What is phormal?

Phormal is a shell-based networking tool for Linux that creates a private connection between two servers, hiding your actual service behind a gateway machine. You designate one server as the entry node (the publicly visible side) and another as the exit node (where your real service runs). End users connect only to the entry node's address, keeping the exit node's IP hidden from them. The tool supports two connection modes. Bridge mode creates a direct IPv6-based link between the two servers and works best on stable network paths. Relay mode uses a different protocol (QUIC) with built-in traffic obfuscation, making it suited for networks that actively filter or throttle connections. Both modes support running multiple independent tunnels at once from the same machine, each with its own configuration, ports, and credentials. Setup is driven by a numbered text menu. You run a single install command, and after that type sudo phormal anywhere on the system to open the menu. Adding a tunnel involves picking a name, entering the other server's IP address and a shared port, and copying a password or key to the matching server. The tool creates and manages systemd services automatically so tunnels restart on boot and can be individually stopped, started, or inspected from the menu without touching the other server. Recent updates added the ability for a single exit server to serve multiple entry servers simultaneously. A CDN and WebSocket front option was also added for Relay mode, routing traffic through a content delivery network on port 80 to make connections harder to distinguish from ordinary web traffic. A built-in speedtest lets you measure throughput between two nodes by running a two-step test on each side within thirty seconds of each other. The project is written entirely in Bash and targets Debian and Ubuntu. It requires root access on both servers and UDP reachability between them for the Relay link. Configuration files are stored under /etc/phormal/ and logs go to /var/log/phormal.log.