HTTPS with portless

portless gives local servers trusted HTTPS URLs (https://<name>.localhost) with an auto-generated, auto-trusted CA — no port numbers in URLs and no browser warnings. That matters for emulators when the client requires HTTPS (secure cookies, OAuth libraries that reject http:// redirect URIs, mobile webviews).

Setup

npm install -g portless

# Start the HTTPS proxy once (generates and trusts the local CA)
portless proxy start

The –portless flag

Start emulate with portless integration and every service registers itself as a portless alias automatically:

npx @pleaseai/emulate --portless

Each service gets a named HTTPS URL:

kakao      https://kakao.emulate.localhost
naver      https://naver.emulate.localhost
supabase   https://supabase.emulate.localhost

If portless is not installed, emulate prompts to install it (npm i -g portless); the proxy must already be running (portless proxy start). The flag overwrites any existing aliases matching <service>.emulate, and aliases are removed automatically when emulate shuts down.

The emulators also advertise these HTTPS URLs as their base URL, so OAuth redirects, issued URLs, and webhook payloads use https://<service>.emulate.localhost instead of http://localhost:<port>.

Custom base URLs without –portless

For any other reverse proxy, use --base-url or the EMULATE_BASE_URL env var — both support {service} interpolation for multi-service runs:

npx @pleaseai/emulate --base-url "https://{service}.myproxy.test"

Per-service overrides in the seed config take the highest priority:

kakao:
  baseUrl: https://kakao.emulate.localhost
  # ...apps, users

The full base URL priority is: seed baseUrl → --base-url flag → EMULATE_BASE_URL → PORTLESS_URL (set by the portless CLI wrapper) → http://localhost:<port>. The same override works programmatically:

const emulator = await createEmulator({
  service: 'kakao',
  port: 4000,
  baseUrl: 'https://kakao.emulate.localhost',
})

Manual aliases

You can also register aliases yourself instead of using --portless:

npx @pleaseai/emulate --service kakao --base-url https://kakao.emulate.localhost
portless alias kakao.emulate 4000       # → https://kakao.emulate.localhost

Cleanup

portless alias --remove kakao.emulate
portless clean   # remove all portless state, CA trust, and hosts entries