setup-chisel-tunnel

name	setup-chisel-tunnel
description	Set up chisel HTTP tunnels (forward and reverse). Use when creating TCP tunnels over HTTP/S with SSH transport, exposing local ports, or creating a reverse SOCKS5 proxy via chisel.
license	Apache-2.0
compatibility	Requires chisel v1.9+ binary or Docker. Download from https://github.com/jpillora/chisel/releases
metadata	{"author":"proxy-tools","version":"1.0"}
allowed-tools	docker bash

Set Up chisel Tunnel

chisel tunnels TCP traffic over HTTP secured with SSH. No config file required — everything is passed as CLI flags.

Server

# Start server (on a public host)
chisel server --port 8080 --auth user:changeme --reverse
# --reverse allows clients to open ports on the server (reverse tunnels)

Forward Tunnel

Forward traffic from server → client (expose client-side service):

chisel client --auth user:changeme http://server:8080 \
  <server-port>:<local-host>:<local-port>

# Example: traffic to server:9000 reaches localhost:3000 on client
chisel client --auth user:changeme http://server:8080 9000:localhost:3000

Reverse Tunnel

Have the server open a port that reaches the client's network:

chisel client --auth user:changeme http://server:8080 \
  R:<server-port>:<target-host>:<target-port>

# Example: server:2222 → localhost:22 on client machine
chisel client --auth user:changeme http://server:8080 R:2222:localhost:22

Reverse SOCKS5

# server with --reverse
# client with R:1080:socks
chisel client --auth user:changeme http://server:8080 R:1080:socks
# server now has SOCKS5 on :1080 routing through client's network

Resilience Options

chisel client \
  --keepalive 30s \
  --max-retry-count 10 \
  --max-retry-interval 2m \
  ...

Available Examples

• chisel/examples/forward-tunnel.md
• chisel/examples/reverse-tunnel.md
• chisel/examples/socks5-reverse.md

References

• chisel GitHub: https://github.com/jpillora/chisel
• Repository: chisel/