I built SideDNS because I wanted local development environments to behave more like production.
I was constantly switching between /etc/hosts, reverse proxies, local certificates, and various DNS tools just to access services through real domains.
With SideDNS:
sidedns add api.myapp.com --port 3000 or show hand with ephemeral rule sidedns run -d example.com mycommand with args // sidedns with detect openned port
Now every application on your machine can access that service through `api.myapp.com`, with HTTPS support, wildcard domains, WebSockets, and automatic cleanup when SideDNS stops.
Under the hood, SideDNS combines:
* A local DNS server * A transparent HTTP/HTTPS reverse proxy * Automatic certificate management * Cross-platform DNS integration (Windows, macOS, Linux)
The goal is to make local domains feel as simple as localhost while behaving much closer to production environments.
I'd love feedback from developers using tools like dnsmasq, Caddy, Traefik, nginx, mkcert, or custom /etc/hosts setups in local.