Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) is an amazing tool — lightweight, secure, fast, and perfect for exposing local services without opening ports or managing firewalls.
But many users run into the same issue:
Tunnels are powerful, but the CLI/YAML workflow is not always convenient for quick, ad-hoc usage.
If you want to open an RDP session, temporarily expose an SSH service, or forward a TCP port for a teammate, you often need to:
- write or edit a YAML file
- remember a set of CLI flags
- manage multiple tunnel processes manually
So I decided to explore a simple idea:
What if cloudflared had a tiny, friendly desktop UI?
Something minimal. Cross-platform. One-click.
A small helper tool — not a replacement for the CLI — but a shortcut for common tunneling tasks.
I built a prototype:
https://github.com/mlanies/desktop-argo-tunnel
Dashboard
What the app does
The UI focuses on the most common use cases:
- Launch an RDP tunnel
- Launch an SSH tunnel
- Launch a TCP tunnel
- View connection parameters
- Start/stop tunnels with a single button
No YAML.
No terminal commands.
Just “Start tunnel”, “Stop tunnel”.
Internally it still uses cloudflared — the app simply generates the right arguments and manages the process lifecycle.
Why build this?
I noticed several recurring pain points among developers and sysadmins:
✔ Quick access should be easy
For one-time tunnels, writing YAML feels unnecessary.
✔ Not everyone on a team is comfortable with CLI
A UI helps junior engineers, support staff, or remote colleagues.
✔ Great for demos, remote assistance, and small internal setups
Some people just need an SSH or RDP tunnel right now — not a Zero Trust enrollment or a full access policy flow.
✔ It makes Cloudflare Tunnel more accessible
A friendly UI lowers the entry barrier.
Tech details
The prototype is built with:
-
Go — for calling and managing the
cloudflaredbinary - Electron — for a clean, simple interface
- Cross-platform intent (Windows/macOS; Linux coming soon)
The project is experimental, but functional.
Looking for feedback
I would love to hear your thoughts:
- Should Cloudflare consider an official desktop UI for tunnels?
- What features should such a tool include?
- Would your workflow benefit from one-click RDP/SSH/TCP tunneling?
- Any UX suggestions for the app?
I’m actively collecting feedback to shape the next iteration.
Repo link:
https://github.com/mlanies/desktop-argo-tunnel
Thanks for reading and huge respect to the Cloudflare team for building an amazing tunneling ecosystem!
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