A new open-source tool called Pipenet aims to replace localtunnel with a TypeScript rewrite that uses a single port for multiplexing. This solves key limitations of its predecessor, especially for deployments on platforms like Fly.io or behind strict firewalls that block random port assignments.

The project was built at Glama for their MCP Inspector but is designed as a generic, self-hostable tunnel with no infrastructure ties. It supports modern protocols like HTTP, WebSocket, and SSE, and provides both a public instance at `*.pipenet.dev` and a full self-hosted server option for complete control.

Pipenet’s architecture allows embedding tunneling directly into other tools via a programmatic API. Its server supports custom domains and lifecycle hooks for monitoring. As a drop-in replacement, it offers a more maintainable and cloud-friendly alternative for developers needing to expose local services securely.