k-vpn

Linux CLI for selecting public VPN Gate relays, verifying the HTTPS exit and measuring real download throughput before connecting with OpenVPN.

The client is locally controlled; the exit fleet is not self-hosted. Country availability and bandwidth change with volunteer relays. No anonymity, universal network bypass or throughput guarantee is implied.

Install

Requirements: Linux, Python 3.12+, uv, OpenVPN, curl, iproute2 and sudo.

uv tool install k-vpn

# Development checkout, the installation used on this workstation:
git clone git@github.com:kpihx-labs/k-vpn.git
cd k-vpn
make uv-link

The workstation checkout is $HOME/Labs/KpihX-Labs/VPNs/k-vpn. The command is exposed through uv's normal user tool directory, usually $HOME/.local/bin. Editable installation uses this checkout directly; moving it requires relinking.

Use

k-vpn                                      # interactive country table
k-vpn --country JP --bench 6 --test-only    # benchmark, then close all test tunnels
k-vpn --country Japan --bench 6 --min-speed 0.5
k-vpn --country JP --server 122.133.152.245 --bench 1 --test-only
k-vpn --country JP --bench 4 --test-only --tuning balanced

Sudo asks for a password automatically when needed. A separate manual authentication command is not required. Ctrl-C closes the owned session.

Discovery first tries HTTPS. When a legacy HTTP mirror is used, the CLI warns that the relay list is unauthenticated. Root profile validation does not establish the list's origin. HTTPS destinations are verified independently.

Configuration and files

There is no legacy home-root directory, migration, snapshot recovery or automatic benchmark report generation. Imports and --help create no application files.

XDG_CONFIG_HOME and XDG_CACHE_HOME override the standard bases when absolute. XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is used only when it is a usable absolute directory; otherwise Linux /tmp is used. No sudo password is stored. Configuration and temporary credential files are private; the cache is derived data, not browsing history.

The initial configuration is:

{
  "bench": 10,
  "min_speed": 3.0,
  "tuning": "native",
  "strict_discovery": false
}

Explicit CLI flags override these preferences, including zero and false. For low-bandwidth relays, choose an appropriate monitoring threshold rather than assuming the default 3 Mbps is attainable.

How selection works

1. Fetch the current VPN Gate CSV; countries, relay IPs, reported speed and public OpenVPN profiles are live data, not a hardcoded country/server catalogue.
2. Parse active profile directives, ignoring comments. Prefer useful transports without discarding every non-web port; policy varies with the actual network.
3. Reject hooks, plugins, external key files and unsupported profile directives before privileged execution. Keep native certificate authentication; do not inject vpn/vpn into a profile that does not request password authentication.
4. Require a TUN route, interface-bound HTTPS, a valid public exit and received payload before reporting a speed. Distinguish authentication, connection, egress verification and download-host refusals. Try OVH after a failed Cloudflare measurement. Failures remain unmeasured, not zero Mbps.
5. Keep the best freshly verified candidate in the selected country. Use a private UID-restricted Unix control socket for shutdown, never killall.

Advertised is the provider's field, not a measurement from your device. Recent cached observations are scoped to uplink/profile/tuning and labelled; live selection always remeasures. There is no guaranteed advertised-to-real ratio.

Evidence and limitations

BENCHMARKS.md is the single benchmark record: controlled runs, the complete 95-profile survey, rechecks, failures and limitations. It establishes no universal tuning multiplier or sustained speed guarantee.

This client handles IPv4. It has no kill switch or verified IPv6 protection. HTTPS content stays encrypted to the destination; plain HTTP and traffic metadata can be visible at the exit. A QUIC handshake or one open port does not prove every VPN protocol will cross every restrictive network.

License transition (2.0.0)

Starting with 2.0.0, this distribution is licensed under GNU AGPL version 3 only (AGPL-3.0-only); see LICENSE for the complete text. The previously published 1.2.0 and earlier MIT releases retain their MIT permissions. This transition does not revoke those grants or change third-party dependency licenses.

AGPL permits commercial use when its obligations are met. It does not require every commercial user to negotiate a paid license. Its network-source provision is mainly relevant when a modified covered application is offered over a network; it does not automatically relicense a separate OpenVPN server or other programs. Each distribution includes the complete applicable license text.

Development commands

make check       # global ruff/pyright, compilation and offline regressions
make build       # validate; build sdist and wheel in dist/
make uv-link     # refresh the editable installation
make push        # xargs pushes the current branch to all remotes in parallel
make publish     # PyPI; run with-env make publish in the authenticated ops pane

Tests use isolated temporary directories, never live tunnels or sudo. make push fails on detached HEAD, missing remotes or a failed remote push. No secrets belong in the repository. Current license: AGPL-3.0-only; see LICENSE.