📖 How it works
Request flow
Every request you make to the public URL travels through this path:
Browser │ ▼ HTTPS rustunnel-server (your VPS) │ WebSocket + TLS ▼ yamux stream rustunnel client (your laptop / dev machine) │ plain TCP ▼ this demo server :3000
Two WebSocket connections
The client maintains two persistent connections to the server:
Control plane
JSON frames
auth · registration · heartbeat
auth · registration · heartbeat
Data plane
Binary yamux
all proxied connections multiplexed
all proxied connections multiplexed
Protocol frames
Key control frames exchanged at startup:
| Frame | Direction | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Auth | → server | Send token + client version |
| AuthOk | ← server | Receive session_id |
| RegisterTunnel | → server | Request subdomain / port |
| TunnelRegistered | ← server | Receive public URL |
| NewConnection | ← server | Incoming request notification |
| Ping / Pong | ↔ | Heartbeat (every 30 s) |
Reconnection
If the connection drops, the client reconnects automatically with exponential backoff: 1 s → 2 s → 4 s … 60 s with ±20% jitter. Auth errors are the only fatal case — everything else retries.