Live Preview - Share Real-Time Website Preview via Aitun Tunnel

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• You are iteratively building or modifying a website and want the user to see live changes
• You need user feedback on a design while you continue editing
• You are prototyping a UI and want to share each iteration instantly
• You are debugging a web application and need the user to confirm fixes in real time
• You want to demo a development workflow where changes appear live

Do NOT use this skill when:

• The website is already deployed to a public server
• You only need a one-time share (use aitun-tunnel instead)
• The content is a static file that does not change (use sendfile instead)

Instructions

Step 1: Install aitun

pip install aitun

Or verify it is already installed:

which aitun || pip show aitun

Step 2: Start the development server

Start the local dev server with hot-reload enabled. The command depends on your framework:

# For a static HTML directory (use a live-reload tool)
pip install livereload
python3 -c "
from livereload import Server, shell
server = Server()
server.watch('/path/to/html/dir')
server.serve(root='/path/to/html/dir', port=8080)
" &
DEV_PID=$!
sleep 2

# For Next.js
npm run dev -- -p 8080 &

# For Vite
npx vite --port 8080 --host &

# For Flask
flask run --port 8080 --host 0.0.0.0 &

# For any HTTP server (no auto-reload)
python3 -m http.server 8080 --directory /path/to/html/dir &

Step 3: Create a tunnel

Expose the dev server to the internet:

aitun -p 8080 &
AITUN_PID=$!
sleep 3

The output will contain the public URL, e.g.:

• https://aitun.cc/abc123

Step 4: Share the preview link with the user

Your live preview is ready: https://aitun.cc/abc123

I'm still working on it — just refresh the page to see my latest changes.
This preview link will remain active while I'm editing.

Step 5: Iterate and update

Continue editing files in your project directory. As you save changes:

• If using a hot-reload dev server: the user's browser will auto-refresh
• If using a basic HTTP server: tell the user to refresh the page manually

After each significant change, notify the user:

I've updated the navigation bar — refresh the page to see it.

Step 6: Clean up

When the preview session is complete, stop the servers:

kill $AITUN_PID 2>/dev/null
kill $DEV_PID 2>/dev/null

CLI Reference

The aitun command (installed via pip install aitun) accepts these flags:

Notes

• Free tunnels use proxy address mode (path-based URL like aitun.cc/abc123), NOT subdomains
• Free tunnels expire after 24 hours, auto-renewed on restart
• For a permanent preview subdomain, register at https://aitun.cc
• Hot-reload works best with frameworks that support it natively (Vite, Next.js, etc.)
• For static files, use Python's livereload package to enable auto-refresh
• The tunnel stays active as long as the aitun process is running — no need to restart the tunnel when files change
• All traffic is encrypted end-to-end