nkapp expose

Ephemerally expose a service to the local area network (LAN) or globally via a public tunnel. Ideal for testing on mobile devices, sharing with teammates, or webhook debugging.


nkapp expose <service> [options]

Arguments

Argument	Type	Description
`service`	string	Required. Name of the service to expose.

Options

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`-e, --env <env>`	string	`local`	Target environment
`-i, --ip <address>`	string	auto-detect	Manual LAN IP override
`-p, --port <port>`	number	`8080`	Gateway port to use for LAN exposure
`-t, --tunnel`	boolean	`false`	Enable global exposure via localtunnel

How It Works

LAN Exposure (Default)

Nanokit detects your LAN IP address and configures the Caddy gateway to serve the target service on a LAN-accessible port. Multiple URL formats are provided:


http://web.my-app.192.168.1.50.nip.io:8080  (Primary LAN hostname)
http://web.my-app.192.168.1.50.sslip.io:8080 (Secondary LAN hostname)
http://192.168.1.50:8080                      (Direct LAN IP)

Global Tunnel (`--tunnel`)

When the -t flag is passed, Nanokit spawns a localtunnel process to create a publicly reachable URL:


https://abc123.loca.lt  (Global - Working Everywhere)

The CLI process stays alive to maintain the tunnel connection.

IP Detection

Nanokit uses a smart scoring algorithm to detect the best LAN IP:

Prioritizes physical interfaces (en0, eth0, wlan0) over virtual bridges
Filters out Docker, VPN, and loopback interfaces
Prefers 192.168.x.x over 10.x.x.x ranges
WSL2 Aware: Automatically queries the Windows host IP via PowerShell

WSL2 Notes

When running in WSL2, LAN access requires a Windows port proxy:


# Run in PowerShell (Admin)
netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=8080 listenaddress=0.0.0.0 connectport=8080 connectaddress=<WSL_IP>

Nanokit prints this command automatically when WSL is detected.

Examples


# Expose web service on LAN
nkapp expose web
 
# Expose with a specific port
nkapp expose api -p 9090
 
# Expose globally via tunnel
nkapp expose web --tunnel
 
# Manually specify LAN IP
nkapp expose web --ip 192.168.1.100

[!NOTE] LAN exposure is ephemeral — it will be reset on the next full nkapp up reconciliation.