DIY Cloud Wizard 🪄

Ever wanted to host your apps running on localhost straight to the internet?
Be careful—now you won’t be able to say “it works on my local”.

Because sometimes localhost:3000 just isn’t spicy enough. 🌶️

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🧙‍♂️ What You’ll Need to Channel Your Inner Tech Sorcerer

• A domain – Your digital real estate. Your little castle in the vast internet kingdom.
• A personal computer – Your trusty steed. Doesn’t need to be a supercomputer, just something that won’t faint when you open 47 Chrome tabs.

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1️⃣ Register Your Domain with Cloudflare

(AKA Claim Your Internet Throne)

First things first—register your domain with Cloudflare.

You can use Cloudflare’s documentation and follow the instructions.

• You can either buy a domain directly from Cloudflare
• Or transfer an existing one (I got mine from Hostinger)

Once you hook it up, it’ll show up in your Cloudflare dashboard.

Congrats 🎉 Step 1 complete!

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2️⃣ Install Cloudflare Tunnel

(Your Secret Underground Passage)

Now it’s time to install Cloudflare Tunnel.
This acts as a hidden passageway between your computer and the internet.

Check Cloudflare’s docs for setup.
When you run cloudflared for the first time, it:

• Creates a config file
• Generates credentials
• Adds a certificate (authorizing your system to handle the tunnel)

You’ll use this config file to define ingress rules (where traffic should go). It will look something like this.

ingress:
  - hostname: my-awesome-project.myDomain
    service: http://localhost:1000
  - service: http_status:404

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3️⃣ Tweak Your DNS Records

(The Secret Handshake of the Internet)

This is where you say:

“When someone visits mycoolapp.mydomain.com, send them to port 3000 on my computer.”

How? By tweaking your DNS records in Cloudflare.

Steps:

1. Open your Cloudflare dashboard → Select your domain → Go to DNS Records.
2. Add a CNAME record for your subdomain.
   • Name → your subdomain (e.g. app)
   • Target → <YOUR_TUNNEL_ID>.cfargotunnel.com
3. You’ll find the tunnel ID in the credentials file Cloudflare generated.
4. Set Proxy Status to Proxied.

That’s it—now the world knows where to find your localhost.

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4️⃣ Fire Up the Tunnel and Watch the Magic Happen

Run cloudflared on your system and boom—your tunnel is alive ⚡.

Start your project locally (Node.js app, Flask server, portfolio site… whatever).
Cloudflare Tunnel takes care of the rest.

Visitors → Your subdomain → Cloudflare Tunnel → Your local server.
It follows the ingress rules you defined and routes traffic correctly.

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5️⃣ Go Full Automation Freak 🛠️

If you’re like me, you’ll want to automate everything.

Check out Migaku—a simple script I use to:

• Clone all my projects
• Set them up
• Run them in one go

How it works:

• Uses Docker Compose to spin up each project in its own container. 👉 This means each project needs a Dockerfile that tells Docker how to build it. If you don’t know how to write one yet, it’s worth learning—Docker is a super valuable skill to have anyway.
• Assigns each container a specific port
• Matches those ports to Cloudflare Tunnel ingress rules

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💠 Side Quest: The Rune-Keeper (Environment Variables)

I keep a separate repo for environment variables:

• All .env files are stored as encrypted .enc files
• Migaku decrypts them with a secret key when needed
• Docker Compose consumes them seamlessly

Yes, I’m literally storing my env files on GitHub.
But don’t worry—it’s secure: AES-256 encryption with one password stored only in my brain 🧠.
Without the password, the .enc files are useless.

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🎉 And Voilà! You’re a Self-Hosting Superstar

With Cloudflare Tunnel, your projects are:

• Live 🌍
• Secure 🔒
• Accessible 🚀

All from your own computer—no cloud bills, no corporate overlords.

So go forth, show off your work, and let the internet bask in your brilliance.

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