Tor in the browser

Gateway server for tor-js — enabling real Tor circuits built locally in your browser using WebAssembly. All cryptography runs on your machine. The gateway never sees your traffic or knows your destination — it just relays encrypted bytes.

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WebSocket Relay

Bridges browser connections to raw TCP sockets on the Tor network. Your client builds circuits and negotiates keys — the gateway only forwards opaque, encrypted data.

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WebRTC Relay

Data channel transport as an alternative to WebSocket. Harder to fingerprint and block — looks like regular video call traffic to network observers.

Fast Bootstrap

All the directory data your client needs in a single brotli-compressed download. No multi-step directory protocol, no round trips to authorities — just one fetch, natively decompressed by the browser.

Connect to a Tor relay

Open a socket to any consensus relay. The gateway automatically picks the best transport (WebRTC, WebSocket, or direct TCP):

import { Gateway } from 'https://this-server/torJsGateway.js';

const gw = new Gateway('https://this-server');

// Open a relay socket (auto-selects best transport)
const sock = await gw.connect('198.51.100.1:9001');

sock.send(new Uint8Array([0x00, 0x07, ...]));
sock.onmessage = (data) => { /* Uint8Array from relay */ };
sock.onclose = () => { /* closed */ };

// Open more sockets (WebRTC reuses its peer connection)
const sock2 = await gw.connect('203.0.113.5:443');

// Or force a specific transport
const wsGw = new Gateway('https://this-server', {
  strategies: ['websocket'],
});

gw.close();  // close everything when done

Only addresses advertised in the current Tor consensus are allowed. The gateway rejects connections to non-relay or private IPs.

Bootstrap from this gateway

Download and parse the Tor consensus directly in the browser:

import { bootstrap } from 'https://this-server/torJsGateway.js';

const { consensus, microdescs, authcerts } = await bootstrap(
  'https://this-server/bootstrap.zip.br',
  (ev) => console.log(ev.type),  // optional progress callback
);

console.log(`Got ${microdescs.length} relay descriptors`);

Run your own gateway

Install from source (requires Rust 1.89+):

cargo install --path .
tor-js-gateway init        # create config at ~/.config/tor-js-gateway/config.json5
tor-js-gateway             # run in foreground
tor-js-gateway install     # or install as a systemd service

Manage the service with standard systemd commands:

systemctl --user status tor-js-gateway
systemctl --user restart tor-js-gateway
journalctl --user -u tor-js-gateway -f