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Managing Tunnels

Connecting

Start a Tunnel

From the main window: Select the tunnel and choose Tunnel → Toggle Selected Tunnel or press Cmd+Enter.

From the menu bar: Click the StormTunnel icon and turn on the switch next to the tunnel.

All at once: Choose Tunnel → Start All Tunnels (Shift+Cmd+R). Free plans run one tunnel at a time.

Connection Progress

The status line under the tunnel name in the sidebar shows each stage, such as checking the local port, authenticating, and establishing the tunnel. Connected means the tunnel is ready to use. For AWS tunnels, the stages include starting the Session Manager session and waiting for the local port.

Once connected, access the remote service at localhost:[local port].

Disconnecting

Select the active tunnel and choose Tunnel → Toggle Selected Tunnel or press Cmd+Enter.

From the menu bar, turn off the switch next to the tunnel. Use Stop All to stop every connected tunnel.

When you quit StormTunnel while tunnels are active, a Quit Storm Tunnel? alert asks you to confirm. Stop All and Quit disconnects every tunnel first.

Editing Tunnels

  1. Select the tunnel
  2. Choose Tunnel → Edit Selected Tunnel… or press Alt+Cmd+E
  3. Make changes
  4. Click Save

Running tunnels

If the tunnel is running, StormTunnel asks Stop Tunnel to Edit and stops it when you click Stop & Edit.

You can change the name, connection details, ports, authentication, and advanced options such as auto-reconnect.

Deleting Tunnels

  1. Select the tunnel
  2. Press Cmd+Del or right-click > Delete…
  3. Confirm deletion

This removes the tunnel configuration. SSH keys and other tunnels are not affected.

Searching

Use Search Tunnels at the top of the sidebar to filter by name, host, port, SSH user, or AWS instance ID.

For connection issues, see Troubleshooting.