useburrow — the Burrow CLI

Secure, EU-hosted tunnels for local development. Point a public HTTPS URL at your localhost over an outbound wss connection (so it traverses any firewall or NAT), inspect every request in a local web UI, and let AI agents open and inspect tunnels through a first-class MCP server.

useburrow.dev · DSGVO-first · Node-native

npx useburrow http 3000

  ◐ Burrow tunnel ready
    https://cool-otter-42.useburrow.dev  →  http://127.0.0.1:3000
    Inspector  http://127.0.0.1:4040

Package name vs. command name: the npm package is useburrow, the command it installs is burrow (with a bw alias). So npx useburrow http 3000 and—after a global install— burrow http 3000 do the same thing.

Install

# Zero-install, always latest:
npx useburrow http 3000

# Or install globally and use the `burrow` command:
npm i -g useburrow
burrow http 3000
bw http 3000          # short alias

Requires Node ≥ 22 (the undici HTTP engine requires Node 22.19+; Node 20 is end-of-life).

Commands

burrow http options

Local inspector

By default burrow http serves a local request inspector at http://127.0.0.1:4040 — a React SPA that shows the live request list, full request/response detail, replay, filtering, and a webhook helper. Request bodies are local-only by default and never leave your machine unless cloud history is explicitly enabled for your team.

Disable it with --no-inspect, or move it with --inspect <port>.

Multi-service: burrow.yml

# burrow.yml — start them all with `burrow start`
services:
  - name: web
    http: 3000
    subdomain: acme
  - name: api
    http: 8080
  - name: db
    tcp: 5432

burrow start            # reads ./burrow.yml
burrow start --config infra/burrow.yml

Programmatic SDK

import { tunnel } from 'useburrow'

const t = await tunnel({ http: 3000, subdomain: 'acme' })
console.log(t.url)      // https://acme.useburrow.dev
await t.close()

Framework integrations

// Vite — vite.config.ts
import { burrow } from 'useburrow/vite'
export default { plugins: [burrow({ subdomain: 'acme' })] }

// Next.js
import { withBurrow } from 'useburrow/next'
export default withBurrow({ /* next config */ })

// Nuxt — nuxt.config.ts
export default { modules: [['useburrow/nuxt', { subdomain: 'acme' }]] }

See integrations/README.md for the full integration docs.

MCP server (for AI agents)

Burrow ships a first-class MCP server so agents can open and inspect tunnels:

burrow mcp              # prints the endpoint + how to mint a scoped token

Point your agent at the printed Streamable-HTTP endpoint with a Bearer MCP token (minted in the dashboard). Run burrow companion to keep an idle client registered so an agent can open a tunnel on demand.

Authentication

burrow login            # device-code flow; stores the token in ~/.burrow/config.toml
burrow whoami
burrow logout

BURROW_TOKEN (a brw_pat_… personal access token) is honored as an alternative to an interactive login — handy in CI:

BURROW_TOKEN=brw_pat_xxx npx useburrow http 3000 --subdomain acme

Environment variables

Development

pnpm install
pnpm build              # builds the inspector SPA, then the CLI + SDK bundles (tsup)
pnpm test               # vitest
pnpm typecheck

The published tarball ships dist/ plus the prebuilt inspector SPA (inspector-web/dist); the prepack hook rebuilds both before npm pack / npm publish.

License

MIT © Pixel & Process UG (haftungsbeschränkt)