portman-proxy 0.1.1

Local reverse proxy for production-like .localhost domains

Portman

Portman is a lightweight local reverse proxy for production-like .localhost domains. It lets multi-service development projects use stable names like api.localhost, app.localhost, and admin.localhost instead of a pile of remembered ports.

                    portman.yml
                         |
                         v
Browser -> api.localhost:8080   -> Portman -> localhost:8000
Browser -> app.localhost:8080   -> Portman -> localhost:3000
Browser -> admin.localhost:8080 -> Portman -> localhost:9000

Portman is aimed at small teams and solo developers who want cleaner local environments without running a full Nginx, Caddy, Traefik, or Docker routing setup for every project.

Quick Start

Install Portman:

pip install portman

Create portman.yml:

proxy_port: 8080
routes:
  api.localhost: 8000
  app.localhost: 3000
  admin.localhost:
    port: 9000
    timeout: 60

Start your local services, then start Portman:

portman start --config portman.yml

Open:

http://api.localhost:8080
http://app.localhost:8080
http://admin.localhost:8080

List configured routes and health status:

portman list --config portman.yml

How It Works

Portman binds to 127.0.0.1 on proxy_port, reads the incoming Host header, and looks up the matching domain in an in-memory route table. Requests are then forwarded to the configured upstream service on localhost:<port>.

The route table is built from portman.yml at startup. A file watcher monitors the config file's directory and reloads the table when the config file changes. Valid reloads replace the route table atomically; invalid reloads are logged and the previous working routes remain active.

HTTP and WebSocket traffic are both proxied. Portman rewrites upstream Host headers to localhost:<port> and preserves useful forwarding headers such as X-Forwarded-Host.

Hosts File Integration

Hosts file modification is not required for normal Portman usage. Prefer .localhost domains, which are intended for loopback local development and do not require editing /etc/hosts or the Windows hosts file on modern systems.

The portman hosts commands remain available as an experimental, optional escape hatch for custom domains. They are not part of the core workflow.

Benchmarking

Portman includes a small stdlib-only benchmark helper:

python scripts/benchmark.py --host api.localhost --port 8080 --requests 1000 --concurrency 50

Run it while Portman and the target upstream service are already running. The script reports request throughput plus mean, median, p95, and p99 latency.

Limitations

• Portman is a local development proxy, not a production edge proxy.
• TLS termination is not implemented in v0.1.0.
• .localhost domains should be preferred; custom domains may require manual DNS or hosts file setup.
• Upstream services must already be running on local TCP ports.
• Route matching is based on the request Host header, not path prefixes.

Release Status

See docs/release-readiness.md for the current v0.1.0 readiness audit.