LAN Access

Luker runs as a web server. By default it accepts connections only from the machine it runs on, so a phone, tablet, or second computer on the same network cannot reach it. This guide turns on access from other devices on your local network.

Typical reasons to do this:

• Keep Luker running on a computer and use it from a phone or tablet.
• Reach one Luker install from several devices on a home network.
• Use Luker on iPhone or iPad, which have no app.

If your goal is to sync data between two Luker installs instead, see LAN Sync. That is a separate feature.

Why the default setup fails

Two settings block LAN access:

• listen: false — Luker binds only to the loopback address, so other devices cannot open a connection at all.
• whitelistMode: true — Luker rejects every address that is not in the whitelist list.

With the shipped defaults, a device on your network either gets a connection error or, once listening is enabled, an HTTP 403 Forbidden page. The server console also logs Blocked connection from <ip>.

To allow LAN access, change both the listening setting and the whitelist.

Step 1: Enable listening

Open config.yaml in the Luker root directory and set:

listen: true

Leave listenAddress and protocol as shipped:

listenAddress:
  ipv4: 0.0.0.0
  ipv6: "[::]"
protocol:
  ipv4: true
  ipv6: false

On startup the console prints Luker is listening on IPv4: 0.0.0.0:8000 instead of the loopback address. Restart the server after editing the file.

Step 2: Allow your devices

Option A: Add your network to the whitelist

Keep whitelistMode: true and add the subnet your devices use:

whitelistMode: true
whitelist:
  - ::1
  - 127.0.0.1
  - 192.168.0.0/16

Individual addresses, CIDR ranges, and wildcards such as 192.168.1.* all work. Keep 127.0.0.1 and ::1 in the list so the host machine can still connect. If you do not know your subnet, add all three private ranges at once:

whitelist:
  - ::1
  - 127.0.0.1
  - 10.0.0.0/8
  - 172.16.0.0/12
  - 192.168.0.0/16

Option B: Turn off the whitelist

Set whitelistMode: false to accept any address. Luker treats this as insecure and requires another protection layer, or it exits at startup:

• Enable Basic Auth — see Authentication
• Enable user accounts and set a password for every admin user
• Set securityOverride: true, which is for debugging only

Find the host address

On the machine running Luker, read its LAN address:

# Windows
ipconfig

# macOS
ipconfig getifaddr en0

# Linux
hostname -I

Look for the IPv4 address in a private range, such as 192.168.1.23.

Connect from another device

On the other device, open a browser and enter the host address and port:

http://192.168.1.23:8000

Use http://, not https://. The address must be the host's LAN address, not localhost.

Docker

The Docker compose file in Getting Started binds the port to 127.0.0.1:8000, which blocks LAN access before Luker sees the request. Change the port mapping to publish on all interfaces, and set listen: true and the whitelist in the mounted config.yaml:

ports:
  - 0.0.0.0:8000:8000

Security

A LAN is not automatically trusted, especially on shared or public Wi-Fi. Before opening Luker to other devices:

• Turn on Basic Auth or the multi-user account system.
• Keep the whitelist narrow when only a few devices need access.
• Do not create port-forwarding rules on your router. To reach Luker from outside your network, use a VPN or a tunneling service.

iOS

There is no iOS app, so iPhone and iPad use the browser over the network. See iOS for the reason and the setup steps.

Troubleshooting

• 403 Forbidden page — the device's address is not in the whitelist. Add it, or widen the subnet.
• Connection times out or is refused, and nothing appears in the console — the server is not reachable. Check that listen is true and that the host firewall allows the port:
  • Windows: allow Node.js through the firewall and set the network profile to Private. On Windows 11, enable the Private Network profile.
  • Linux: sudo ufw allow 8000
  • macOS: allow incoming connections for the Node process in System Settings.
• Only the host machine can connect — the address used on the other device is still localhost. Use the host's LAN address.

Related pages

• Configuration — complete config reference
• Authentication & Security — Basic Auth, accounts, whitelist
• LAN Sync — keep two Luker installs in sync