Portless HTTPS Hosting for Vue Dev Servers

Local Vue development usually means a url like http://localhost:5173.

What if I told you you could have a url like this instead: https://my-vue-app.localhost

• No changing ports
• Stable URLs with semantic meaning
• HTTPS in dev
• URLs that AI agents can depend on
• URLs that are easy to remember and type

You're not dreaming, this is totally possible with Portless. And it's super easy to setup.

What is Portless?

Portless is a small proxy layer that gives you named .localhost hostnames, HTTPS with HTTP/2 by default, and a random high port for the actual dev server (via PORT).

Install Portless and Setup Your Project

To get started, you should install Portless globally.

npm install -g portless

Or if you're using Vite Plus, like I am:

vp install -g portless

Now all that's left to do is name your domain and run your dev server in package.json.

// package.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "portless my-vue-app vite",
    // or if using Vite Plus:
    "dev": "portless my-vue-app vp dev"
  }
}

That's it! 🎉 Run your dev server per usual, but now you can access it at https://my-vue-app.localhost.

Change out the my-vue-app part to whatever you want your domain to be.

Some Other Cool Things You Can Do with Portless

• Use subdomains: portless api.my-vue-app vite -> https://api.my-vue-app.localhost
  • Awesome for API's that live in a different project but rely on shared session state with the main app.
• Use git worktrees: portless my-vue-app git worktree add -b feature/my-feature -> https://my-vue-app.localhost/feature/my-feature
  • Makes it easy for AI agents to work on multiple features at once with predictable URLs to preview their work
• Use custom TLDs: by starting the proxy with the --tld flag. For example: portless proxy start --tld test -> https://my-vue-app.test
• It works with Nuxt too! portless my-nuxt-app nuxt dev -> https://my-nuxt-app.localhost
• HMR is unaffected, updates are still instant.

Summary

Portless trades “remember this port” for https://<name>.localhost, with TLS and HTTP/2 on by default. For Vue on Vite, wrap your dev script once (portless <name> vite / vp dev / your stack’s dev command) and keep the same mental model as production HTTPS—without manually managing certificates for every project. Details and options live on portless.sh.