A viaduct tunnel has always come with a random name, something like funny-otter.viaduct.sh, and that was on purpose. A URL you can choose is a URL someone can squat, or dress up to look like a brand or a login page. --pin softened it: it keeps the same URL across reconnects, which is what a webhook or a long-lived demo needs. But the name stayed derived from a secret on your machine, not something you type. You could keep a name; you could not pick one.

A chosen name is a small, reasonable thing to want, though. A demo link you can read down the phone. A webhook endpoint whose name still means something months later. A project's name instead of a random animal. So --name is here.

viaduct http 8080 --name myapp gives you myapp.viaduct.sh if the name is free, and pins it so it stays put across reconnects. It has to be a plain, well-formed label, and a short list is reserved, region codes, www, api, admin, the names that would only be used to confuse someone. Everything else is first come, first served.

viaduct http 8080 --name myapp 
✓ tunnel live

  https://myapp.viaduct.sh
  → http://localhost:8080
  press q to stop

# taken or reserved names are refused up front, before any tunnel
$ viaduct http 8080 --name admin
viaduct: that --name is not allowed (some names are reserved)

Free, well-formed, and not reserved: the name is yours until you disconnect.

A few honest edges

A name is held only while the tunnel is live. Drop the connection and it is free again, so nothing is squatted for good. Availability is per server, so a name taken on one region can still be free on another.

Using it

Pick a name and start the tunnel as usual:

viaduct http 8080 --name myapp

It cannot be combined with --pin, which asks for the same thing a different way, and there is more in the docs.

Available in viaduct 1.5.0. Already installed? Run viaduct upgrade to get it.

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