Local Multi-Device Testing with ngrok

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Overview

ngrok makes local web applications reachable over the internet with a single command. The following steps show the setup and usage of ngrok for testing your Corbado setup locally with multiple devices.

Testing your local setup with ngrok allows Corbado to communicate with your local system, e.g. to access the application from different devices. In production or staging mode, systems are often accessible over the Internet anyways but for local developing and testing, ngrok saves a ton of work.

1. ngrok setup
2. Run your application
3. Set the ngrok URL in the Corbado developer panel
4. Update your Relying Party ID

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1. ngrok setup

1. Sign up for a free ngrok account at https://dashboard.ngrok.com/signup and follow the instructions.
2. Install ngrok from https://dashboard.ngrok.com/get-started/setup.
3. Go to the “Your Authtoken” section in the ngrok dashboard. There, copy your token and add it to your ngrok installation by executing:

ngrok config add-authtoken <your-authtoken>

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2. Run your application

For this guide, we assume you are using a Node.js app. If you are using a different framework / programming language, just change the run commands to start your (backend) application.

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2.1 Install the dependencies and run the (backend) application

# Node.js example

npm install
npm run start

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2.2 Launch ngrok to connect it to your application

The ngrok http <port> command starts the ngrok tunnel on the specified port. Our application runs on port 8080, so we’ll execute

ngrok http 8080

The terminal will display something like the following:

Copy the ngrok URL in the red box which is needed for the Corbado developer panel.

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3. Set the ngrok URL in the Corbado developer panel

Add a new authorized origin with the ngrok URL and add localhost, including protocol (http) and port in Settings > General > Authorized origins:

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4. Update your Relying Party ID

As passkeys / WebAuthn are phishing-resistant and passkeys are bound to a domain during creation (Relying Party ID), you need to make sure that the browser URL is the same domain or a subdomain of the Relying Party ID. Thus, you need to update the Relying Party ID for ngrok as well: