnel, point it to localhost:3000, update the webhook URL in Stripe dashboard. Done in 30 seconds.
Team Collaboration: Someone on my team created a tunnel yesterday, but I need to manage it from my machine. The app automatically finds it when I hit “Import external tunnels” and I can start/stop it like any other tunnel.
What’s Next
I’ve got a few ideas on my mind for now…
- A quick way to copy tunnel URLs to clipboard
- Better error handling when cloudflared isn’t installed
- Windows support? (though, I don’t really use Windows a lot)
But for now, it works, it’s useful, and it makes my dev workflow a little bit smoother. Sometimes that’s enough.
Cloudflare Tunnel Buddy is available on my GithHub. If you try it out, let me know what you think. P.S. – This has nothing to do with Cloudflare Inc. Just a frustrated developer who wanted better tooling.
