Tugboat Documentation > Setting Up Services > How to Set Up Services > Expose a Service HTTP Port

Expose a Service HTTP Port

Every Service in a Preview gets a unique URL. That URL is accessible if:

An HTTP service is running on the Service, AND;
The port is exposed to the Tugboat Proxy.

To expose a port, include an expose key in the Service definition with the port number that the HTTP service is listening on.

services:
  node:
    image: tugboatqa/node:10
    expose: 3000

In this example, the Tugboat Proxy forwards requests to the service’s URL through to a nodejs service running on port 3000.

There are other options that affect how the proxy routing is handled. These advanced options can usually be left to their default settings. Check out our Tugboat Configuration reference for a complete list.

When a Service is set as the default, port 80 is automatically exposed. You can override this by using the expose key to explicitly set an alternate port.