pyngrok — a Python wrapper for ngrok
Tags: ngrok, python, tunnel, webhook
Published: 2020-07-09 05:50:10

<p align="center"><img alt="pyngrok - a Python wrapper for ngrok" src="https://pyngrok.readthedocs.io/en/latest/_images/logo.png" /></p>

`pyngrok` is a Python wrapper for `ngrok` that manages its own binary and puts it on your path, making `ngrok` readily available from anywhere on the command line and via a convenient Python API.

[ngrok](https://ngrok.com) is a reverse proxy tool that opens secure tunnels from public URLs to localhost, perfect for exposing local web servers, building webhook integrations, enabling SSH access, testing chatbots, demoing from your own machine, and more, and its made even more powerful with native Python integration through `pyngrok`.

## Installation

`pyngrok` is available on [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/pyngrok/) and can be installed using `pip`:

```sh
pip install pyngrok
```

or `conda`:

```sh
conda install -c conda-forge pyngrok
```

That's it! `pyngrok` is now available as a package to our Python projects, and `ngrok` is now available from the command line.

## Basic Usage

To open a tunnel, use the [`connect`](https://pyngrok.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#pyngrok.ngrok.connect) method, which returns a `NgrokTunnel` that has a reference to the public URL generated by `ngrok`.

```python
from pyngrok import ngrok

# Open a HTTP tunnel on the default port 80
# <NgrokTunnel: "http://<public_sub>.ngrok.io" -> "http://localhost:80">
http_tunnel = ngrok.connect()

# Open a SSH tunnel
# <NgrokTunnel: "tcp://0.tcp.ngrok.io:12345" -> "localhost:22">
ssh_tunnel = ngrok.connect(22, "tcp")

# Open a named tunnel from the config file
named_tunnel = ngrok.connect(name="my_tunnel_name")
```

The [`connect`](https://pyngrok.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#pyngrok.ngrok.connect) method takes `kwargs` as well, which allows us to pass additional properties that are [supported by ngrok](https://ngrok.com/docs#tunnel-definitions).

This package puts the default `ngrok` binary on our path, so all features of `ngrok` are available on the command line.

```sh
ngrok http 80
```

For details on how to fully leverage `ngrok` from the command line, see [ngrok's official documentation](https://ngrok.com/docs).

## Documentation

For more advanced usage, `pyngrok`'s official documentation is available at [http://pyngrok.readthedocs.io](http://pyngrok.readthedocs.io).

### `ngrok` Version Compatibility

`pyngrok` is compatible with `ngrok` v2 and v3, but by default it will install v3. To install v2 instead, set `ngrok_version` in [`PyngrokConfig`](https://pyngrok.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#pyngrok.conf.PyngrokConfig):

```python
from pyngrok import conf

conf.get_default().ngrok_version = "v2"
```

### Python 2.7

The last version of `pyngrok` that supports Python 2.7 is 4.1.x, so we need to pin `pyngrok>=4.1,<4.2` if we still want to use `pyngrok` with this version of Python.

## Contributing

If you would like to get involved, be sure to review the [Contribution Guide](https://github.com/alexdlaird/pyngrok/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.rst).

Want to contribute financially? [sponsorship](https://github.com/sponsors/alexdlaird) would also be greatly appreciated!