Introducing CodeRabbit Reverse Tunnel: AI code review for private-network enterprises

CodeRabbit Reverse Tunnel is a new private-network connectivity option, a first-party component that lets CodeRabbit review pull requests on a GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES) instance that does not accept inbound network connections.

If your team runs GHES inside a private network with no public endpoint, no inbound firewall exceptions, no vendor IP allowlisting on the GHES side, and no PrivateLink or peering path, this is for you. It's available for Enterprise Plan customers today.

What it unlocks:

• AI code review on a private Git platform, with no exposure to the public internet.
• No new inbound firewall rules, no platform-side IP allowlist, and no PrivateLink or peering required.
• A Connector that deploys into your existing container runtime, alongside other internal workloads.
• A standard, auditable network shape: Outbound HTTPS on TCP 443.

Why we built Reverse Tunnel

A class of enterprise customers operates GitHub Enterprise Server inside a private network with no inbound connectivity by design. These security constraints are typically codified in audit and compliance frameworks and cannot be relaxed for individual vendor onboarding. Existing solutions like VPN tunnels, public-ELB exposures, and PrivateLink peering require either an inbound route into the customer network or a cloud-provider solution. Without an alternative transport, these customers have no compliant path to deploy CodeRabbit.

CodeRabbit Reverse Tunnel exists to close this gap. It enables these enterprises to adopt AI code review while preserving the security and compliance constraints they already have in place.

How CodeRabbit Reverse tunnel works

CodeRabbit Reverse Tunnel is built around two components: a Connector that runs inside your network and a Gateway operated by CodeRabbit. Together they create a single outbound channel over which CodeRabbit can read from and write to your private GHES instance, without your network accepting any inbound connections.

Components

1. Reverse Tunnel Connector. A lightweight, stateless container that runs inside your enterprise network. On startup, it dials out and establishes a long-lived WebSocket Secure (WSS) session to the Gateway on TCP 443. All subsequent CodeRabbit traffic to GHES flows through this session.

2. Reverse Tunnel Gateway. A CodeRabbit-managed edge service that accepts Connector sessions and brokers CodeRabbit's runtime requests back through them. The Gateway authenticates each session using credentials issued to your tenant and routes traffic to the right Connector.

What happens when a developer opens a PR!

When a developer opens a PR, GHES sends a signed webhook outbound through your existing NAT to CodeRabbit. Everything that follows runs on the WSS session your Connector has already opened: the Reverse Tunnel Gateway forwards CodeRabbit's read requests over WSS, the Connector translates them into internal HTTPS calls to GHES, and responses stream back the same way. CodeRabbit generates the review and posts the comments back through the same tunnel.

Getting started with CodeRabbit Reverse Tunnel

CodeRabbit Reverse Tunnel is available now for Enterprise Plan customers running GitHub Enterprise Server in private networks, with support for additional Git platforms on the roadmap.

Our goal is always to provide flexible deployment options for our customers and this release is a testament to that. Customers who self host with strict requirements can now take our state of art review engine to deliver high quality code faster. We’re committed to making our customers successful and our team is here to answer any questions you have along the way. For detailed information, please consult the documentation or contact our team.