Give a contractor temporary access to your app
Content updated October 24, 2026.
How do I give a contractor temporary access to an app running on my machine?
For a named contractor, have your coding agent publish the app privately with the qURL™ skill and send them an email invitation; they verify their email and save a passkey. For a single visit, run qurl publish, then qurl share with --ttl and --session-duration. End access with qurl stop or qurl delete, or by revoking the invitation. For longer work on your own domain, a Cloudflare Tunnel with Cloudflare Access fits.
What you need
- The app running on the machine where you run qurl publish
- The qURL CLI 3.4.1 or later
- For an email invitation: a coding agent with the qURL skill, and the contractor’s email address
- No account or API key
Steps
Choose an invitation or a link
An email invitation names the contractor: they verify their email and save a passkey, and strangers cannot request access. A one-time link is a secret that lets in whoever opens it first, once, before it expires. For work that runs over several days, invite them; for one walkthrough, send a link.
For a named contractor: ask your agent to invite them
Install the qURL skill in your coding agent first; the agent guides show where each one reads it. The agent applies the private access rules you choose. For named recipients, give it their email addresses so it can send invitations. Recipients verify their email in the browser and save a passkey; they never send you their email verification code. The agent checks policy support before sharing and keeps the app private if the deployment cannot support it. Give the contractor the address the agent prints, with this note: open the emailed invitation in a browser, verify your email there, and set up your passkey.
Share the app I'm running with qURL, invite-only, and invite contractor@example.com.Install the qURL CLI
On macOS, install it with Homebrew. On Linux and Windows, download the package for your platform from the latest release; the CLI page lists each one. Nothing asks you to sign up.
brew install layervai/tap/qurl qurl --versionFor a single visit: publish the app
The first publish creates this device’s identity, starts a background service that keeps serving after you close the terminal (while you stay logged in), and prints the app’s CRID, its stable ID. The Access row says who can open the app: a plain publish makes it private from qurl 3.4.1 on. qurl share turns the CRID into an access link, and the link is what you send.
qurl publish http://127.0.0.1:3000Published Target: http://127.0.0.1:3000 Access: private — only you and the people you allow can open it Status: serving CRID: ae4jqpd7eaoslq7jinmjv4yikgzmcxgpjfsuobiniqnko32lpw743ivbeyha
Create a link with a deadline
With no flags the link opens once and expires within 24 hours. --ttl shortens how long an unopened link lasts, and --session-duration sets how long the contractor can work once it is open, from the 1-hour default up to 24 hours. An expired link does not end a session that is already open, so pick the session length you mean.
qurl share <CRID> --ttl 4h --session-duration 2hSend the link to one person
Send it in a direct message, not a public channel: whoever opens it first uses it. Avoid email and apps that preview links, because a scanner that runs the page could use its one opening. Don’t open it yourself to check it, for the same reason. Run qurl share again whenever you need a fresh link.
End access when the work is done
For an invitation, ask your agent to revoke it: that removes the invitation and the access it granted. For links, qurl stop <CRID> stops serving the app and qurl start <CRID> resumes it. qurl delete <CRID> retires the resource for good after asking you to confirm: existing links stop working and its CRID can never be shared again. The revoke guide covers each way access ends.
qurl stop <CRID> # pause; qurl start <CRID> resumes qurl delete <CRID> # permanent; asks you to confirm
What the recipient sees
An invited contractor opens the emailed invitation in a browser and sees who published the app, marked Not verified: today LayerV has verified only its own account. They verify their email there and save a passkey; their email verification code stays in that flow. A contractor with a one-time link lands on your app directly. Either way, the session admits the network address they connect from, and your app’s own sign-in still applies.
