View random ngrok URL when run in background

Question

When I start an ngrok client with ./ngrok tcp 22 it runs in the foreground and I can see the randoming generated forwarding URL, such as tcp://0.tcp.ngrok.io:

Answer 1

If it helps anyone I wrote a quick script to extract the generated random url in Node:

It makes assumption you're only interested in the secure url.

const fetch = require('node-fetch')
fetch('http://localhost:4040/api/tunnels')
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(json => json.tunnels.find(tunnel => tunnel.proto === 'https'))
  .then(secureTunnel => console.log(secureTunnel.public_url))
  .catch(err => {
    if (err.code === 'ECONNREFUSED') {
      return console.error("Looks like you're not running ngrok.")
    }
    console.error(err)
  })

If you wanted all tunnels:

const fetch = require('node-fetch')
fetch('http://localhost:4040/api/tunnels')
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(json => json.tunnels.map(tunnel => tunnel.public_url))
  .then(publicUrls => publicUrls.forEach(url => console.log(url)))
  .catch(err => {
    if (err.code === 'ECONNREFUSED') {
      return console.error(
        "Looks like you're not running ngrok."
      )
    }
    console.error(err)
  })