Localfly

Your localhost, on the internet.
A free, open-source Mac menu bar app that gives any app on your Mac a public link.

Download for Mac · Website · Self-hosting · Buy me a coffee

What it does

Save an app by its port, flip the switch, and share the address. Test your site on your phone, show work to a client, or receive webhooks, all without deploying anything.

• Menu bar first: every app, its status and a copy button, one click away. Closing the window keeps tunnels running.
• Knows what's running: a dot shows whether your dev server is up, and Localfly won't open a tunnel to an empty port.
• Spots dev servers: common ports like :3000 and :5173 show up ready to add.
• Live traffic: uptime, connections and bytes in and out for each tunnel.
• Reconnects by itself after Wi-Fi drops or sleep, and asks for the same address back.
• HTTPS on your own domain when you run your own relay.
• Private by default: nothing is exposed until you switch it on. No account and no analytics. The relay secret is kept in your keychain.

Requires macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.

How it works

Localfly speaks the bore tunnel protocol. Your Mac opens an outgoing connection to a relay server. When someone visits the public address, the relay passes the connection through to your machine. Nothing on your router or firewall changes.

By default it uses bore.pub, a free public relay. Addresses look like http://bore.pub:43228 and change each time a tunnel opens. For stable https:// addresses on your own domain, set up your own relay with the self-hosting guide. It takes one docker compose up on a $5 server.

Heads-up: anyone with a tunnel's address can reach that app while it's on. Only share what you mean to share.

Localfly Pro?

Localfly is free and stays free. I'm considering a hosted Pro version: instant https://yourapp.localfly.dev addresses with no server to run, custom domains, a request inspector and protected links. If you'd use it, join the waitlist. It only gets built if enough people want it.

Build from source

brew install xcodegen
git clone https://github.com/raqibnur/localfly.git && cd localfly
xcodegen generate && open Localfly.xcodeproj

LocalflyCore/   Swift package: the tunnel engine (bore protocol over Network.framework), no UI
App/            SwiftUI app: menu bar panel and main window, a thin layer over TunnelManager
deploy/         Relay for self-hosting: bore server + Caddy (docker compose)
site/           Website (GitHub Pages)
scripts/        build.sh (.app + .dmg), notarize.sh, make-icon.swift

Tests run against a real bore server on 127.0.0.1 and are skipped when bore isn't installed:

cargo install bore-cli
swift test --package-path LocalflyCore

Release

scripts/build.sh   # universal, ad-hoc signed: dist/Localfly.app + dist/Localfly.dmg

DEVELOPER_ID="Developer ID Application: Name (TEAMID)" NOTARY_PROFILE=localfly scripts/notarize.sh

Or let Xcode handle signing with the Apple ID signed in under Xcode → Settings → Accounts. Xcode creates a cloud-managed Developer ID certificate, notarizes and staples the app, and you need no passwords:

TEAM_ID=YOURTEAMID scripts/notarize-xcode.sh

notarize.sh signs, notarizes and staples the DMG. It also accepts APPLE_ID, APPLE_TEAM_ID and APPLE_APP_PASSWORD in place of a keychain profile. Upload dist/Localfly.dmg to a GitHub release tagged vX.Y.Z, and the app tells users that an update is available.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Report security problems privately as described in SECURITY.md.

Support

If Localfly saves you time, buy me a coffee. It helps keep the project maintained.

License

MIT © 2026 Raqib Nur. Localfly is compatible with bore by Eric Zhang (MIT), and its license notice appears in the app's About page.