Which tool fits temporary access for a contractor?
| Option | Choose it when | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| qURL | qURL fits when the app runs on your machine: an email invitation names the contractor, or a qurl share link with --ttl and --session-duration covers one visit. | With qURL your computer must stay on while the contractor works, and an email invitation needs a coding agent with the qURL skill. |
| Cloudflare Tunnel with Access | A Cloudflare Tunnel with Cloudflare Access fits longer engagements: a stable hostname on your own domain, and Access policies that admit the contractor by identity. | A Cloudflare Tunnel needs a Cloudflare account and a domain on Cloudflare, and access ends through Access policies and session settings, not per-link expiry. |
| ngrok | ngrok fits when you want an ngrok Traffic Policy to put OAuth or OIDC sign-in in front of the app for the contractor. | ngrok needs an account, the free plan allows 3 OAuth or OIDC users a month, and the URL itself is public. |
| Tailscale Serve | Tailscale Serve fits when the contractor can join your tailnet: only tailnet devices reach the app, and it receives their Tailscale identity headers. | Tailscale Serve needs the contractor on your tailnet with a Tailscale client, and the free Personal plan allows up to 6 users. |
Troubleshooting
| If you see | Do this |
|---|---|
| The private-policy commands are unavailable or consumer access is disabled | Ask the agent to follow the access-policy support check in the qURL skill. It updates an older CLI when needed. If the deployment cannot support the requested policy, stop sharing and keep the app private; do not fall back to legacy access requests. |
| The contractor says the invitation never arrived | Ask the agent to list the resource’s invitations and check the address. An accepted send means the mail service took the message, not that it reached the inbox or that the contractor enrolled. |
| qurl publish says the local app is not accepting TCP connections | Start the app first and check that curl works on the same address. qurl publish connects to localhost as 127.0.0.1, so if your app listens only on IPv6 (on macOS or Linux, lsof -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN -nP shows [::1]), publish 'http://[::1]:PORT' instead, or start the dev server with --host 127.0.0.1 and publish that address. Neither requires listening on your LAN. Keep the quotes: zsh treats the brackets as a pattern. |
| The recipient sees “Access link invalid” | The link was already used or has expired. Run qurl share again and send the new link. |
| The recipient sees “Resource not found” | The resource was deleted after the link was made. Publish the app again, then run qurl share and send the new link. |
| publish rejects http://127.0.0.1 with “only HTTPS URLs are allowed”, or asks you to log in | You have a CLI older than 3.0. On macOS run brew update, then brew upgrade qurl; elsewhere install the latest release again. After updating, qurl --version should print 3.4.1 or later. |
| publish prints no Access: line, or the Access: line says public and you did not ask for public | With no Access: line, the CLI is older than 3.4.1: on macOS run brew update, then brew upgrade qurl; elsewhere install the latest release again. A resource that an older CLI published is public unless you published it with --private, and anyone who has the CRID of a public resource can open it. To make a public resource private, run qurl delete <CRID> and publish again with qurl 3.4.1 or later. The new resource is private and has a new CRID. |
| publish says this Linux session “can’t reach a systemd user manager” | You are in a container or sandbox without a user service manager. Run qurl publish with --foreground; sharing lasts as long as that process runs. |
| publish says “Quota Exceeded” with “protected resource limit reached”, or “Your qURL account has reached a plan limit” | You can see this without an account: a device with no account can keep up to 3 active resources, with links that last up to 24 hours. Run qurl list --status active, then qurl delete <CRID> for any you no longer need (it asks you to confirm; --yes skips that). qurl stop keeps the resource, so it does not free a slot. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the contractor need a LayerV account?
No. An invited contractor verifies their email and saves a passkey in their browser, and a link opens in a browser with nothing to install. You need no account either; without one you can keep up to 3 active resources, with links that last up to 24 hours.
Can the contractor reach anything else on my machine?
Not through qURL: access is scoped to the one app you published, not the network around it. Inside that app, the app decides what a signed-in user may do, so give the contractor an account with only the permissions the work needs. Publishing does not close a separate public route the app already has, so keep the app bound to 127.0.0.1.
Why use an invitation instead of sending links?
A link is a bearer secret: whoever holds it can try to open it, and each one opens once. An invitation names the contractor by email, so you are not sending a fresh secret every day, and strangers cannot request access to an invite-only app.
Does my computer have to stay on?
Yes. The app is served from your machine, so the machine and the app must be running and connected. The background service reconnects after sleep, but the app is unavailable while the machine is asleep.
Who else can reach my app while the link is open?
Opening the link admits the network address it was opened from for the session, which lasts 1 hour by default. Other devices that share that public IP address, such as people on the same office or café network or VPN, can reach the app until the session ends. By default a link admits whoever opens it; access rules set through the API, such as IP allow and deny lists, can restrict that. Keep your app’s own sign-in for anything sensitive.