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Use a tunnel when ChatGPT, Claude, or another remote MCP client needs to reach a server running on your machine. The tunnel gives you a public HTTPS URL that forwards to your local MCP endpoint. With mcp-use, start the server with --tunnel, then copy the printed Tunnel URL. The URL you give to clients must include /mcp.
Keep the terminal process running while you test. The public URL stops working when the process exits.

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Start a tunnel with mcp-use

Use mcp-use dev --tunnel while you are developing:
Use mcp-use start --tunnel when you want to test the built server:
Successful output includes a tunnel endpoint:
Copy the value after Tunnel: into your remote MCP client. Do not copy only https://happy-blue.local.mcp-use.run; the client URL must end with /mcp.

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Tunnel any server on /mcp

Use the standalone tunnel package when your local MCP server is not started by mcp-use. The server must already be running locally and serving MCP over HTTP at /mcp. For a server on port 3000, run:
Successful output prints a public URL:
Copy the full public URL, including /mcp, into ChatGPT, Claude, or your other remote MCP client.

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Verify the tunnel

Verify the public URL with the mcp-use client CLI:
The connect command performs the MCP handshake and saves the tunnel under the name tunnel-test. The tools list command should print the tools exposed by your local server. If the server uses OAuth or bearer authentication, complete the client authentication flow or pass the required auth option before testing tools.

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Stop the tunnel

Press Ctrl+C in the terminal running the tunnel. When you started the tunnel with mcp-use dev --tunnel or mcp-use start --tunnel, stopping the command stops both the local server process and the tunnel. When you started the tunnel with npx @mcp-use/tunnel 3000, stopping that command closes only the tunnel; your local server keeps running until you stop it separately.

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Lifetime and limits

Tunnels are for local testing before deployment:
  • The tunnel is active only while the command is running.
  • Tunnels expire after 24 hours.
  • Inactive tunnels are cleaned up after 1 hour without activity.
  • Each IP address can create up to 10 tunnels per hour.
  • Each IP address can have up to 5 active tunnels at a time.
For a stable public URL, deploy the server instead of relying on a local tunnel.

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Next steps