Week 6 : From Ngrok to Render, making your AI Agent public in one day

How I went from Localhost to Live API with a frontend on Lovable — no technical overload needed

In March 2025, I set out to build 12 AI agents in 12 months. But I quickly ran into a wall : building is one thing, showing it to the world is another. After hours of local development, I needed a way to make my backend publicly accessible — without keeping my computer on 24/7.

Here’s the beginner-friendly, non-technical journey I took, and how you can replicate it too if you're building something and need it live yesterday.

Copyright : Brij Kishore Pandey on Linkedin

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Step 1: Testing Locally with FastAPI + Swagger Docs

Even if you’re not a developer, imagine you’ve got a little engine (your backend) that scans and analyzes content. Mine was written in Python using FastAPI. I could see it running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs with a pretty UI (thanks, Swagger).

But that only worked on my machine.

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Step 2 : Making It Public Temporarily with Ngrok

ngrok gives you a quick way to expose your local project to the internet.

• You download it

• Authenticate it with a token

• Run a command: ngrok http 8000

Boom. Your local API is now publicly accessible — with a URL like

https://abc123.ngrok-free.app

• No code needed

Perfect for:

• Early testing

• Demos

• Showcasing progress to a remote team or client

🔗 But here's the thing : it only works while your terminal is open. Once you close your PC or restart, the URL breaks.

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Step 3: Moving to Permanent Hosting with Render

To solve the "always live" problem, I’m switching to Render, a platform that turns your local backend into a cloud-hosted service.

Why Render?

• Free tier to start

• Easy GitHub connection

• Supports FastAPI and Python out of the box

• Can connect with your Lovable frontend easily

Here’s how I will do it :

1. Push my FastAPI code to GitHub

2. Create a new Web Service on Render

3. Chose Python and point to main.py

4. Set build and start commands (Render helps with this)

5. Wait ~2 mins (it’s precise), and voilà : my API had a permanent public URL
   
   

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Step 4 : Connecting the Backend to Lovable

Lovable is where my frontend lives. It supports Supabase and custom API endpoints. Once Render gave me a permanent URL, I just will plug it into my frontend config.

Really really soon, the frontend talks to the backend seamlessly — no need to refresh ngrok, no terminal open, no stress.

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Bonus : Comparing other options

1. Render

✅ Easy to use, free to start
✅ Connects easily with GitHub
⚠️ Slightly limited config options on the free plan

2. DigitalOcean App Platform

✅ Flexible and scalable
⚠️ Requires more setup effort

3. Fly.io

✅ Lightweight, great for hobby projects
⚠️ Can be tricky to configure with Python

4. AWS + Docker

✅ Ultimate control, enterprise-grade
⚠️ Complex setup – best if you’re already comfortable with Docker and cloud infra

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Final Thoughts

Why I chose Render (for now) : It’s fast to deploy, perfect for testing and sharing early MVPs. But I’m aiming for AWS in the long term, for full control and scalability as my AI agents evolve

Ship your ideas. If you have:

• An idea

• A tiny engine (backend)

• A place to showcase it (frontend)

Then connecting all the pieces is easier than ever. From ngrok to Render to Lovable, this was my path — and it can be yours too.

Let the world see what you’re building. Don’t wait. Just ship it.