Malai
Infrastructure
peer-to-peer tunneling
SHOW HN2025
117points
63comments
#639of 3,837 in 2025
Top 17%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
4 positive, 12 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 16 critical, out of 32 comments about the project. Thread score -0.28.
Idea: 1 for, 6 againstExecution: 0 for, 5 againstDocs: 0 for, 4 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Interesting p2p approach built on iroh
From 1 comment
I maintain a list of tunneling solutions here: https://github.com/anderspitman/awesome-tunneling Usually my first question is what makes this different than the many existing…
apitman on HN
Open source and no required sign-in unlike Tailscale
From 2 comments
Among other clear differences, it looks like tailscale requires you to sign in with some cloud provider and Malai does not. I use and like tailscale for similar purposes, but I…
hoistbypetard on HNUnlike tailscale/ngrok, malai is completely open source, does not rely on any company provided infrastructure (we have a http bridge to bridge http/tcp with http/kulfi at…
amitu on HN
Objections
Docs are missing and do not explain how it works
From 3 comments
This desperately needs a “how the hell does this work” page for either malai or kulfi (preferably both) because the vibe I’m getting is “it’s magic! Trust us and sign up for an…
hamburglar on HNFeedback: This crowd likes technical docs. These docs are nothing like that, and raise more questions than they answer.
devrandoom on HNKulfi red flags: Does the same thing as a bunch of other systems (e.g. Tor) without providing any comparison of what this one does better. Docs pages are TODO, certainly don't…
immibis on HN
Relies on iroh relay servers and NAT traversal is unproven
From 2 comments
Iroh requires relay servers; so wouldn't Malai need those?
aidenn0 on HNSorry, but basic NAT traversal is an essential feature for any P2P network launched in at least the last 20 years, and as such doesn’t seem like something you can just leave to…
lxgr on HN
Unclear relationship to FifthTry and fastn; website looks templated
From 3 comments
Kulfi red flags: Does the same thing as a bunch of other systems (e.g. Tor) without providing any comparison of what this one does better. Docs pages are TODO, certainly don't…
immibis on HNThis is insane. I dug and the site led me to another site, which led me to another site, which is supposedly a video conferencing suite. All code is skeleton, e.g. how on earth…
tkj922 on HNYes indeed I got intrigued because this is borderline between scam and legit with indicators towards both. I will admit my mistake if proven wrong, but for the time being, I…
tkj922 on HN
Requests
Add a clear how-it-works page and comparison with existing tools
From 2 comments
This desperately needs a “how the hell does this work” page for either malai or kulfi (preferably both) because the vibe I’m getting is “it’s magic! Trust us and sign up for an…
hamburglar on HNKulfi red flags: Does the same thing as a bunch of other systems (e.g. Tor) without providing any comparison of what this one does better. Docs pages are TODO, certainly don't…
immibis on HN
Clarify NAT and deep packet inspection behaviour
From 1 comment
Sorry, noob here: Can this traverse managed NAT and deep packet inspection?
thenthenthen on HN
Questions
What problem does it solve over ngrok or Tailscale
From 3 comments
I use ngrok for exactly this type of functionality. Can someone clarify why would anyone need malai over ngrok?
nokun7 on HNwhat problem does this solve over ngrok/tailserve?
snihalani on HNDon't we use Tailscale for this?
thm on HN
What is id52 and how is DNS handled
From 2 comments
What's id52? I feel like I'm missing a lot of context to understand what's being shared here.
lxgr on HN> In this case, you can visit kulfi://http-e9b1c82b43206c96173848ed0afad2fe633fdc8a02ba391a3d37, which is where the Talk App lives. What is the DNS story for this platform? Or…
mdaniel on HN
Alternatives named
ngrok
From 2 comments
I use ngrok for exactly this type of functionality. Can someone clarify why would anyone need malai over ngrok?
nokun7 on HNOr ngrok, or Cloudflare Tunnel or https://github.com/anderspitman/awesome-tunneling
Apreche on HN
Tailscale
From 2 comments
Don't we use Tailscale for this?
thm on HNIndeed. https://tailscale.com/kb/1312/serve
haiku2077 on HN
Cloudflare Tunnel
From 1 comment
Or ngrok, or Cloudflare Tunnel or https://github.com/anderspitman/awesome-tunneling
Apreche on HN
localhost.run
From 1 comment
I'm gonna add https://localhost.run as a contender.
danielbln on HN
connet
From 1 comment
Looks very cool. Another self-hosted, open source, and private solution in this space is my own https://github.com/connet-dev/connet/
Ingon on HN