Quickstart

Two machines, two commands: share on the machine whose connection you want to use, use on the machine that should tunnel through it.

Install

Download the latest release for your system from the releases page and put the binary somewhere on your PATH:

• Linux: spora-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz, a single static binary named spora.
• macOS: spora-<version>-macos-<arch>.tar.gz (aarch64 for Apple silicon, x86_64 for Intel), a single binary named spora. It is not notarized yet, so if a browser downloaded the archive, macOS will refuse to run the binary until you clear the quarantine flag (xattr -d com.apple.quarantine spora); fetching with curl avoids the flag entirely.
• Windows: spora-<version>-windows-<arch>.zip, containing spora.exe plus wintun.dll. spora use loads the DLL from next to the executable, so keep the two files together.

Or build from source (a Rust toolchain is the only requirement):

git clone https://github.com/Spora-VPN/spora.git
cd spora
cargo build --release -p spora-cli
# the binary is target/release/spora-cli; rename or alias it to `spora`

For a source build on Windows, spora use also needs wintun.dll from wintun.net next to the executable.

Share

On the sharing machine:

spora share

It prints a link:

Share this URL with the peer that wants to connect:
https://spora.to/s/2m5cRp…?r=167.71.66.250:443

Send that link to the person who should connect. Treat it like a key to your connection: anyone who has it can use it. The link stays the same across restarts, and a local connection log records what your connection was used for. Leave the process running; Ctrl+C stops sharing.

Connect

On the connecting machine, paste the link (quote it, the ? matters to the shell). The client needs privileges to set up the tunnel: root on Linux and macOS, an elevated console on Windows.

sudo spora use "https://spora.to/s/2m5cRp…?r=167.71.66.250:443"

You will see something like:

Tunnel up on spora0 (10.11.0.2/24, fd00:5350::2/64), MTU 1280 (follows the path).
Routing all traffic through the tunnel.
Resolver: 100.64.0.53 (set via resolvectl; restored on exit).
Press Ctrl+C to disconnect.

That is a full VPN: all traffic now leaves through the sharer’s connection. Check it with curl ifconfig.me: you should see the sharer’s IP. Behind the scenes the two machines also try to establish a direct path to each other and switch over when it works: your traffic then stops sharing the relay’s bandwidth and usually takes a shorter path.

Ctrl+C disconnects and puts routing and DNS back exactly as they were.

Where to go next

• Share your connection: identities, the connection log, and running a share permanently.
• Connect through a friend: what the client changes on your machine and how to shape it.
• Find out why a connection failed: every run keeps a diagnostic record you can read afterwards.