ngrok-dns

UPDATE: This service/utility also works with localtunnel

Ngrok-dns is a plugin of sorts to the ngrok npm package that enables domain features of ngrok which are not available on the free plan. Ngrok-dns will create a TXT record pointing to the new tunnel each time it changes.

Further you can generate a fixed URL using the service at https://ngrok-dns.june07.com.

ngrok tunnel url is dynamic and will change during your development cycle

cloudflare TXT records can then be easily accessed from webhooks and other disconnected parts of dev project

• Custom domains, https://ngrok.com/docs#http-custom-domains
• Reserved domains
• Wildcard domains https://ngrok.com/docs#wildcard

Install

npm install @667/ngrok-dns

Usage

	[
highlighed locations show requirement for ngrok-dns usage	similar setup for localtunnel usage

ngrok usage

const ngrok = require('@ngrok/ngrok'),
    dnsTunnel = require('@667/ngrok-dns');

(async function () {
    const listener = await ngrok.forward({
        addr: 'https://localhost:3000',
        on_status_change: dnsTunnel,
        authtoken: NGROK_AUTH_TOKEN,
        verify_upstream_tls: false
    })
})();

localtunnel usage

const localtunnel = require('localtunnel'),
    dnsTunnel = require('@667/ngrok-dns');

(async () => {
    const tunnel = await localtunnel({
        port: 3000,
        allow_invalid_cert: true,
        local_https: true,
        debug: true,
    });
    dnsTunnel(tunnel.url);
    console.log(`dnsTunnel: ${tunnel.url}`);
})();

Make sure your env vars are set and run your app or app dev command (i.e. nodemon, etc) as normal:

• TXT - A DNS TXT record is created which can easily be looked up in your dev environment using Node's included dns module: require('dns')
• CLOUDFLARE_TOKEN
• CLOUDFLARE_ZONE_ID

Log output should look like: ngrok-dns added Cloudflare TXT your-custom-domain.com -> 0d8b12e869d7.ngrok.io

This is a seperate example of ngrok-dns output:

Currently Cloudflare (token based) is supported although other DNS providers should be easy to add.

• ngrokDNS is middleware in that it passes the onLogEvent 'data' through, and failures just disable the middleware