What is Shield CLI

Shield CLI is a secure tunnel connector that exposes internal network services to the public internet, making them accessible through any web browser with a single command.

The Problem It Solves

You've probably faced these situations:

• Need to remotely access a server on the company network, but setting up a VPN is too complex
• Want to let a colleague temporarily access your local development environment
• Need to operate a Windows desktop remotely from a phone or tablet
• A client needs access to an internally deployed web app for testing

Traditional solutions (VPN, port forwarding, tunneling tools) are either complex to configure or require the other party to install client software.

The Shield CLI way:

shield ssh 10.0.0.5

You get a public URL. Open it in any browser to directly operate the SSH terminal. No client installation, no network configuration needed.

Key Features

Feature	Description
Browser Access	RDP, VNC, SSH, web apps — all rendered via HTML5 in the browser
Zero Client	Visitors only need a browser — phones, tablets, locked-down PCs all work
Encrypted	WebSocket encrypted tunnel + AES-256-GCM local credential encryption
Smart Defaults	shield ssh resolves to 127.0.0.1:22 automatically
Dual Mode	Web UI dashboard (recommended) + pure CLI mode
Six Protocols	SSH, RDP, VNC, HTTP, HTTPS, Telnet
Cross-Platform	macOS / Linux / Windows, amd64 and arm64

How It Works

Your Service ←→ Shield CLI ←→ Public Gateway ←→ Browser
(SSH/RDP/...)    (Encrypted)    (HTML5 Render)   (Any Device)

1. Shield CLI runs on your machine and connects to the internal service
2. Establishes an encrypted WebSocket tunnel to the public gateway
3. The gateway assigns a unique Access URL
4. Visitors open the URL in a browser to operate the remote service

Two Ways to Use

Web UI Mode (Recommended)

Launch a local management dashboard and manage all apps in the browser:

shield start

Open http://localhost:8181 to add apps and connect with one click.

CLI Mode

Create tunnels directly from the terminal — ideal for servers or scripting:

shield ssh           # Connect to local SSH
shield rdp 10.0.0.5  # Connect to remote Windows desktop
shield http 3000     # Expose local web app

Next Steps

• Installation
• Quick Start